Campbell talks about rolling a seven in the Meadowlands Pace
by Debbie Little
With the 50th edition of the Meadowlands Pace only a month away, HRU spoke with Hall of Fame driver John Campbell about his record seven victories in the East Rutherford oval’s signature event.
HEARTBREAK TO HILARION
Going into the 1982 Meadowlands Pace, Campbell was hoping to be driving his own in the final.
“I had a horse that I trained and owned part of myself, Merger,” Campbell said. “He set a world record at the end of his 2-year-old year, and we had really high hopes for him coming back. And I prepped him and was pointing him for the Meadowlands Pace, and he absolutely raced terribly in his elimination, and didn’t get qualified [for the final]. I was devastated with his performance as much as any horse ever when I was training. He just raced poorly, and we had no explanation.”
Luckily for Campbell, Bill O’Donnell had driven two in the eliminations.
“I was very, very down about [Merger], and then [trainer] Jerry Silverman asked me about going with one of his, and Billy [O’Donnell] was going to wait until the draw, and I said sure, because I had no other options, that was fine with me. And then Rompin Home drew inside [post 1], and Hilarion drew 10, so I knew I was going to have the 10-hole, but I was still in the race, which I was somewhat excited about, even though I was so disappointed about Merger, and then everything just worked out okay.”
On more than one occasion over the years, Campbell has said that the 10-hole is just a starting point, and before this particular race, he was originally thinking about just getting a check.
“Well, it is absolutely, because going into the race it looked like a lot of early speed… and before we hit the start, I looked over, and nobody was leaving. I couldn’t believe it. So, I just left the gate as hard as he could, and he got crossed right over, and he got covered up by Jack Parker with a horse [Elitist] that I knew could carry me into the stretch and you know, everything worked out really well.
“[Hilarion] was very fortunate to get out on No Nukes’ back; the horse second over couldn’t keep up around the last turn, otherwise I would have never gotten out. It just was one of those races where everything fell in place and went in our favor.”
Campbell was 27 when he won that first Meadowlands Pace.
“I never even thought about the age thing at the time,” he said. “You just don’t. I mean, that never even came into it. I mean, I knew it was my first million-dollar win. It was the Meadowlands Pace. It was a big deal, and all that, but the age factor, I never even gave it a thought.”
‘NUKE’-LEAR FAMILY
In 1989, Camped captured his second Pace with Dexter Nukes.
“Well, that was a special win for me,” Campbell said. “George Gilmore trained him, and he was my uncle by marriage; my dad’s sister was married to George. And he had come to The Meadowlands… and Tom Dexter, the owner, wanted to make a [driver] change, so George had called me up and asked me about going with him, and I said yes. And then he just kept getting better and better, and he actually won the New Jersey Classic before that.
“So, the family connection was just very, very special for us, [my wife] Paula and I, and my family, obviously with George being my uncle, and my aunt Pat. It was really special to win both the New Jersey Classic and the Meadowlands Pace with Dexter Nukes.”
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
In 1994, Campbell scored a hat trick in the Pace with Cam’s Card Shark, who had so much potential.
“He was a horse that was hard to keep sound,” Campbell said. “He dealt with problems the whole [sophomore] year, but at that time of the year, he was really sound and really good, and he was really on his game.
“Actually, I didn’t have to do too much, he did everything, and he was really just at the top of everything at that point. If he had been sound, he would have had one of the greatest 3-year-old years in history, but he wasn’t able to race in the Jug, or any more after that.
“It was a challenge keeping him sound right from the time he came out as a 3-year-old, but at Meadowlands Pace time he was really sound and really dominant.”
Cam’s Card Shark’s owner Jeffrey Snyder said that he listened to Campbell when it came to scratching out of the Little Brown Jug.
“He was really sore that day, and I was sure that we couldn’t get him raced two heats, so I didn’t see the point of pushing him and having something potentially really bad happen to him,” Campbell said. “I talked to Jeff and Bill Robinson, and I said, ‘There’s no way this horse can go two heats. I don’t see the upside of just going out there for one heat in case something bad happens.’”
PAIR FOR PELLING
Campbell’s fourth and fifth Pace wins came via horses trained by Brett Pelling.
The first was David’s Pass in 1995, who finished fourth in his elimination and only made it into the final because he won the shake. The fastest fourth-place finisher from the three elims made it to the Pace final, but David’s Pass and CA Connection both finished fourth in an identical fastest time, so they shook out pills and David’s Pass made the final.
