Doug and Di Campbell after a milestone moment at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on Sunday (Candiese Lenferna).
Doug Campbell had the 1000th winner of his career at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on Sunday and reminisced about some of his best moments in the sport.
His first winner was Pedlars Pie at Scottsville in April 1979.
He recalled, “You had to have two horses to have a professional license. I went for about a year without having a winner having started in 1978. Dennis Drier felt sorry for me and suggested to one of his clients Vi Armstrong to send me one of the horses in his yard, Pedlars Pie. She won first time out for me at Scottsville. And she beat a Drier-trained horse! However, I did not have the pleasure of leading in my first winner because the commentator had called the other one the winner and the owners confidently led that one in. When the numbers came up it was too late for me to do a lead in! Brian Strydom was the rider. He rode for me a lot and used to gallop our horses when we took them to Scottsville. It was quite funny because they put on a day for him at Clairwood when he retired and in his last ever ride he won on a horse of ours … but it did look as if the other jockeys let him win because he had an easy lead from start to finish!”
Doug only had one Grade 1 winner, but it was one of the most amazing races in South African history and many older fans still recall it.
Doug took the grey filly by Northern Guest, Mystery Guest, up to Gosforth Park to run in the Grade 1 SA Fillies Guineas.
Kevin Shea recalled, “She ducked just as she was going into the stalls and dropped me. She wasn’t a dilly filly at all and she thought she had better go back where she had come from so she cantered back to the parade ring.”
As if to illustrate her relaxed demeanour Doug, upon rushing down to the parade ring through the maze of passages at Gosforth Park, found her nibbling on a bush.
He recalled, “The Campbells and the McDonalds have never got on well and the vet that day called McDonald wanted to scratch my horse! I said ‘No way we have come all the way from Richmond’ and I just walked the horse straight past him on to the course. They were complaining because it was a televised race and she was now subjecting it to this long delay.”
Doug did not care about the television viewers having to wait and he took Mystery Guest all the way got back to the start.
Many thousands of viewers of that race on television and on the packed grandstands were surprised the filly was then allowed to start, having run the distance of the race already.
However, in astonishing fashion, she then not only ran but she won, and she not only won but she did it in course record time!
However, the best horse Doug trained was Dawson Trail, a gelding by the many-times champion sire Jungle Cove and a half-brother to July winner Spanish Galliard (Gay Fandango).
He won the Grade 3 Natal Guineas and three Listed races and also finished second in both the Grade 1 Cape Derby and Grade 1 SA 2000 (Daily News 2000).
Doug said, “Despite those Grade 1 seconds they did not include him in the July. He did run in the July as a five-year-old and a six-year-old but he was at his best as a three-year-old and actually beat the July winner Right Prerogative in both the Cape Derby and the SA 2000.”
In this day and age Dawson Trail would most definitely have got in ahead of Right Prerogative, who subsequent to the aforementioned races was a comfortable winner of the Grade 2 Natal Derby.
Dawson Trail became a miracle horse later and his story was testament to the skills of the legendary veterinarian Brian Baker.
He suffered a chipped knee in training while down in Cape Town preparing for the Met and due to a complication in the subsequent operation he contracted a serious bout of colic. However, due to its weight, the intestines subsequently twice began bursting through the stitched area. Dawson Trail was then moved from Cape Town to Natal and Dr Baker stitched a nylon mesh into his stomach.
“He did a fine job,” recalled Doug, “The mesh was not visible.” Dawson Trail, now something of a bionic horse, returned to racing after an 18 month break and incredibly enough won his first start upon return over 1600m at Clairwood, beating his half-brother, Spanish Galliard, who went on to win the Durban July just over a year later.
Kevin Shea started riding for Doug after returning from a three month suspension and the loyal rider returned the favour by being stable jockey for a number of years. They remain good friends and Kevin recalled there being many good horses at Sugar Hill, not to mention the fine breakfasts after traveling up to Richmond to ride work on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
One of the fairytale horses was the 1977-born Jeremy Mask by Red Mask. This homebred won on debut and the owners then moved him to the yard of a top trainer because they did not believe this new trainer Doug Campbell was good enough. The horse then suffered a tendon injury and Doug bought him back for R500. He went on to win five races in all, including the Listed Squadron Rum 1200 at Bloemfontein under Paul Gadsby, who also rode a lot for Doug. The win helped towards building more stables on Doug’s Sugar Hill Racing Stables training establishment in Richmond.
Gadsby also rode the Campbell-trained eight-time winning stayer Escapist (Hostage) to victory in the Grade 3 Lonsdale Stirrup Cup over 2400m.
Doug has also had success breeding off his private training establishment. A Sugar Hill Stud homebred who did well was the King Of Kings colt King’s Bay. He won six out of eight for Doug and became the first South African horse to be sold to the China Horse Club in 2013. Doug was reluctant to part with this beloved horse who did not attract a single bid at a private farm sale because “he was nothing to look at”. However, he turned out to have a high cruising speed and an explosive turn of foot when racing for Doug, Micky Moodley and Dave Hawkins. They received an offer from the China Horse Club they could not turn down.
Doug trained horses for gymkhana races in the amateur ranks for some years before acquiring his professional license. Richmond was one of the best venues.
It was somewhat ironic Stuart Ferrie had his first black type success in his fledgling training career on the same day as Doug’s 1000th winner, because one of the first amateur horses Doug trained was Silver Sovereign who was part-owned by Stuart’s father Scotch. Stuart’s first days on a racecourse would have been at the Richmond gymkhana meetings.
Doug also trained and rode in hurdles races and recalls meeting Chris Snaith and Ralph Rixon when travelling a horse down to run in a race in Port Elizabeth.
Doug is starting to concentrate more on the spelling and pre-training side these days.
He said, “I can’t blame owners for wanting to send horses to younger trainers because I am nearly 80, but we have 35 empty stables.”
However, Ermelo certainly looks to be a promising horse.
Doug used to train for the father of Ermelo’s owner and breeder Tommy Crowe. Out of the blue he got a phone call from Tommy one day saying he had bred this son of Rabada and would he like to train him.
Ermelo went to the front under Dennis Schwarz on Sunday and the big gelding used his big stride to stretch the field. He never looked like stopping in the straight and won easing up from the promising Sean Tarry-trained The Africa House.
The milestone moment caused excitement from Campbell family members all over the world. Doug’s son Stuart got up at 10 to 6 in the morning in the USA to watch the race.
He said Ermelo had been a big brute of an early two-year-old and was difficult, so he was grateful Tommy had allowed him to be gelded.
He looks like a Grade 2 Durban Golden Horseshoe candidate over 1400m on Hollywoodbets Durban July day and on pedigree should also get the trip of the Grade 1 Premier’s Champion Challenge on
Doug has mixed hard work with fun and his annual party at Sugar Hill stables became legendary and only came to a halt with Covid-19. A big marquee used to be erected for the party in the days when finances allowed, not to mention sumptuous fare. The jockeys who attended used to do frog racing with a bookmaker in attendance taking bets.
Doug reserved the last word for his wife Di and said, “By far the best horse in my yard has been Di, she has been terrific in every way through all these years and her attention to detail is quite phenomenal.”
