Cam McCown zeroing in on 1,000th career victory

Cameron McCown is only 24 harness racing driving victories shy of the 1,000 win plateau. 

The 36-year-old Columbus, Ohio native says he was surprised when he learned he was close to that accomplishment. 

“I was definitely surprised when I saw I was getting so close,” Cam offered. “One thousand wins would be a huge accomplishment. It’s not something I’ve tried to focus on too much because it can be distracting.”   

As of this writing, Cam’s last triumph came with the Randy Smith-trained pacer Fear The Image (Fear The Dragon), who paced to a 1:52.4 front-stepping win on Dec. 4 at Hollywood Gaming Dayton Raceway, in a $14,000 conditioned pace. 

FEAR THE IMAGE REPLAY

“My goal has always been to get the best out of each horse I drive for the trainers and owners who put me down,” Cam said reflectively. “And if the wins come, they come.” 

His other win this month came with his wife Jessica’s horse, Prettygirl Dragon (Fear The Dragon), on Dec. 3, in a $8,500 conditioned pace, when that filly cruised to a 1:56.4 clocking. 

Cameron, known to most as “Cam” by friends and family, did not follow a traditional path into his harness racing driving career. 

In his “younger days,” the self-proclaimed animal lover was an accomplished bull rider, attending countless rodeos throughout the eastern part of the United States. His parents are Stacy Everhart, a retired state worker and former school bus driver, while his father William was a Columbus-based baker for Kroger. The family had a small farm with 15 cows and four horses, so Cameron spent afternoons riding on the local trails and focusing on western horsemanship while attending Miami Trace High School. When he was just 16, the bull riding bug bit him. 

“I had a buddy who talked me into going to Waynesville, where there was a rodeo going on, and I competed there for the first time in bull riding,” Cam offered. “The best thing about riding bulls is that it is incredibly competitive, and it gives you an adrenaline rush. The worst thing about it is the injuries—I got two dislocated shoulders and was pretty lucky that that’s all I’ve had.” 

“Brian Haynes is my cousin, but otherwise, I had no connection to harness racing,” he continued. “I’d go to Brian’s house, and he’d be showing replays of the races, and we’d go to the fairs. At one time I asked to jog a horse, and they said someone would have to go (on the cart) with me, but I refused to have anyone ride with me.” 

Cameron continued to ride the rodeo circuit until he met his future wife, Jessica Brown, daughter of trainer Brian Brown.  

“I met her through a kind of blind date, a set up,” Cameron said. “We just hit it off right away. At the time she was attending Bowling Green, and I was working at the Walmart Distribution center in Washington Court House. She eventually moved down to Washington Court House and transferred to Ohio State.” 

My Pal Sparky is another horse that has a piece of Cameron’s heart, named after his friend Kirk Sparks. The son of Uncle Peter, now 6, has earned the McCowns $138,857 and recorded a 5-year-old record of 1:54f. 

“We bought him as a yearling and I thought he was going to be great at 2, but he had a chip in his knee and then at 3 he broke a coffin bone,” Cameron said. “But he healed up and has been great for us the past three years. He’s the pet of a barn and a lifer—he’ll have a home with us forever.” 

“I love trotters,” Cameron added. “I just seem to get along better with them. And it’s funny because I learned everything through Brian—who only has pacers, for the most part. Trotters are a bit more challenging, and I love driving them.” 

Cameron and Jessica currently condition a stable of 27 horses at the Delaware County Fairgrounds. 

“We’ve had our stable now for about four years,” Cameron noted. “We branched off from Brian and were fully supported by Jennifer and him to do so. Jessica helps me so much with everything in the barn that I’d be in trouble without her. She does all the billing and paperwork and takes care of the employees and makes sure the horses go where they are supposed to go. We’ve got three grooms and two joggers, and I drive everything we train. The grandparents are also a key to our success because they watch the kids while we’re working. All of these things come together to help me live my dream of driving horses.” 

Despite his many successes in the past decade, Cameron has also known the tougher side of racing. 

“I got in a wreck at Miami Valley and was out for about a month,” he recalled. “A horse fell in front of me, and I didn’t miss him, and I landed right on my shoulder—it was the shoulder I had dislocated twice when I was rodeoing. Kayne Kaufmann was standing there, and when I told him I knew how to put it back into place, he said ‘no, it looks like it’s separated.’ And that was tough because it took about a month to heal.”  

Unfalteringly, Cameron was soon back in the sulky.  

“The doctors said that hockey players get it all the time from getting bounced into the wall—it had to heal on its own, and you have to deal with it the rest of your life unless you had surgery,” Cam explained. “I wasn’t going to have surgery, and you can still see it sticking it out a little funny. It’s not painful at all, but it is separated; the shoulder blade is actually separated from the bone.” 

As of Dec. 11, 2024, Cam’s current career stats stand at 976 wins, 1,020 seconds, 1,066 thirds from 8,841 drives, and $8,267,468 in total lifetime earnings. 

“This is something I want to do for the rest of my life but it’s all about opportunities,” he confirmed. “My wife is the key to my success—she wrestles the kids, and everything else in our lives. This is a tough business in that you’re not home as much with the kids, and you miss a lot of stuff, but I just hope that when I’m in my 50s, that horse racing will still be around. I don’t see myself still driving horses at that age, and it will be difficult for me to have other people driving my own horses when I can’t anymore.” 

by Kimberly Rinker, for Harnesslink