Crass Campo Conditioned "Colony" To Win 1981 Kentucky Derby
By: William F. Reed

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Jan. 3, 2003) - The straw who stirred the mint julep at the 1981 Kentucky Derby was John Campo, the cocky, fiesty New Yorker who packed 250 pounds on his 5'7" frame, not counting the huge chip on his shoulder, and liked to call himself "The Fat Man," as in, "This horse is going to win the Triple Crown...Hey, the Fat Man tells you something, you go to sleep on it."

He said that only moments after Pleasant Colony, the ugly-duckling colt he trained for Thomas Mellon Evans' Buckland Farm of Virginia, had made good on Campo's guarantee that he would win the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. Despite being so skinny that his ribs showed and a slow-healing chemical burn on his left hindquarters, the son of His Majesty, out of the mare Sun Colony, won the Wood by three lengths.

"Bleeping easy, that's what it was," said Campo as he paced around, waiting for jockey Jeff Fell to bring Pleasant Colony back to the winner's circle at Aqueduct. "And we're going to Kentucky and beat those bleepity bleeps, too."

That set the tone for a rowdy, raucous Triple Crown in which The Fat Man loudly insulted rival trainers, scoffed at the competition, and even got into a heated exchange with former riding great Eddie Arcaro, then working for ABC, that almost ended in a fistfight at a Baltimore restaurant.

Pleasant Colony, who died on Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2002 at the Blue Ridge Farm in Upperville, Va., was Campo's horse of a lifetime. After he finished a dull fifth in the 1981 Florida Derby, owner Evans took him away from trainer Phil O'Donnell Lee on March 16 and turned him over to Campo.

Evans apparently was angry with Lee for running the colt despite a fever and the burns on his left hindquarters, which resulted from a chemical being overturned in his stall. His new trainer, Campo, had never won a Triple Crown race. Moreover, he was several furlongs removed from the patrician Evans in temperament, taste, and social standing.

So after the Wood Memorial, in which Pleasant Colony upset 1-5 favorite Cure the Blues, it was amusing to see Campo in the winner's circle, nudging Mellon in the ribs and saying, "O.K., boss, did I do all right?"

Campo, who was then 43, quit school at 16 so he could go to work on the racetrack. He worked for some of the game's best - Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, John Nerud, Lucien Laurin, and Eddie Neloy - before striking out on his own in 1968.

Although Campo developed such outstanding horses as Jim French (second in the 1970 Derby), Protagonist, and Talking Picture, he never lost his underdog's mentality. He felt that the "society trainers" who worked for the establishment stables looked down their noses at him. To them, he would always be only a working-class, Italian-American from Queens.

So after the Wood, Campo lashed out at the handiest target, Frank Wright, a "society trainer" who was doing the TV commentary for ABC. When Wright said that Cure the Blues was the only good horse in the race, Campo bristled.

He lashed back after the race.

"Where's Frank Wright?" he yelled. "Only one good horse in the race, huh? Yeah, and Campo's got him! Campo's got him! Knock my horse...Frank Wright oughta be selling papers. All these fancy trainers...hey, the Fat Man's got a horse."

Unconvinced, Bert Firestone, the owner of Cure the Blues, decided to try Pleasant Colony in the Derby. The field also included Proud Appeal, a colt that impressed Lexington breeder John Gaines so much in winning the Blue Grass Stakes that Gaines forked over $5 million for a half-interest in him; Partez, the first Derby entrant for trainer D. Wayne Lukas; and Woodchopper, representing the famed Greentree Stable and respected trainer John M. Gaver, Jr.

Although Campo would later boast that Pleasant Coloney "won easy," that really wasn't the case on May 3 at Churchill Downs.

Coming from 17th place in the 21-horse field, Pleasant Colony, with regular jockey Jorge Velasquez back in the irons, made a big move on the backstretch and in the turn for home, sweeping to the lead as the field headed down the long stretch.

But instead of winning more or less under wraps, as he had in the Wood, Pleasant Colony was fully extended to hold off Woodchopper, whose late charge came up short by only three-quarters of a length.

