By Ray Paulick
The Thoroughbred industry is very good at giving out awards to people, We have the Award of Merit at the Eclipse Awards, the Jockey Club has a Gold Medal Award, the Thoroughbred Club of America has its Honor Guest, the TOBA has its Industry Service Award, Turf Publicists have a Big Sport of Turfdom Award, Turf writers have their Joe Palmer Award for meritorious service, and on and on and on.

Most of the recipients are people who have led industry organizations, own really fast horses, or written large checks to support worthy causes.

But the annual award I like the most is the one that recognizes an individual working in the trenches of this industry, doing what he or she does because of an unwavering passion for the people or the equine athletes that make this game so endearing to us. They’re not concerned about getting in the headlines, only doing their part to make the Thoroughbred racing and breeding world just a little bit better.

That award would be the Dogwood Dominion Award, inaugurated by Cot and Anne Campbell of Dogwood Stable in 1993 and presented each year during the Saratoga meeting to the “man or woman who is truly an unsung hero of the Thoroughbred racing industry.”

This year’s yet-to-be-named winner will be honored during a luncheon at the Reading Room in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on July 28. The recipient will then be recognized later that afternoon with a race named in his or her honor at Saratoga.

Past recipients, beginning with Racetrack Chaplaincy of America founder Salty Roberts in 1993, have been involved with helping backstretch employees, farm workers, or saving horses from an undignified ending to their lives, among other noble causes.

Cot Campbell described the 1994 winner, Howard “Gelo” Hall this way: “For over 50 years, at practically every major track east of the Mississippi River, Gelo Hall has spread unadulterated goodness.”

That is a very nice legacy.

But the Dominion Award reaches beyond Dogwood’s primary East Coast base. Winners have come from California, Michigan, Florida and Kentucky, among other states, and have been involved at the racetrack, farms, or Thoroughbred rescue operations.

Click here for the list of past winners.

Each winner receives a bronze statue of Dominion, a racehorse that carried Dogwood’s green and yellow colors in the 1970s before returning to his native England, where he became leading sire. He died in 1993, and his blue-collar and fiery competitive nature inspired Campbell to create the award in his honor.

“There are so many people who don’t get recognition,” Campbell said. “You see a photo of stakes winners being led into the winner’s circle, and the owner, the trainer, and the jockey are recognized, but no one ever identifies who the groom is. No one knows who the horse’s best friend is. We just felt there was a need and a niche to recognize some of those people who never do get any recognition.”

Campbell said the judges who have done the thankless work going over piles of nominations deserve credit, too. His wife, Anne, has been a member of the panel selecting the winners from the outset, joined at first by Hall of Famers Mack Miller and Pat Day; then by Secretariat’s owner, Penny Chenery and Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey; and currently by champion trainer Todd Pletcher and multiple Eclipse Award-winning writer Jay Hovdey. “They put in a lot of time and effort,” he said.

Along with the bronze statue, each winner receives $5,000.

“Every one of them has put the money back into the work they are doing,” Campbell said. “None of them took a trip to the Bahamas or anything. Salty took his money and went to England to try and establish a racetrack chaplaincy over there. The horse rescue people put their money into that, which they were desperately in need of.”

This will be the 18th year the award will be given out, and Campbell said there is no shortage of worthy recipients.

“We haven’t run out of candidates,” he said. “We got more this year than in the past four or five years—27 were nominated by different folks. In some cases there 10 or more letters sent on behalf of one someone.”

Each nominee is recognized with a scroll suitable for framing.

“It’s a big deal for winners,” he said. “They bring their families, at their expense, and it’s a very moving thing at the luncheon. Invariably the winner cries and half the audience does, too. Sometimes it’s very difficult for me to explain in a few words what made this person so special, but it’s worth it. It’s a good way to get people grounded.”

Copyright © 2010, Blenheim Publishing, LLC

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Tags: cot campbell, Dominion Award, Gold Medal Award, Good News Friday, Jockey Club, liberation farm, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, TOBA, Turf Publicists

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