Really loving a change of pace

Former Tasmanian Justin Campbell hasn’t any regrets about the day he decided to give up plastering and focus on harness racing.

“I was working hard and felt like I wasn’t really getting anywhere. Back then it was hard physical work and you’d be trying to do balancing acts holding plasterboard sheets and stuff. Now the trade at least has equipment to make it so much easier, but no I still don’t miss it,” he said.

“Both my wife Maree and I are thoroughly enjoying the horses-and we have a few young ones showing promise so we’re pretty happy.”

It was seven-year-old brown gelding Will And Andy (Roll With Joe-Dolly Tingira (McArdle) that had Campbell again in the winners’ list last week at Melton.

After getting a nice run through from the back row, Campbell was able to cleverly slip down behind the leader El Banco. Rather than wait for the sprint lane, he moved out on the home corner to record an impressive victory in 1.56-3.

“Lorraine McKenzie is a friend of ours and sent a few down to me, including Will And Andy. I’ve known Lorraine for a long time. When I was back in Tassie I trained some for her dad,” Campbell said.

Campbell’s interest in harness racing was sparked through an uncle of his father, Malcolm.

“My uncle only had one horse and would train it around a footy oval out the back of woop-woop,” he said.

“Then when he died, my dad got the horse and it ended up winning a few races. My mum Annette used to train them, but Dad never did. He just enjoyed being an owner and loved to have a punt.”

The Campbells race the horses they breed using the “Really” prefix, and Justin and Maree’s operation is named “Really Racing Stables.

“It probably goes back to a mare in Do You Really. One of her foals was Really Famous (sired by Quite Famous) which won eight in the 1990s,” he said.

“The next one in Really Cruising, by Cognac Hanover, gave me my very first winner as a trainer. Mum nicknamed him Tom in reference to Tom Cruise and he thrived on beach work.

“I later had a team of six and enjoyed some good success.”

The talented horseman scored on Really Ay (by Lucky Cam) at one of his first race drives in February 2000, at Hobart. The pair combined for another nine wins. Campbell then swept all before him in just his third season with 35 winners from 105 starters and an impressive strike rate (70 per cent) that saw him finish in the top three. That same season he finished third on the premiership title.

Campbell is now based at a property at Rockbank, near Melton, after shifting over here more than two years ago.

“I worked for Joe Pace for a while. He’s a top bloke and I even got to drive Joe’s star pacer in Supreme Dominator-it was only in trackwork though!” Campbell laughed.

“We’ve got 10 in work, with six of these being racehorses. We have a fair opinion of Really Really who ran second in 1.57 at his first start and then finished third on two occasions.

“We went to the yearling sales and both my wife and I sort of picked him out. He’s well bred by Pet Rock out of Four Zoe. We were due to buy a new car and ended up with Really Really so hopefully he can win enough for us to get that new set of wheels!

“I prefer to work our horses around interval training when I can. In doing that I work them hard, but not for too long. We just love our animals and look after them.”

Campbell works as a horse feed delivery driver several days a week.

“I’m lucky that we have two stable hands in David Zammit and Samantha Brown who come and help us out. They are keen to learn the game,” he said.

“Will And Andy has improved since we started putting him against another one at home. He just won’t work alone.”

Campbell said he was toying with the idea of a return to Tasmania in the next few weeks with a small team.

“We’ve got a few who are still eligible for the Tasbred bonus and there’s a nice feature event over there that suits, so it would be worthwhile to do a trip. We’ll have to sit down soon and work through it.”

By Terry Gange for Harnesslink