.jpg)
Boxofchocolates, a horse no one wanted as a youngster, was the toast of harness racing at the 1500th meeting at Lord’s Raceway, Bendigo last Friday night when she brought up her eighth win in runaway fashion.
The mare was bred and is raced by a pair of popular Bendigo-district identities, John and Kay Campbell.
“We advertised her for sale. We offered her to five people who had experience with the Union Guys, but no one was interested. Eventually Kent Harpley decided he would give her a go,” John said.
Boxofchocolates, who belongs to the same family as the champion filly Copper Satin, did not start racing until she was five years old.
“She was a big, strong mare who had a bit of an attitude,” Campbell said. “She still has a bit of get up and go in her.”
Boxofchocolates won at her first six appearances, including a blazing 1:51.5 success at Melton.
The Campbell family has had a lifelong involvement with harness racing in Victoria.
John’s father Jack Campbell first established Loddon Valley Stud at Durham Ox in 1950 when he imported Noble Scott from New Zealand.
“I started by helping my father serve mares with Dale Spring in the mid-1960s,” he said.
The farm has since played host to some of the country’s most successful stallions, including Exotic Earl, Muckalee Strike, Echelon, Motorcycle, Spare Hand and Stonebridge Regal and the trotters Classic Adam, Jeb Hanover and Im Stately.
“We stood the first ever shuttle stallion in Australia in Sandman Hanover and were the first to use frozen semen from Europe with the trotter Anders Crown,” John stated.
Among the hundreds of winners bred and raised at Loddon Valley Stud have been the dual NZ Cup winner Flashing Red, the Australian Pacing Gold winner Exotic Strike, the Oaks winner Please Don’t Tease, a top-flight juvenile in Turbo Tyson and the Cups-winning trotter Rockin Dale.
John remains actively involved in the sport as president of the Boort Trotting Club, a committee member of Harness Breeders Victoria, the Victorian Square Trotters Association and Trots Clubs Victoria and is a Victorian representative on the Australasian Standardbred Breeders Association.
“We like the horses and the people in the sport,” he said.
