by Melissa Keith

Pat Crowe will forever be associated with Woodbine Mohawk Park. The 87-year-old horseman died on March 28 in Windsor, ON, marking the end of an era for harness racing. Crowe was a standardbred owner, trainer, and driver who was inducted to the Springwater Sports Hall of Fame just last year, although his career in the sport spanned more than six decades. On April 26, 1963, he drove the first-ever winner at a newly-opened five-eighths-mile track in Campbellville, ON called Mohawk Racetrack. The horse, a 3-year-old pacing gelding named David Hal B (p, 7, 2:05.4f; $32,364), was a homebred longshot trained by Carman Brown of Meaford, ON. He won in front of 4,338 spectators.

But it’s another pacer who truly made history with trainer/driver Crowe.

Initially purchased by Doug Arthur, a finalist on the 2025 ballot for the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, Cam Fella was a $19,000 Tattersalls (Lexington) yearling. At age 2, the Most Happy Fella—Nan Cam colt won three of 11 races, breaking stride in three others. Cam Fella (p, 4, 1:53.1m; $2,041,367) was purchased by Norm Clements of Uxbridge, ON and Norm Faulkner of Stouffville, ON in 1981 for $140,000; later, JEF’s Standardbred Country Club of Sacramento, CA, joined the partnership.

Cam Fella was syndicated in 1984 and leased to stand stud at Stonegate Standardbred Farms in Glen Gardner, NJ, following an impressive 61 victories in 80 starts. In a rare setback at age 4, he narrowly defeated Perfect Out at Mohawk on May 6, 1983, only to be disqualified and set back to second. As Crowe told interviewer Harold Howe in 1997, “The judges ruled I waved my whip in the face of Perfect Out, causing interference. I don’t think it was a fair judgement, but I imagine that Doug Brown, who drove Perfect Out, still disagrees with me.”

On Dec. 10, 1983 at Greenwood Raceway, 12,878 fans showed up to cheer Cam Fella to his 28th straight win, in the last race of his career. At the time of his retirement, the ridgling held records for the most sub-1:55 victories (16) and most sub-1:55 victories in a given year (14, in his 4-year-old season), and the most wins in races with purses of $100,000 or higher (13). He was also the first older harness horse to exceed $1-million in annual purse winnings, which he accomplished in his 4-year-old campaign.

“The Pacing Machine” was voted the USHWA Dan Patch 3-Year-Old Male Pacer, Pacer of the Year, and Horse of the Year for 1982, then repeated as Older Pacing Horse, Pacer of the Year, and Horse of the Year in 1983. He was also voted Canadian Horse of the Year at ages 3 and 4. Inducted to the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame (1986) and the Goshen, NY, Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame (1998) for his legacy as a racehorse and sire, Cam Fella retired from breeding due to testicular cancer.

What could have been the end of the road for the celebrated pacer was instead a new beginning, thanks to a plan developed and put into play by Clements and Callie Davies-Gooch, who was then working as the Canadian Trotting Association’s media relations director.

“Cam Fella had been diagnosed with cancer and the plan was to geld him to save his life,” Davies-Gooch told HRU on Sunday (April 13). “It was the year after the Niatross [retirement] tour and I was approached by Norm Clements about a farewell tour for charity and to raise the awareness for harness racing. I made all the arrangements and contacted different tracks, and some heard about the tour and wanted to have Cam there.”

Currently living in California, Davies-Gooch had fond memories of going on the road across North America with Cam Fella and his trainer/driver.

“Pat Crowe appeared at all the stops to jog Cam and sign autographs, and for the last three legs of the tour, he actually took over the travel duties for Cam, driving the truck and trailer,” she said. “I was still working at the Canadian Trotting Association in between tour stops, which were normally on the weekends.”

The Cam Fella farewell tour began at The Meadowlands on June 5, 1997, next moving to Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square for the June 12 North America Cup draw. On June 13, the superstar pacer and his entourage visited Western Fair Raceway in London, ON, before returning to the Toronto area for a June 14 Woodbine Racetrack appearance. The tour continued with stops at Buffalo Raceway, Flamboro Downs, Woodstock Raceway, Sportsman’s Park, Hoosier Park, Showplace Farms in Englishtown, NJ, Hiawatha Horse Park, Windsor Raceway, and Barrie Raceway in June and July. 

