By Dave Dyer

Staff Writer

Scarborough Downs driver Drew Campbell is a busy man. 

Campbell estimates that he races more than 1,700 times a year, driving horses throughout New England in such places as Bangor Racetrack, Rockingham Park in Salem, N.H., as well as Scarborough Downs.

“It’s hectic. It just burns you out. I love the pressure, but I hate the stress.”

This season at Scarborough Downs Campbell has enjoyed success, winning 104 races this year, and is the number one ranked driver in the 2009 Scarborough Downs driver standings. He has also finished in first or second place in 206 races, more than half of the 407 races he’s participated in this year.

Campbell, 42, says experience has been the key to his winning ways.

“People can read all the books they want, you can’t beat experience,” Campbell said.

A third-generation horseman, Campbell began his racing career in 1989. He said his father, Winston Calvin “Soupie” Campbell was not overly excited about his son’s decision to be a driver. 

“Luckily, he made me pay attention,” Campbell said. “He didn’t want me to get too cocky.”

Born in Lewiston, Campbell spent his school years in the central Maine town of Greene. After school he moved to Nova Scotia for 15 years before moving back to the United States.

Campbell said he returned to Maine while he was racing in Florida to help at his father’s horse stable at Scarborough Downs after Winston Campbell was diagnosed with colon cancer. Winston Campbell died in 2003 at the age of 62, and Drew Campbell took over the stable in his place.

Today, Campbell owns and races seven horses, but races horses for other owners and trainers as well.

“The first question I ask is, ‘How is the horse around the starting gate?’ Campbell said. “Can the horse leave [the starting gate]? It’s very important knowledge to have.”

Since he has much experience racing different horses, Campbell said it helps him on the track, as many of the horses he races against are horses he has at one point or another ridden.

“I just know all the horses around me well enough,” Campbell said. “I’ve probably driven 70 percent of all the horses in New England.”

Campbell said a horse trainer receives five percent of the “purse” or winnings from a race. He said drivers also make five percent, but some owners will add an additional five percent “kick back” to lure the driver to work for them again.”

“If you overpay me, I’m going to drive for you,” Campbell said.

Campbell said he thinks of many strategies when racing.

“If there’s eight horses, there are seven other drivers,” Campbell said. “It’s like any other sport, you have to know what’s going to happen next. When I look at a program, I almost study the program as a handicapper. Who’s going to make the first move?”

“Driving horses is a lot like playing golf,” he said. “If you do it all the time, you stay sharp.”

A typical day starts at his computer, where he studies which horses will be running future races at area tracks. He then takes his horses out for a morning jog before leaving for Bangor or Rockingham Park to race. Campbell said his assistant Sarah Ferneld helps take care of his horses at his stable at Scarborough Downs while he is away racing at other tracks.

Campbell said he has at least another 10 years of driving left in him before he retires.

“Eventually I’ll teach some young buck [how to drive] and train my own horses,” Campbell said. “But I really think I’m at my peak.”

Staff writer Dave Dyer can be reached at 282-4337 ext. 219