Wouldn’t Mappo Be Proud?

A decade after the passing of the Campbell family patriarch, pet pacer turned resilient racehorse Mappos Lion is carrying on the legacy of a man who instilled the love of harness racing in three generations while taking them all on a ride of a lifetime from the Baddeck, N.S. family farm to Canada’s premiere racetrack.

 

Carl Campbell, more fondly known as Mappo, was a true lover of the sport who shared his passion for the Standardbred breeding and racing industry with his sons Sandy, Jamie, Carl Jr., and their families.

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The late Carl Campbell (to the right of the cooler) with his family in 2010 at Inverness Raceway.

Bred by Jamie’s wife Carol and co-owned by Sandy’s daughter Hailee Currie, Mappos Lion has made an incredible comeback from an injury that nearly ended in tragedy to win 15 races in just a seven-month span with the Baddeck community cheering him along the way.

 

The five-year-old Sunshine Beach-Pacific Playmate gelding won 13 of his 20 starts while banking more than $65,000 in his comeback campaign last season and posted back-to-back victories early this year at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

 

Wouldn’t Mappo be proud? That’s a comment Jamie hears often. 

After Carl’s passing in 2010, Jamie, a well-known local veterinarian in Baddeck, travelled to the Harrisburg sale in search of a mare for the family. He picked out Pacific Playmate but, under time constraints, he had to rely on a friend to do the bidding. When that friend was unable to make it to the session, Pacific Playmate was scooped up by another buyer.

 

But Jamie refused to settle for a story about the one that got away and pursued the mare. After some negotiating and a long road trip from Ohio, Pacific Playmate finally made it to Baddeck and became the heart of a lineage that has kept the family’s memories of Mappo alive.

 

“From a young age, I was around horses with my grandfather,” recalled Hailee. “When I was about 10 years old, Carol and Jamie moved to Baddeck and built their barn.”

 

“When Jamie graduated from vet school in ‘97, we moved to Cape Breton and bought a little hobby farm, 150 acres, and we renovated the house,” said Carol. “I mentioned one evening we should put a barn up and the next day Mappo was there with the string measuring out what was supposed to be a four-stall barn and turned into a seven-stall barn. And that spring there were horses in it.”

 

Hailee recalls many fond childhood memories of spending time with her grandfather at the farm and bonding through a love for horses.

 

“My grandfather and I spent many an evening at their farm,” said Hailee. “He would putter around the barn and I would usually muck out the stalls or groom the horses, just happy to be around him, my aunt and uncle and the horses. Any chance I got to spend with Grampie, I took it and it usually happened to involve horses.”

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Carl and Mora Campbell with pacer Rhap Lou Lee.

The first foal born after Mappo’s passing was a filly named Mappos Moenhay. Mappo mowed his own hay for the horses, but the name has a hidden reference to his granddaughters – he called Jamie and Carol’s daughter Maddie ‘Maddie-Moe’ and he called Hailee ‘Hay.’ The special Real Desire filly went on to earn $150,000 and paced in 1:52.4 over Woodbine Racetrack. The family lost her in a claimer but tracked her down after she retired and were happy to be able to bring her back to the farm where she was born, and have since bred her with one now on the ground.

The second foal out of Pacific Playmate was Moramappo, a daughter of Articulator named after Mappo’s wife Mora. The filly that was sold as a yearling has a mark of 1:57h and has made more than $70,000 to date.

Then came along Mappos Lion, named for a family inside joke.

 

“My dad ran a grocery store in our famous little village of 600 people,” explained Sandy. “He knew everyone in the town and, of course, had lots of daily drop-in friends both there and at our training centre that was also in the village. He loved to mess with people by slightly bending the truth to see how long it would take to get back to him. We all giggle when people ask us why ‘Lion’?”

 

As a baby, Mappos Lion was more like a 400-pound pet dog that would wander the yard, eating the perennials and strawberries from the gardens.

 

“That's what he was like,” recalled Carol. “He would follow me around and he'd never leave the yard. And if I went to the barn when I finished mucking, if I sat on a bucket, he would try to sit on my lap. He would try to get on top of you, like he just was an absolute pet.”

 

Mappos Lion showed flashes of greatness while training as two-year-old with local legend Clare MacDonald and her husband Kenny, and the decision was made to put the brakes on and wait for him to mature into a quality three-year-old.

