Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Campbell Set to Return in April

February 27, 2997

Hall of Fame driver John Campbell, sidelined since October because of a broken leg suffered in an accident during the Breeders Crown eliminations at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, hopes to be back in action by the end of March and racing in April.

Honored Sunday as the U.S. Harness Writers Association’s 2006 Driver of the Year, Campbell revealed his rehabilitation is going “as well as it possibly could.”

Campbell earned $8.7 million last year and won the Hambletonian and Kentucky Futurity with Glidemaster, who ended up Horse of the Year, plus the Merrie Annabelle with Gerri’s Joy and the Oakville with Pampered Princess. He suffered a badly broken leg on October 21 when his horse, Scootin Delight, collided with a fallen horse at the finish line of the Breeders Crown elim for three-year-old male pacers.

“If everything goes the way I hope, I’m hoping to get back sometime in April,” Campbell said. “It’s not that there’s an urgency to get back in April, but that’s what I’m shooting for. I’m hopeful that’s the way it will work out. Things have gone as well as they possibly could.”

Campbell goes to therapy three times a week in addition to working out in a pool three or four times a week.

“My knee healed up quicker than anticipated,” Campbell said. “The problem when you don’t use your leg for that long is getting those muscles and tendons stretched out and usable again. That’s what I’m looking at right now. It’s really a job, pretty close to a full-time job, if you want to try to get better. If you don’t do the work, you don’t get better; it’s as simple as that.”

In 2003, Campbell missed three months because of a broken elbow suffered in a racing accident. In 2004 and 2005, he won a combined $12 million after enjoying a record five consecutive seasons (1998-2002) with at least $10 million in purses. During his Driver of the Year acceptance speech Sunday, Campbell thanked his wife, Paula, for her support and faith that he would again return to the sport’s upper echelon.

“She always tells me that she’s right,” Campbell quipped, “and I’m glad that she was right this time.”

Campbell also acknowledged his three-year-old granddaughter, Emma, for her role in keeping him in brighter spirits during his current rehabilitation period.

“I wish that Band-aids had the powers she thinks they do; I would have been healed a long time ago,” Campbell said, smiling. “She’s done more for her ‘Pop-Pop’ than she’ll ever know.”