After nearly six weeks of sitting around his stables with nothing to do but clean up, feed the horses, and do some limited training, Heath Campbell is making up for lost time.

After the start of Bangor Raceway’s 2008 season was postponed four times, interrupted twice, and effectively delayed for a month and a half due to soggy track conditions, the Lewiston-born resident of Corinna celebrated the return of regular racing to Bangor Historic Track by winning four of the nine races last Friday night, the third racing date of the new season.

“Well, I only won one opening day, so I have to make up some ground, I guess,” Campbell said with a smile. “Last Wednesday, I thought I could win five, but I only won a couple. The horses couldn’t handle the track and made breaks.”

If Campbell seems nonchalant about his four-win race night, it’s because the veteran driver-trainer-owner has done it before, and he has done better.

“My best is seven in one card,” the 36-year-old said sheepishly. “I’ve had six a couple times and five, too.”

Even with 11 wins, five places (seconds) and three shows (thirds) in his first 32 races, Campbell feels as though he’s running behind.

“The times are actually slow, so it’s been a slow start that way, but everybody’s in the same boat,” he explained. “I’ve been racing at Scarborough [Downs] the last few weeks and some of their horses have already raced 1:58 while we’re still around 2:08. It’s going to take a few races to get sharp.”

Still, after all the problems and delays, just getting back behind a horse in a Bangor race is cause to celebrate.

“After sitting around all this time, to finally get out there and win races, geez, that feels great,” said Campbell, who won $16,808 in purse money through Sunday. “It’s tough. Everything’s gone up: Hay, grain, gas … People don’t realize, we still have bills to pay even if we’re not racing. We couldn’t wait for Bangor to start.

“If they hadn’t started actually doing something, I was within inches of moving down south to race at Scarborough.”

In order to earn much-needed purse money and get his horses some crucial race experience, Campbell and girlfriend/trainer/driver Val Grondin have raced some horses at Scarborough and will continue to through the season.

“We swap them around and go to both places, but I know I’d rather stay here,” he said. “If I go down there three days in a row, it costs me $400 in gas.”

Campbell has managed to work the rush to race somewhat to his advantage as he has capitalized on some other drivers’ overzealous strategies.

“Everybody’s trying to win so a lot of people are going out early sometimes and the horses are getting tired, but the track isn’t in the best shape either,” Campbell explained. “It’s terrible. It’s dry, but there are still a couple soft spots in the middle right up around the top turn.

“They did some work last Monday and dug it out, but the thing is you dig a track up and put stuff in, it settles down, so there’s a dip. It’s like you’re walking along and don’t realize you’re coming off a curb. That’s what some horses are doing.”

Campbell said some horses don’t break stride while others are obviously affected.

“When you’re running along at 30, 35 miles an hour, it’s jarring, just like when you hit a pothole at full speed,” he said. “Some horses go through it and some can’t go over it at all because as soon as they take a couple bad steps, they won’t try anymore.”

Even with the frustrating start to the 2008 season, Campbell can’t imagine doing anything else.

“I’m happy. I have good people to race with, I win races, I love working with horses,” he said. “I think the horses make it for me. It really inspires you to see a horse you trained from the start win a race.

“It’s just something you grow to love. I don’t know if I could ever get a real job because I’ve never done it before.”

Yankee Anthem hits high note

Yankee Anthem, a 7-year-old mare owned by Ernest Higgins of Bangor, equaled her own state harness racing speed record (set last year) for Maine aged mares by winning Saturday’s eighth race at Scarborough Downs with a time of 1 minute, 55.2 seconds.

Drew Campbell of Scarborough, Heath Campbell’s brother and also Yankee’s trainer, said the daughter of Magical Mike “appears to float entirely on air.” Yankee’s splits were 28.1 at the quarter mark, 58.0 at the half, and 1:26 at the 3/4-mile mark. Yankee Anthem had modest payoffs of $3.20 to win, $2.60 to place, and $2.10 to show.

aneff@bangordailynews.net

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