Regardless of where he appeared, Cam Fella regularly drew audiences Davies-Gooch described as “large crowds of harness racing fans and horse lovers.”

The former ridgling handled his tour schedule like a professional, rarely showing signs of impatience. “Cam was for the most part very good with the crowds, but on occasion, if he was tired of standing around, he might take a little nip,” Davies-Gooch said. “His caretaker, Peter Houck, and I were well aware of this tendency and we called it the ‘Million Dollar Nip.’”

Costs for the wide-ranging Cam Fella tour were offset by supporters.

“The [souvenir] brochure was sponsored by The Canadian Sportsman [magazine], and we had wonderful sponsors in Arthur, Ontario Chrysler Plymouth for the truck, and Belore Trailer,” she said.

Funds raised by raffles and souvenir sales were divided equally among the Jennifer Ashleigh Foundation, the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation [of Canada], and the Harness Horse Youth Foundation.

Clements established the Jennifer Ashleigh Foundation (now known as the Jennifer Ashleigh Children’s Charity) in 1990 after losing two young granddaughters, Jennifer and Danica, to the same hereditary muscular illness. The Uxbridge, ON charity continues to raise funds in accordance with its mission statement: “To provide timely financial support to families caring for children in medical crisis, when they need it most.”

Cam Fella’s travels took him to Ontario’s Hanover Raceway, Clinton Raceway, Elmira Raceway, Kawartha Downs, Quinte Raceway, and Rideau Carleton Raceway in August 1997, before he traveled to Charlottetown Driving Park, on Prince Edward Island, for two appearances during Old Home Week. After stops at New Brunswick’s Exhibition Park Raceway and Fredericton Raceway, the superstar pacer was bound for Mohawk, where he received a warm welcome on Sept. 13.

“He was loved by everyone there,” Davies-Gooch said. “Fans, owners, horsemen and horsewomen.”

Perhaps the most popular stop on the Cam Fella tour was Ohio’s Delaware County Fairgrounds, where the gelding made appearances on Sept. 17 and 18.

“The Little Brown Jug stop, where he paced a half in :57.3,” Davies-Gooch said.

After visits to The Red Mile in Kentucky, Harrington Raceway in Delaware, Pompano Park in Florida, and Maryland’s Rosecroft Raceway, the final legs of the tour returned to Canada. Cam Fella and friends went to Edmonton’s Northlands Park on Nov. 1, then Fraser Downs in Surrey, BC on Nov. 9.

“We also had a stop at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto after Fraser Downs,” Davies-Gooch said. “In BC at Fraser Downs, we went into a TV studio where [Cam Fella] was on camera and he was so incredibly calm for the whole time. Walking on concrete floors and turning down narrow halls. Back at the racetrack for the appearance, he led the post parade and the track had arranged for 15 of his offspring to appear in the parade.”

When interviewed at Cam Fella’s Fraser Downs stop, Clements expressed his amazement with the gelding’s return to fitness.

“It’s our pleasure to come here and it’s a great reception,” he told Tommy Wolski. “I think he’s getting better every day. We started jogging him in April. He hadn’t been jogged for 15 years. At Delaware, at the Little Brown Jug, he went a half-mile in 57 seconds. That would beat a lot of horses today.”

Davies-Gooch said that when the farewell tour concluded, Cam Fella “went directly to the Kentucky Horse Park” in Lexington on Dec. 5, 1997. He continued to meet the public at the Hall of Champions until cancer returned and spread to his kidneys. He was humanely euthanized on May 9, 2001, but his name remains a part of the Cam Fella Award, established in 1997 and presented for the kind of “extreme meritorious service to the Canadian harness racing industry” exemplified by the horse himself.

The former Canadian Trotting Association media relations director added that she thought “Foiled Again [p, 9, 1:48f; $7,635,588] would [still] draw crowds” at public appearances today, but out of the 27 North American racetracks visited by Cam Fella’s farewell tour, “there might be about 15 still active.”