Dan Farrell Passes Away

by T.D. Thornton 
Dan Farrell, a longtime New York Daily News photographer who captured much of Thoroughbred racing’s iconic imagery in the later half of the 20th Century, has died. He was 84. 

The Daily News reported Monday that the cause of death was a sudden and acute bout of pneumonia. 
“He was a true professional in every sense of the word,” said fellow photographer Skip Dickstein. “We shot side by side on numerous occasions, specifically in horse racing. Working with him was very easy. He was really dedicated to photojournalism. His wit was infectious; he was just a wonderful guy to be around.” 

Bob Curran Jr., vice president of corporate communications for The Jockey Club, recalled Farrell as a multi-sport photographer who liked to cover racing more than anything else. 

“He liked to bet on white horses and horses with Irish names,” Curran said. 

“Dan took that famous picture of Alysheba, when he was going for the Triple Crown, and it looked like he was trying to take a bite out of Jack Van Berg’s bald head,” Curran said. 

That shot won Farrell the Media Eclipse Award for Photography in 1987. During his semi-retirement, he later served as a judge for the annual Eclipse Awards. 

“I often watched him work around the winner’s circle, on Belmont Stakes Day or on any other big day, and he’d be apart from the rest of the photographers,” Curran said. “He always seemed to know what people were going to do before they did it. He was just at a different angle and he saw things differently.” 

Farrell came up through the ranks as a news photographer in New York’s rivalry-driven multi-newspaper era of the 1950s. But Dickstein said Farrell’s relationship with fellow photographers was more collegial than competitive. 

“If you had a problem, he was always there to help,” Dickstein said. “When I started covering a lot of horse racing at Aqueduct and Belmont, Danny would be there all the time. If you needed anything, Danny was right there. Toward the end off his life he became the photo coordinator at the Belmont S. But then his health started to go bad, and for the past couple of years he wasn’t there.” 

According to a biography on the New York Historical Society Museum & Library website, Farrell became a staff photographer at the Daily News in 1955 after several years of freelancing. He also shot for the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Associated Press and United Press International, primarily covering New York-based pro sports, boxing and horse racing. 

But Farrell’s most famous photograph had nothing to do with sports. On Nov. 25, 1963, he was hurriedly dispatched to cover the funeral of President John F. Kennedy. He snapped the now-famous shot that “touched the heart of a grieving nation,” according to the News: The photo of young John-John, age 3, saluting while standing with his mother, Jacqueline Kennedy, his sister, Caroline, and uncles Robert and Edward. 

“It was the saddest thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life,” Farrell said in a 2013 interview with the News. 
Farrell also shot the Beatles performing at Shea Stadium in 1965. 

In the 1970s, he had a prime infield vantage point at Belmont for all three of the decade’s Triple Crown winners–Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed. 

Farrell was married to Mary Farrell, and is survived by their five children. Service arrangements have yet to be announced.