by Rich Fisher, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — Driver Heath Campbell was born in Lewiston, Maine, moved to his parents’ homeland of Canada at the age of 1 but returned to Maine in his late teens and has made quite a name for himself in the land of lobsters and scenic coast lines.

The 41-year-old is 20 wins away from 4,000, and was named Maine’s Driver of the Year last year after setting a career high of $1.14 million in purses, joining brother Drew as the only Maine-based drivers to ever earn $1 million in a single season. He was also the leading driver for the spring/summer meet at Bangor Raceway and the top money-winning driver at Scarborough Downs. In addition, Heath drives a lot of fairs in August.

Michael Newman photo

Heath Campbell is closing in on the 4,000 career victory plateau.

A third-generation horseman, Heath is the son of the late Winston “Soupie” Campbell, who retired from training in 2001 after being diagnosed with cancer. He passed away in 2003, the same year he received the New England Harness Writers Association’s Iron Man Award. Heath’s brother, Drew, is also a driver and a trainer and has won more than 3,100 races.

Heath is currently appearing on this year’s Men of Maine Harness Racing Calendar. Proceeds from the calendars’ sales are going to the Standardbred Pleasure Horse Organization of Maine’s Ambassador Horse Program, which retrains retired Standardbreds for use in a variety of pleasure disciplines, and places them in new homes.

Heath was kind enough to share a few minutes with the USTA late last week.

USTA: So, let’s start with the Men of Maine Harness Racing Calendar. Did you ever think you would be a pin-up beefcake kind of guy?
HC: (laughing) No.

USTA: How did that all come about?
HC: The woman down in Scarborough, Susan Higgins, was trying to raise some money and thought something like that would go good. They asked several people. I think some of them didn’t show up and I think I was the last one in the ring.

USTA: Did you get to request your month or did they just assign you?
HC: No, they just assigned me. I didn’t have any month in mind.

USTA: What was the photo shoot like?
HC: They just wanted me to put a skin tight T-shirt on, stuff like that. And they took several pictures just posing around the horse; a few different poses.

USTA: Well obviously, you have had to do something right to make a calendar, and I think closing in on 4,000 wins might fit the bill there. You are 20 away from 4,000 and I’m not going to congratulate you on that because I don’t want to jinx it, but is there a sense of anticipation toward that achievement?
HC: I don’t really think about it. Usually when you think about it you kind of get in a slump because you try too hard to get it. I just try to let things fall in place.

USTA: Was there a point you realized you were getting close?
HC: This winter I was just sitting home playing on the computer one day and I looked it up and knew I was getting close.

USTA: It will probably mean a lot to you once you get it.
HC: Absolutely. I was surprised I got my thousand wins; now I’m going for 4,000.

USTA: When you first started out, I’m sure you’re not thinking “Well I guess I’ll get 4,000 wins one day.” Did you even set goals as a young driver or were you too busy taking it one day at a time.
HC: My father had 1,000 wins back in the Maritimes. We were brought up in Canada, and they always had the 1,000-win driving championship which was eight or 10 guys. It was just fun to see the competition like that and you would think “Gee it would be nice to get 1,000 wins just to do something like that.” It was a lot of fun so I said “I’d like to get 1,000 wins someday.”

USTA: You’re a third generation horseman. Were you interested in the business at an early age? Did your dad and brother try to influence you or did they let you find your own way?
HC: I just liked it. Right after we would get out of school at 2:30 we’d drive our bikes to the track just to hang around as kids and grease horses’ feet and things like that. That’s all we did. You get out of school and most kids go play sports and we would go to the races.

USTA: At what point did you want to be a driver?
HC: As long as I remember. I wasn’t planning on going to be a basketball or hockey player. I just always liked the horses.

USTA: Take us through the process. How did you get started as a driver and what were some of the challenges you faced starting out?
HC: I always worked the horses and stuff like that; you’d skip school and go to the track. So I kind of liked it more and I just quit school. That’s one of my regrets, I wish I never did. I just worked at the barn with the horses with my father. I’d get there at 7 in the morning and stay til 7 at night. I just liked the horses, cleaning the equipment. It’s always something I wanted to do.

USTA: When did you get your license?
HC: Fall of 1989.

USTA: I know it’s 3,980 victories ago, but can you remember much about your first victory and how that went?
HC: Awww, you always remember the first win. It was a horse my father was driving for another guy and he wanted me to get a shot and the old man got me to drive the horse. He took the lead and I just went wire-to-wire in (2):05 and a piece. His name was Lakeside Dusty; it was at Exhibition Park in New Brunswick.

USTA: What would you list as some of your biggest highlights to date since then?
HC: I got to drive Color Me Best for Joe Anderson at Plainridge one time in the Beckwith Memorial. I won with him in (1):52.3. I won the Paul Bunyan (Invitational Pace) at Bangor in (1):52.4, which is still a track record, with Chewy Gross. I won the Joseph Ricci (Memorial Trot) three or four times. That’s a big race in Scarborough. Most of the ones we won with are the ones we trained; Stars Photo, Pembroke Prayer. That was nice. Bill Varney was the main owner there.

USTA: Do you train them or just drive them:
HC: Me and my girlfriend, Valerie Grondin, we do them all together. She’s the brains of the outfit. She drives some once in a while.

USTA: Have you ever thought of trying your hand at some of the bigger markets, or are you content staying in New England?
HC: We went to New York one year back in 1999 or 2000. We raced at Monticello and Yonkers a little bit. It was just tough, you know what I mean. Back then you had to really classify your horse and stuff and we brought conditioned horses. We did all right, it was a good experience.

The next year I went to Ontario, went to Mohawk and Woodbine and stuff. I liked it. A lot of people from Ontario were from the Maritimes; it was nice to see old friends and stuff.

USTA: Do you like racing at the fairs?
HC: Oh yeah, it breaks it up, you go to a different spot. One week you go to one fair, the next week you go to another fair. It’s a lot of traveling but it’s fun. We’ve got a lot of stake horses. It’s seven days a week. The first of August comes and we’re going every day.

USTA: Do you have any long range goals?
HC: I just hope I can keep going as long as I can. Stay healthy and sound and if the wins come, they’ll come. I don’t go crazy and try to win all the races I can. If I don’t have to go to the races tomorrow I don’t go. I just want to stay healthy and fit and do it as long as I can.

USTA: You still love it?
HC: Oh yeah. You go home tired and you might be a little sour. But you wake up in the morning and just start all over again.

USTA: What about Maine in general? Are you a lobster guy? Are you a rabid Red Sox fan?
HC: I love the lobster and stuff and the clams. But I’m not a real big Red Sox fan. I don’t go home and go crazy like all these other people. I’d rather watch hockey, the Boston Bruins.

USTA: Well that sounds good Heath, unless there’s anything you want to add.
HC: Well my biggest inspiration is my father and my mother. Everybody wants to do what their father did. He was a pretty good horseman so I try to fill his shoes.

USTA: Was your brother a big influence?
HC: Drew was a good influence because we were always so competitive and we wanted to beat each other.

And my girlfriend Valerie — she’s a big influence. She helps me a lot. I met her when I came to Maine. I moved to Bangor, she was here and we hooked up about 20 years ago.

USTA: How many are you training right now?
HC: We’re down to about 25 right now. We had 32 for a while.

USTA: OK Heath, thanks for the time.
HC: All right buddy, thank you.