John B. Campbell Handicap

The John B. Campbell Handicap is an American thoroughbred horse race run annually at Laurel Park Racecourse, in Laurel, Maryland, United States. Run in mid-February, it is open to horses age three and older and is contested on dirt over a distance of $1 1/8$ miles (9 furlongs). The purse is $100,000.

Honoree and inaugural
The race was named for John Blanks Campbell, an internationally noted racing secretary and the handicapper who set the annual Experimental Free Handicap weights, who died at age 77 on July 7, 1954. The inaugural edition of the John B. Campbell race was run on December 4, 1954, as the John B. Campbell Memorial Handicap at Bowie Race Track.

After the inaugural running, the race was set for the spring of each year beginning in 1955. From 1986 until 2001, it was held at Pimlico Race Course, in Baltimore, and was raced at a distance of $1 1/8$ miles.

In his book Legacies of the Turf, prominent racing historian Edward L. Bowen says that at one time the John B. Campbell Handicap was a race of national importance. During the mid-1950s and 1960s the race was won by outstanding horses such as Sailor, Dedicate, Mongo, and the great U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee, Kelso.

Records
Speed record: 
 * $1 3/16$ miles – 2:01.80 – Manzotti
 * $1 1/4$ miles – 1:40.00 – In Reality (1968)
 * $1 1/16$ miles – 1:47.35 – Redding Colliery (2010)

Most wins by an horse:
 * 3 – Sunny Sunrise     (1992, 1993 & 1996)

Most wins by a jockey:
 * 3 – Rick Wilson   (1993, 1998 & 1999)

Most wins by a trainer:
 * 4 – Richard W. Small   (1976, 1987, 1998, 2009)

Winners of the John B. Campbell Handicap since 1962
A * designates that the race was run in two divisions in 1972 and 1973.
 * † In 2001, Top Official won but was disqualified to third.

Earlier winners

 * 1962 – Yorktown    (Jimmy Nichols)
 * 1961 – Conestoga    (Roy L. Gilbert)
 * 1960 – Yes You Will    (Larry Adams)
 * 1959 – Vertex    (Sam Boulmetis Sr.)
 * 1958 – Promised Land    (Ismael Valenzuela)
 * 1957 – Dedicate   (William Boland)
 * 1956 – Sailor    (Bill Hartack)
 * 1955 – Social Outcast    (Eric Guerin)
 * 1954 – Joe Jones    (Conn McCreary)