MIKE CAMPBELL
Mike Campbell is a native of Prince Edward Island but
45 years ago, in 1969, he came to Fredericton Raceway and it has been his
adopted home ever since. He grew up in
harness racing, being a member of the famous Hennessey family, and was introduced
to the sport by his grandfather, Walter, and uncle, Joe, both legendary Island horsemen.
Mike started out with a small stable on PEI in the
late 1960’s and brought some horses to Fredericton and Woodstock to race. He saw an opportunity to grow his career and
opened a public stable at the newly formed Wilmot Downs, who were leasing
Fredericton Raceway at the time.
It didn’t take long before he had his first great
horse.
Warbucks Pick developed into an Invitational horse for
Campbell and owner Russell Embleton, becoming a force in Maritime racing in
1970. He went on to earn over $10,000
and won 13 races - including the B C Cruickshank in - and was second to
Firebolt in the Gold Cup and Saucer after winning the Inaugural the week
before. He also won a heat of the
Alexander Memorial, finishing second to Senator George.
With his career taking off, Mike decided to try
harness racing’s big leagues and took up residence in the State of New York
where he enjoyed success with an award winning trotter named Bob Collins, a New
York Sires Stakes and Free-For -All winner who went on to win 45 races and earn
over $165,000 lifetime.
But home was calling Mike and wife, Joan, and home for
them was Fredericton Raceway where they set up at the far end of the newly
built barns where they still operate their stable 40 years later. That stable has seen many notable performers
developed during those 40 years including Igoddago, considered one of the
greatest Maritime-bred performers of all time.
Igoddago is a $212,298 career money earner and four-time Fredericton
Raceway Horse of-the-Year who retired in 2010 with a record of 1:54h and 62
lifetime wins; four of them better than 1:55 on Maritime soil and second only
to Dunachton Gale.
Campbell also developed other $100,000 plus winners
like Pipe Major, Tidy Point and Knightime Roger. There were also horses like North Wind Mac,
Vulga Wil and Starson, who join those four $100,000 winners as horses who have
won over 40 wins each. Of course all of
those horses were sub-2:00 performers and you can include Grabanabe, Certified,
Igoddarocket, North Wind Molly, Charlottetown and many others and you can see
how Mike Campbell is considered one of the greatest trainers in Fredericton
Raceway history.
Last year he campaigned the three-year-old filly sensation,
Rose Valley, a multiple stakes winner and his fastest mare ever after winning
in 1:56 at Charlottetown proving Campbell’s not ready to call it a career just
yet.
His first career win came with the veteran J Scotch
Hal in 1968 at Ocean View Park in Shediac.
He has over 1,000 career wins and $1 million in career driving earnings
and now he is honored as the newest member of the Fredericton Raceway Wall of
Fame.
NORTHERN
RAUCOUS
Northern Raucous is considered one of the greatest and
most successful horses to ever come out of Fredericton.
In 2004, he completed one of the finest three-year-old
seasons ever enjoyed by a local horse.
After winning two Ontario Sires Stakes grassroots stakes at Sudbury and
Georgian Downs, the son of Northern Luck easily captured the $100,000 Ontario
Sires Stakes final in 1:53.2 for his owners Albert Goodine and Andrea
Dolan. It capped off a sophomore season
that saw him win $114,853, the richest campaign ever by a Fredericton developed
and owned horse.
Northern Raucous was an $11,000 purchase at the
Canadian Classic yearling sale in 2002 and was turned over to Mike Downey to
learn his early lessons. He surfaced in
June of his freshmen season and promptly reeled off four straight wins for
Downey at Fredericton before being shipped to trainer Jay Cochlin in Ontario to
continue in the stakes program. After
finishing second in his first two stakes appearances at Sudbury and Dresden, he
then won his first stake race at Clinton in 1:58.2. He finished the year with a third-place
finish in the Grassroots semi-final at London.
That initial stakes success carried over into his
record setting three-year-old season.
Northern Raucous went on to race for a number of years
continuing to rack up the wins and the money earnings. He retired in 2011 at the age of ten with 39
lifetime wins and almost $325,000 in lifetime earnings, making him the richest
horse ever developed in Fredericton by far.
Tonight we recognize the outstanding race career of
Northern Raucous and welcome him to the Fredericton Raceway Wall of Fame.
KNIGHTLY GLIB
We
all remember Knightly Glib. He was a big
strong gray horse that Bobby Stevenson developed into an Invitational pacer in
the late 1980’s. Michael Mackin had purchased
the New Brunswick-bred yearling son of Knightly Blue Chip and, with help from
Ned Lindon, he began his training at the local oval. He did not make the races as a two-year-old
but made his sophomore debut in the spring of 1986 with new trainer Stevenson.
Knightly
Glib enjoyed a solid three-year-old season, winning five races, and competing
against some better colts at that time including locals Tidy Point and
Balmaghie Breeze.
As
a four-year-old Knightly Glib began to show that he had the making of a top
performer. Early in the season he won
the Single G early closer final in 2:01.1 and then the Canada Day River Jubilee
Pace. He went on to have a solid and
consistent year, winning six races including a 2:00.3 record journey at
Champlain Raceway and closed it off by winning the Gerald Giberson Memorial
over Beth Seelster. For his efforts he
was named Horse of-the-Year at Fredericton as well as the Most Improved.