“David’s Pass was a horse, even though he won both [the Meadowlands Pace and North America Cup], he wasn’t a dominant 3-year-old,” Campbell said. “He had to have a trip, and if he didn’t get a trip, he just couldn’t overcome that. And he didn’t race as well in the [Pace] elimination, so he got lucky there [to make the final]. And then in the final, he got the perfect trip for him. He was second over, followed cover right into the stretch, and off of that kind of trip he would deliver a really good run the last quarter. The trip made all the difference in the world to him, because he was a horse that couldn’t overcome a bad trip and beat those horses.
“That kind of separates the really good horses from the great horses. The great horses can overcome that trip and still be successful. The good horses that race at that level, they just can’t. They need the trip and everything to go kind of their way, and then they’ll race at that level, but they can’t overcome adversity.”
Campbell’s second Pelling Pace champ, The Panderosa, was very different from David’s Pass.
“I thought the only way [The Panderosa] wouldn’t win is if I over drove him early in the race,” Campbell said. “There was a lot of action up front, and I just rode out parked, and didn’t use him, and I just kind of led him right up there easy to the leaders at the three-quarter pole, and then when I asked him in the stretch, he just opened up. Up until that point, and even that night, he was dominant over the 3-year-old crop, but that was the last really good race that The Panderosa went in his life.”
The Panderosa was Campbell’s second Pace winner from post 10.
“The post position is something you have no control over, so there’s no sense worrying about it,” he said. “It is what it is. It was two different scenarios. With Hilarion, he had the 10-hole, and everything had to go absolutely perfect for him to win. For The Panderosa, it didn’t have to go perfect, he could overcome a tough trip, and he was just that much better than those colts at that point.”
THE ‘REAL’ THING
In the 25th edition of the Meadowlands Pace in 2001, Campbell won the Pace, for a sixth time, with Real Desire.
“Well, Real Desire had been a really good 2-year-old, and Randy Waples had driven him, and then he came back at 3, and he just didn’t do well in the North America Cup,” Campbell said. “So, when he came down for the Meadowlands Pace, [trainer] Blair [Burgess] wanted to qualify him, and he said, ‘Will you go with him and see what you think about him?’ So, I did, and he qualified really well. And then I wasn’t sure what I was going to have for the Meadowlands Pace, but I thought in the back of my mind, I don’t think I’m going to have anything better than Real Desire.
“So, anyway, he went into the [elimination] race off a really good qualifier, and was really, really impressive. His best race was off the pace, he really came off his cover good… Bettors Delight was in there [in the Pace final], and he was really good at the time as well, and I knew I had to be close enough at the head of the stretch. If I was close enough, that was the only chance I had to run him down, I couldn’t come from too far back. And I got him second over, but the cover stalled really bad in the last turn, so I had to flip him three wide, but he got back in behind Bettors Delight for a few steps, and I think that made the difference in the race, and he was able to grind him down and win.”
SEVENTH HEAVEN
Campbell’s seventh and final Pace victory came in 2002 with Mach Three, who at 3-5, had the shortest odds of all of his Pace champs.
“[Mach Three (post 1)] was going in in really good order as well,” Campbell said. “And again, I just wanted to keep him out of trouble. He drew better than The Panderosa, so I just kind of settled in fifth on the rail, going to the quarter. The quarter was pretty hot, and once they settled, I was in a spot where I was going to have to either go back to the front or be first over, and when I tipped him out, he was back to the front in no time, he just exploded. But then when he did that, he relaxed, and I was able to rate him the third quarter, and once he got that third-quarter breather, he kicked home strong, and he was just the best of that group at that point. He kind of lost his form later in the year, but at that point he was just the best 3-year-old there was, right then.”
Five of Campbell’s Meadowlands Pace winners were favorites and the two that weren’t were the second choice.
“It’s nice to have that top 3-year-old lined up,” he said. “It doesn’t always work out that way, but it is nice to have one of the top 3-year-olds, because let’s be honest, there’s a lot of money for those 3-year-olds to race for, and you want to have a horse that figures in the race. You don’t want to be 25-1 in every big race.”
As for this year’s Pace contenders, Campbell said the picture isn’t clear enough yet, but this weekend’s North America Cup final will start to separate the contenders from the pretenders.
“That’s why they have more eliminations for the North America Cup than they do some of the 3-year-old races later in the year, because they haven’t all gotten together yet, and people haven’t figured out where their horse fits in that division. But once the North America Cup comes, you have eliminations and a final, and that pecking order becomes much clearer.”