 

He made his qualifying debut at three in the spring of 2020 and won his first start with ease over Truro Raceway. The family gathered, as they do for all his races, to watch what they hoped would be his next big win on June 12… but things went very badly.

 

Leaving the gate, Mappos Lion made a bad break in stride and was visibly lame. Within a short time, Jamie was on the phone with Clare deciding the fate of a promising pacer with a broken leg.

 

Mappos Lion was transported back to Clare’s farm in Antigonish, N.S. for further assessment and Jamie consulted the DVM surgical team in P.E.I., led by Dr. Yvonne Elce.

 

“The day after he broke his leg, we all travelled to Antigonish, about 1.5 hours from Baddeck, to what we thought was to say our goodbyes. It was a long and sombre drive,” remembered Hailee. “When we got to Clare’s, Uncle Jamie x-rayed him. Clare and Jamie were almost certain it could be fixed but, of course, with a cost. I can’t tell you the joy that was felt in that barn afterwards. There was hope. According to Dr. Elce, 70 per cent chance of hope.”

 

The decision to perform surgical repair was made by the family. While there was a chance Mappos Lion would never race again, if that turned out to be the case, he would live at the family farm with his sister ‘Moenhay’ and several other retired racehorses.

 

“For us, it’s all about the horse – we bring these animals into the world to ‘serve us,’” said Hailee. “Most of us in the industry know the horses love what they do, but ultimately… it is our responsibility to do right by them at every turn, as long as it’s within our means to do so. Which meant that about 30 minutes after we arrived at Clare’s, ‘Lion’ was loaded onto the trailer and heading to P.E.I.”

 

A second chance.

 

A year and a day after fracturing his leg, Mappos Lion qualified in 1:57.3 over Truro Raceway and won his first start the following week. After sorting out a few equipment issues over his next couple starts, Mappos Lion then went on to win 11 of 12 races throughout the summer and fall with his only defeat being a second-place finish to Batterup Hanover in a 1:51.4 track record mile over Red Shores at Charlottetown Driving Park -- he was clocked in 1:52.1.

 

That Charlottetown appearance on August 14 marked a memorable moment that Hailee refers to as the “TSN Turning Point” for Mappos Lion.

 

“We knew he was special. Clare knew he was special. We kind of all knew he was special, but you never really know how they're going to bounce back from an injury like that,” said Hailee. “It was a pivotal moment.”

 

One of the hottest days of the year in Charlottetown, Hailee recalled watching trackside with her family as a refreshing breeze swept through the grandstand just as the races started.

 

 “It was complete euphoria for us when he was racing, and the announcer makes it so much more exciting,” she noted.

 

 

“We spent the rest of the night in the barn with Clare and Kenny and, of course, ‘Lion,’ chatting and laughing, all so hopeful about what was to come. It was one of those nights you wish you could hit replay on. The night I wish most that Grampie could have been a part of. I will remember it for the rest of my life!”

 

A follow-up appearance at Charlottetown on Gold Cup & Saucer Night landed him in the winner’s circle before he was shipped to Ontario to continue his streak at Woodbine Mohawk Park in the care of Hall of Fame horseman and Nova Scotia native Paul MacDonell.

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Mappos Lion, driven by Kenny MacDonald, winning at Charlottetown Driving Park.

“I can't think of anything that's been more thrilling than this,” said Carol. “Over the past 30 years of my life, I've had some of my biggest thrills at a racetrack.”

 

Through his incredible run, Mappos has united the family with the weekly call to post.

 

“We had a few chances to sell ‘Lion,’ but it makes it a lot harder to sell when they had that other connection as well,” said Hailee. “I guess they keep me close to my grandfather.

 

“We always say every time we have a new foal, we can't name this one Mappo, we'll never get rid of it. So, it continues.”

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The Campbell family visiting Mappos Lion at the Paul MacDonell Stable in Ontario.  

Now living in P.E.I. with her own young family, Hailee is looking forward to watching Mappo’s legacy live on for generations to come.

 

“My husband and I plan to build a barn on our property in the near future where both ‘Moenhay’ and ‘Lion’ and likely all the Mappos that follow will retire on lush P.E.I. grass and all the apples they can handle,” said Hailee. “That will be the ultimate ‘moment’ for me. When I can look out my own kitchen window at all of our retired and some baby, up-and-coming Mappos grazing in my yard. The horses who, collectively, piece together that invisible string that keeps me connected to the original Mappo, or as I fondly called him, Grampie.”