But
it was the next year when he really shined, racing and winning against some of
the best horses in the Maritimes.
He
won the first two legs of the Labatt Blue Crown series; the opening leg in
1:59.3, which was a new Maritime-bred record for aged geldings which had been
previously held by Heels Lad. From there
he went on to Charlottetown, finishing third to New Brunswick rivals, Weston
Miracle and Awjo in the Premiers Pace.
He then finished fifth in the Gold Cup and Saucer to Beeler Hanover.
He
continued to race the invitational circuit, finishing third to Crimson in the
Provincial Cup and then winning the Lieutenant Governors Invitational but his
greatest achievement came in the FREX Invitational when he defeated top
Free-For-Allers, On Broadway and Courtney Bay in a lifetime best of 1:59,
further reducing his own Maritime record for aged geldings.
He
closed out his Maritime campaign in Saint John winning the Labatt Blue Pacing
Series final over Maple Grove Shadow.
The Labatt Blue Crown was the premiere racing series during that era and
Knightly Glib finished first or second in all five legs of the fall classic. Completing one of the greatest seasons ever
by a Fredericton-based horse, Knightly Glib had won 13 races against some of
the Maritime’s best. For his efforts he was a repeat winner as Fredericton
Raceway’s Horse of the Year.
Knightly
Glib finished his career with Mickey Mackin’s son-in-law, Rick Beattie,
retiring in 1992 at the age of nine. He
had 27 lifetime wins and over $46,000 in career earnings.
Thirty
years after his racing career began; we finally induct Knightly Glib to the
Fredericton Raceway Wall of Fame.
MIKE DOWNEY
It is safe to say that Mike Downey has enjoyed one of
the greatest careers of any Fredericton horseman of any era. Certainly the statistics backs that up.
Downey
is Fredericton’s leading dash winning driver and leading money winning driver
of all time with 2,341 wins and over $3.3 million in career earnings.
Mike’s
first win came behind an old mare his father, Cerdic, had bred and raced by the
name of Gwens Pal. That came at
Fredericton Raceway in September of 1969.
The time of the mile was 2:16.4 and it was 20 seconds slower than his
fastest ever winning drive, 1:56.2, which was with the Invitational pacer,
Speedy AJ, at Truro in 2001.
It
took Mike 15 years to record 500 career wins but only five years to record his
next 500 enjoying his most productive Maritime years in the mid to late
1980’s. From 1983 to 1987, which was
during the heighth of Maritime harness racing’s most thriving time of the
modern era, he averaged 125 wins per season, his best in 1985, where he
campaigned in Fredericton and at the newly opened Champlain Raceway in
Dieppe. That year he had 170 wins and
over $116,000 earned. Mike’s 1,000th
win came with Avon Blazer that same year.
With
his driving success, Mike Downey is still probably better known for the horses
he has trained and developed. There has
been so many over his 45 plus years that I’m sure he has forgotten some of them
but these are a few that we all remember.
A
chance meeting with local entrepreneur, David Kileel, in 1976 resulted in
Downey receiving a yearling roan colt by the name of Glengyle Kestrel. We came to know the horse by his new name,
Daily Special, and this colt became one of the most accomplished horses to ever
come out of Fredericton and Downey’s career took off with him. Daily Special was the Atlantic Sires Stakes
two-year-old champion the next year and a multi-stake winner at three but is better
known for breaking Walter Dale’s 42-year-old track record by one-tenth of a
second in the summer of 1979.
That
relationship with Kileel produced many outstanding horses over the years
including the invitational pacer, Special Reward, two-year-old Atlantic Sires Stake
champion, Chop Suey, stake winners Ketchup and Some Nice and Beth Seelster, the first mare to
ever pace better than 2:00 in the Maritimes.
Mike
also developed and raced one of the most successful three-year-old fillies of
our generation. Tar Dee Finesse, who was
later named All Finesse, was the Atlantic Sires Stakes champion in 1983 winning
13 of 23 races. At the time she was the
fastest sophomore filly ever and set track records at Fredericton, Sackville
Downs and Charlottetown.
Of
course, Mike Downey’s stakes success was not limited to the Maritimes carrying
over to the Ontario program after moving there in the late 1980’s. It started almost immediately with the multiple
stakes winning trotter, Balance Of Trade, owned by John MacLean, Ronald Mitton
and John Breau of Moncton, the same combination who had previous success in the
Maritimes with the 1985 Atlantic Sires Stakes three-year-old trot champion,
Jerry Jeff, who Downey also campaigned.
The
two-year-old filly, Dancing My Way, was a four-time Ontario Sires Stakes winner
in 1992, earning over $129,000 and there were also other stake performers like
Ride Again and Shawnie Seelster during his time there.
Mike
has been home for the past 15 years and the perennial dash winner at
Fredericton was stabled here until moving to Saint John last year. Even after coming home he was still training
and racing great horses. He developed
Northern Raucous, who we just inducted into the Wall of Fame, Sealcrest Dragon
and Bear Island Tyler, all of whom went on to take sub-1:55 records. Bear Island Tyler gave Mike his 2,000 win in
2005.