After the race, in which jockey Sandy Hawley misjudged the finish line aboard the third-place Partez, Campo didn't make fun of Proud Appeal (14th) and Cure the Blues (15th), but he did make sure that he, not jockey Velasquez, got credit for the victory.

"I put no bouquets on Velasquez," Campo said. "He knows, as crazy as I am, that I'd take him off this horse tomorrow. But he did a super, super job today."

As Pleasant Colony was being led back to the barns after the Derby, he became the first and only Derby winner to have his roses stolen. A hustler wearing a policeman's uniform grabbed the garland of roses from Campo's son, John Jr., and said that he would carry them to the barn.

"When I looked around again," said the younger Campo, "he was gone." "That's terrible," said Campo, who found out the hard way that he hadn't learned all the cons and scams growing up in Queens.

On the Thursday night before the Preakness in Baltimore, Campo attended a Pimlico-sponsored "crabfest" at Captain Harvey's near the track. While "The Fat Man" was demonstrating why he deserved his nickname, Arcaro arrived and sat down at Campo's stable. As he was stuffing himself with crabs, Campo began to taunt Arcaro about picking Cure the Blues to win both the Wood and the Derby.

it wasn't long before they were on their feet, shouting at each other. When Arcaro accused Camp of being a bad trainer, Campo challenged him to name one better. Arcaro threw out the name of Buddy Hirsch, the son of famed trainer Max Hirsch, and Campo offered to bet Arcaro $10,000 that he had more stakes wins than Hirsch.

The bet quickly escalated from $10,000 to $100,000. Campo demanded that Arcaro whip out $100,000 from his pocket and put it on the table. Arcaro said he didn't have that much on him, but could get it by morning. Then he tried to get Campo to put the bet in writing.

Just when it seemed that punches would be thrown, cooler heads pulled the two apart. Campo and his group left, but not before The Fat Man darkly vowed to "embarrass" Arcaro, who hung around to drink and insult Campo to whomever would listen.

At the next day's Alibi Breakfast, Acaro picked Partez to beat Pleasant Colony.

"Aw, that's just because of what happened Thursday night," Campo said. "He's an adult, but he's a kid. I embarrassed him and insulted him and he can't handle it. Arcaro's a complete ass. He wouldn't know a racehorse if you put one in front of him."

Strong words, considering that Arcaro won the Triple Crown with Whirlaway in 1941 and Citation in '48. But Arcaro also wasn't backing down. "Campo's a bad trainer," Arcaro said. "He's just gotten lucky with one decent horse."

In the Preakness, that "decent horse" gave The Fat Man gloating rights. Once again he came from off the pace, hooked Bold Ego in the stretch, and gradually drew away for a one-length victory. Partez finished fifth and Woodchopper 11th.

As pleased as he was with Pleasant Colony's victory, Campo was almost as thrilled by the demise of Partez, the colt Arcaro had picked. Along the way, Campo also had referred to Lukas, the colt's trainer, as a "nitwit."

"They oughta ship that horse back to California," Campo said. (They did, rather than try Pleasant Colony again in the Belmont.)

Wisely, ABC didn't assign Arcaro to interview Campo.

"I undressed him," Campo said. "They don't respect The Fat Man, but I don't care. Hey, I'm a great trainer. I can make a horse do anything I want. I tell the jock what to do and he better listen."

(By the way, Campo would have won the bet with Arcaro. At the time, he had 63 stakes winners; Buddy Hirsch retired with 55.)

Back at the Pimlico stakes barn, Campo lashed out at columnist Dick Young of the New York Daily News, who had written about the ugly rash on Pleasant Colony's right hindquarters.

"I don't talk about your wife and kids," Campo said to Young.

"My wife didn't run in the Preakness," Young replied.

"Hey, I don't want anybody talking about my property," Campo said.

"John," Young said, "the rash is all over his ass."

"That's your opinion, Dick," Campo fired back. "Don't put me down. Ain't nobody's business what it is."

