Harness-racing driver John Campbell at peace with decision to retire

John Campbell is completely at ease with the idea of retirement.

The 62-year-old native of Ailsa Craig, Ont., will cap his illustrious harness-racing career Sunday at Ontario’s Clinton Raceway. It will also be a homecoming of sorts for Campbell, who earned his first career win as a driver at the Western Fair Raceway in London in 1972 and raced at many small Ontario tracks before moving to New Jersey and becoming the most successful driver at The Meadowlands.

“No, I don’t think I’ll be nostalgic,” Campbell said. “I’m excited and very happy because my family is coming up from New Jersey and my mom and sister and her family are all going to be there.

“It’s going to be really just a happy occasion for me than nostalgic.”

Campbell is regarded as harness racing’s greatest driver, having collected 11,058 wins and nearly $304 million in career earnings.

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“I can’t say it was a dream run because I never dreamed that big,” Campbell said. “When I was growing up, we didn’t even have some of these races I was fortunate enough to be in and win.

“It was something I couldn’t even imagine when I was pretending to win big races going around our farm track.”

Campbell captured the Meadowlands Pace seven times and both the Pepsi North America Cup and Hambletonian on six occasions. He claimed the Little Brown Jug three times. In 1990, three years after going into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, Campbell became the youngest driver ever inducted into the U.S. Harness Racing Hall of Fame at age 35.

The New Jersey resident also won a record 23 career $1-million races and captured 48 Breeders’ Crown races, also a record. But Campbell said the Hambletonian victories stand out.

“It’s our biggest, most prestigious race worldwide,” he said. “I think they stand out just a little bit more than anything else.

“But it (retirement) is time. I think I pushed the age limit for driving as far as I could. I’d rather stop before I get pushed out.”

Upon retirement, Campbell will become president of the Hambletonian Society, which organizes and oversees many of the sport’s top races.

Campbell feels Mack Lobell, whom he drove to victory at the 1987 Hambletonian, was the greatest horse he was ever associated with. Mack Lobell won nearly $4 million over his career and was harness racing’s top horse in 1987 and ’88.

But Campbell’s favourite remains Argyle Chester.

“The mother of that horse was born on Mother’s Day and my grandfather gave it to my grandmother,” Campbell said. “She had a colt (Argyle Chester) on my 11th birthday and my grandmother gave me half of the horse.

“He was beautiful and I just loved that horse when I was a kid and turned to be a really good horse.”

Good enough for Campbell to drive in a race.

“It was later in his career after he’d had a couple of injuries,” Campbell said. “He wasn’t nearly as good then as he’d been but I loved seeing that horse every day I saw him.”

In fact, Campbell said what he’ll miss most in retirement are the horses.

“There’s an addiction to being around them,” he said. “They’re just a fascinating animal . . . they’re just like human athletes in getting that peak performance out of them.

“Some have tremendous desire and want to do the best they can while others won’t give you what they have or might one race and not the next. Some deal with pain and adversity better than others so it’s a game to try and get the best effort out of them.”

Especially considering, Campbell said, most are stubborn.

“Believe me, there’s more like that,” he said with a chuckle. “Yeah, I’ve been bitten a few times but not badly.

“That was part of my education from my father and grandfather . . . you’re supposed to pay attention to that because they can change their mindset at any time so that was always stressed to me.”

Campbell also respected the danger of his profession, having been involved in his share of race crashes. While he drove carefully, Campbell said he was never apprehensive.

“Horses can sense when you’re not aggressive enough with them, they’ll take advantage of that,” he said. “You just can’t get the most out of them if you’re going in there with any kind of apprehension.”

Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press

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