As tracks across Canada and the United States announce opening days for a return to harness racing, a common trend is the excitement accompanying that return to action.
Canada's first track to reveal plans to return to racing was Red Shores Racetrack & Casino at the Charlottetown Driving Park, who announced earlier this month that that racing would resume on Prince Edward Island on Thursday, June 4.
Named PEI’s Driver Of The Decade earlier this year, Marc Campbell will look to add another driving and training title to his accomplished resume. With more than $5 million in career driving earnings and training earnings exceeding $2 million, Campbell is poised for another title with a barn full of younger horses preparing for the upcoming season.
“Our lives didn’t really change too much with the lockdown and everything," Campbell told Trot Insider. "I think it was a lot different for people in Ontario that race all winter long. I have mostly younger horses anyways -- we’re probably about a month behind where we would like to be but it’s not a big deal. There we’re a lot of restrictions about training at the track and that’s what set us back the most but we made it through. We survived it.”
The lifelong Maritimer also touched base on how he and his team have been able to practice the necessary social distancing to keep training his horses.
“Down here things are a little different, in Ontario and other places you’ll have one groom that takes care of five or six horses. Down here, I only have a few guys that work for me and we all chip in and work together," noted Campbell. "We have horses at two different locations -- I rent Dr. Ian Moore’s old farm, there's 10 horses there and then the rest are at the track in Charlottetown.”
While Campbell’s stable is home to older pacing star Rose Run Quest and older trotting sensation Freddie, Campbell has multiple younger prospects that he is enthusiastic about.
“We have 28 right now, but in all honesty, every horse that’s in the barn right now I’m very excited to see what they can do. I have some really nice two-year-olds that are Maritime-bred and Ontario-bred, my three-year-olds seem to be coming back very strong and my old war horses are doing very good. We have a couple new horses in the barn -- Dreamfair Zenfire and Time To Dance. We haven’t raced them yet so we’re excited to see what they can do.”
As racing at Red Shores will be conducted without spectators, Campbell admitted the lack of fans in attendance at the Charlottetown half-miler will feel somewhat surreal.
“It’s going to be very strange, there are always fans there. It doesn’t matter if it’s cold or if it’s raining, there are always people along the fence line or in the grandstand. It’s going to be very weird that's for sure. We’re hoping that within a month or so that we will be able to have fans back -- I know that there is a lot depending on that but we can hope.
“It’s going to be very different for me, I’m used to having my wife and kids there running around, my Mom always comes to the track, we have a lot of people who come to cheer us on that are just racing fans in general so it’s going to be very different for me, especially.”
Despite the multitude of adjustments that come with racing's new normal, Campbell is still thrilled to be back in action.
“I’m very excited to get back going, I’m looking forward to having qualifiers this week and next week. I’m pretty amped up to be back in the bike and get back to racing.”
The first set of qualifiers at Charlottetown Driving Park are set for Saturday (May 23) at 12:30 p.m. (Atlantic Time). To view the entries for the qualifiers, click one of the following links:
► Saturday Entries - Charlottetown Driving Park
► Saturday Program Pages - Charlottetown Driving Park (courtesy TrackIT)