He’s
enjoyed great success with the New Zealand-bred horses. Knight Stalker N won the FREX Invitational in
2002; Cams Man NZ won the Papermaker Pace the same year. We mentioned Tigerbird earlier with Ashley
Sloat, probably Mike’s best Invitational horse.
It
has been an incredible career, maybe never paralleled in Fredericton. Mike is known as one of the hardest working
horsemen in the business and one of the nicest.
At one time he was one of the best known sporting personalities in
Fredericton and his career paralleled the success Fredericton Raceway enjoyed
during the robust 1980s.
Ladies
and gentleman, one of the greatest ever; Mike Downey.
ASHLEY SLOAT
There
is no denying Ashley Sloat has been one of the most successful owners in the
history of Fredericton Raceway highlighted by the many free-for-all pacers he
is bought over the years including Gold Cup and Saucer winner, Tigerbird, and
Shannon Commander, who held the track record in Fredericton for 19 years until
2012.
Thirty-five
years ago Ashley and his wife Joan - who owned all of the horses with him through
the years - started off by acquiring Charberlyn Streak from Charlie Forbes. Notice I said acquire and not purchase
because a story persists that she may have changed hands in a card game! The locally-bred mare developed lameness
issues almost immediately and the Sloats were off to an auspicious start in the
horse ownership game.
Ashley
was undaunted however and, looking for a “good horse” with the encouragement of
other horse friends like Albert Goodine, Doug Baker and Bill Thornton, he
journey with trainer Mike Campbell to a mixed sale at Liberty Bell in the
spring of 1979 and promptly purchased three race horses: Fools Pleasure, Lumont and J Js Happy. Lumont was supposed to the star of the bunch
having earned over $30,000 and taking a fast record the previous year. But it was Fools Pleasure who gave Ashley his
first victory in the top class at Fredericton a couple of months later in what
was the first Dr. J.A. Williamson Memorial.
Ashley said at the time, “The whole experience of going to the sale and
coming back with horses that are capable of racing against some of the best
horses on the grounds is one that truly excites me.” Lumont didn’t quite live up to expectations
though he was named Fredericton Raceway’s horse of the year in 1982.
That
was just the beginning for Ashley as he continued to seek out horses that, not
only could compete with the best horses in Fredericton, but to race the best
the Maritimes had on offer and, to do that, he decided to invest in even better
quality horses. So that’s what he did
when he purchased Tigerbird for $28,000.
He would become the horse that would take Ashley and Joan on a ride of a
lifetime in the late 1980’s along with trained-driver Mike Downey. In 1989 Tigerbird won the $12,000 Provincial
Cup in Truro over Maritime sensation, Kilkerran Fury and he only got better
from there.
After
winning the Robert McCain Memorial the next year, Tigerbird gave Ashley, Joan
and Mike their first Gold Cup and Saucer.
He did it the hard way, grinding out a first-over effort that he had
become known for.
It
was only a couple of years later when Ashley purchased Shannon Commander and
after toiling with Mike Downey at Flamboro in the early part of his career
where he named the top three-year-old in 1991, he came home for the Walter Dale
Memorial in 1993 and Garry MacDonald drove the horse to a Maritime-record
setting 1:55 track-record mile, the fastest ever over a half-mile in the
Maritimes at the time. Fifteen years
after purchasing their first horse, Ashley and Joan finally were able to
enjoying the crowning achievement at their home track just as they set out to
do all those years ago.
In
spite of reaching the pinnacle of harness racing Ashely didn’t stop investing
in the harness racing business and continued to buy quality race horses like
Look Maynard, who gave him his second Walter Dale winner in 2000. He is the only Fredericton owner to ever win
the Canada’s longest running Invitational race two times. He had other Invitational horse like Horan
Hanover, winner of the Governors Plate, and Armbro Foxy, who broke the track
record in Bangor. Olympic Mark won the
Wal Hannessey Memorial and there were other horses like Up Front Richie, Point
and Click, Star Track, Bargain Harrods, Putthehammerdown, Virtual reality, Avon
Blazer, Woodmere Andy, Florida Thorpe, Assert and many others. You might also recall Quick Comeback who
raced for Sloat but is better known as an outstanding sire in New Brunswick and
his breeding credits include Clinton Debriefed, one of the best New
Brunswick-bred horses ever.
Speaking
of breeding Ashley and Joan even dabbled a little in that area as well at their
home in Deerwood Acres and produced R L Geordie, R L Kash, Deerwood Dawn and
the stakes winning mare, Wiper Clean.
Incidentally the R L Stands for “rock ledge” on which their home and
land sat on in that area of the Hanwell.
Ashley
also drove a little bit as well and Exford Ayr gave him his first lifetime win
in 1982. He served on the board of the
FREX for 12 years and was active in the Fredericton Horsemen’s
Association. The local businessman
invested a lot of time and money in the industry and tonight we recognize those
efforts by his induction into the Fredericton Raceway Wall of Fame.