Actually, the colt's appearance was a fact, not Young's opinion.

"He's not a good-looking horse," said Jack Van Berg, trainer of runnerup Bold Ego. "I like Johnny and all that, but I gotta be truthful with you. He's not anything that you would want to look at."

"He is not going to win the halter class," said Lukas, using a show-horse term that applies to horses with good conformation. "He's lop-eared, coarse, and gangly, But he also has a good stride and a nice shoulder. The main thing is, he's the horse that gets the money."

Although Campo predicted that the Belmont Stakes would be "a piece of cake...like taking candy from a baby," he also made it clear that Pleasant Colony didn't need to win the Triple Crown to certify his ability as a trainer.

"It doesn't make any difference," Campo said. "Lucien Laurin (trainer of Secretariat) and Billy Turner (trainer of Seattle Slew) won the Triple Crown and they got fired. Hey, you know what they do with old newspapers? They throw them away. I know what kind of ability I got. That's all that matters."

But Greentree's Gaver, citing all the traffic problems that hurt his colt in both the Derby and Preakness, said he thought the Belmont might turn into Woodchopper's Ball.

"I still think I should have beaten him in Louisville," Gaver said. "And in the Preakness, considering the luck we had, I couldn't have beat a stable pony. I'll have to have one more crack at him."

At the post-position draw and breakfast the Thursday before the Belmont, Campo hammed it up with Mickey Rooney, the actor who then was starring in "Sugar Babes" on Broadway. As a kid growing up in California, Rooney worked on the track as an exercise boy. Once, he even worked out the great Seabuscuit.

"He's a Cinderella man," said Rooney, hugging Campo. "He's not only a great trainer, he's a great showman."

In the Belmont, however, the lights went out for The Fat Man.

Turning for home in the mile-and-a-half classic, Pleasant Colony had dead aim on the front-running Summing and Highland Blade. But this time, the colt didn't respond when Velasquez asked. He finished third, a length behind Highland Blade, who lost a photo finish with Summing.

"I tried my best," said Velasquez. "I rode him the same as I did in the Derby and Preakness. We don't have any excuses."

Neither did Gaver, whose Woodchopper was fourth, 11 lengths behind Pleasant Colony. Pleasant Colony, Woodchopper, and Bold Ego were the only three horses to dance all the Triple Crown dances. Bold Ego, the Preakness runner-up, was last in the 11-horse Belmont field.

Surprisingly, Campo was gracious in defeat.

"He flat got beat and that was it," Campo said. "You can't knock him for getting beat. He didn't get beat that bad. It's part of the game, that's all."

That fall, Pleasant Colony won the Woodward Stakes at Belmont, but was retired to stud after a fourth-place finish in the Marlboro Cup. He left the track with six wins, three seconds and his Belmont third to show for 14 career starts. He won the Eclipse Award given to the nation's best 3-year-old colt.

"He no look like a race horse," said Luis Barrera, training of Summing, "but he run like a race horse."

Pleasant Colony began his breeding career at Buckland Farm, and in 1998 was shifted to Lane's End Farm in Kentucky. In 2000, at age 22, he was pensioned and moved to Blue Ridge Farm.

Among his 73 stakes winners were Pleasant Tap, third in the 1990 Derby, and Pleasant Stage; European star St. Jovite; 1993 Belmont winner Colonial Affair; and recent handicap star Behrens.

The Fat Man, who never won another Triple Crown race, retired in the early 1990s after suffering a stroke.

Native Kentuckian William F. Reed has been a sports writer in various capacities for 43 years and has missed covering the Kentucky Derby a mere two times since 1966. He has been a high-profile sports writer in Kentucky for the Commonwealth's two largest daily newspapers, the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader and was a national columnist for Sports Illustrated, covering among other sports, Thoroughbred horse racing and college basketball. Reed currently pens a column for the Louisville Sports Report and covered Kentucky Derby 128 for kentuckyderby.com. He will be filing frequent installments for CDSN's (Churchill Downs Simulcasting Network) websites throughout 2003.

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