Cot Campbell has the unmistakable appearance of a man who fully appreciates the power of good luck, a trait that’s served him well in the risky business of horse racing. The exuberant 84-year-old founder of Dogwood Stable in Aiken recently received the sport’s ultimate honor: The Eclipse Award of Merit. The citation recognizes outstanding lifetime achievement in the thoroughbred industry, and it’s an exclusive club. Campbell is just the 29th winner.
“One of the joys of reaching what’s euphemistically known as ‘the golden years’ is that if you’ve behaved yourself, a lot of good things will come your way,” he says, “And a lot of good things have come my way.” The only child of a charismatic father who “was always on top of the world or always broke,” Campbell shared his father’s passion for the ponies. By the mid-1960s, flush with success from a career in advertising, he was able to fulfill a lifelong ambition to own a racehorse. He then hatched a plan that would democratize the sport: create a group of investors, form a partnership and share the risk and rewards the horse might bring. Today, more than 60 percent of race horses are owned through syndicated agreements.
“I had stumbled into a good idea,” he says, “but I had sense enough to know it.”
Campbell has just entered a phase he calls semi-retirement, but he still visits the stable regularly, and he still loves the big races. There remains one final, highly elusive goal he aches to achieve: winning the Kentucky Derby.
“The Derby is the brass ring we’re all chasing,” Campbell says with a huge grin. “And I won’t stop chasing that one until I’m gone.”
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Cot Campbell
AGE: 84
HOMETOWN: Aiken
CLAIM TO FAME: Transformed the sport of horse racing with the idea of syndicated ownership.
MEMORABLE MOMENT: One of his horses, Summer Squall, finished second in the 1990 Kentucky Derby. “For about 20 seconds, I thought we had it."