CAMPBELL SETS SIGHTS ON JUG AND UNIQUE TRIPLE CROWN SWEEP

Golf has the Tiger Slam. Harness racing might end up with the Campbell Crown.

John Campbell has accomplished just about everything possible for a driver. He is the sport's all-time money-winner with $224 million in purses. He holds the record for the most wins in the Meadowlands Pace (7), North America Cup (6), Hambletonian (5) and Breeders Crown series (40). He has won every Triple Crown race in each pacing and trotting, a total of 28, in fact. But he has never swept the Triple Crown races in the same year.

Now, Campbell is in the position to do just that -- sweep the pacing Crown's Cane Pace, Messenger and Little Brown Jug. Yet even if he does so, he will not have guided a horse to the Triple Crown. He drove Western Terror to a dead-heat win with Timesareachanging in the Cane, then returned to his regular drive aboard Metropolitan -- who failed to advance to the Cane Pace final -- to win the Messenger. He will be behind Metropolitan once again Thursday afternoon in the $571,500 Little Brown Jug at the Delaware County Fair in Ohio.

No driver in either the pacing or trotting Triple Crown has won all three of the series' races in a single year, but done so by driving at least two different horses. But if there can be a Tiger Slam for Tiger Woods owning all four of golf's majors at the same time, yet not in the same calendar year, why can't there be a Campbell Crown?

"I guess you could call it that," Campbell said with a laugh. "But it's more of an oddity than anything else. For a Triple Crown the horse has to do it. I wouldn't consider it [a Triple Crown] it would just be kind of an oddity."

Whatever it's called, Campbell will certainly have his work cut out for him after Metropolitan drew the far outside, the No. 8 post, in his Little Brown Jug opening heat, the second of three eight-horse divisions. That division also includes favorite Timesareachanging, who won the Adios -- also contested in heats -- and was second in the Meadowlands Pace and Messenger.

"He's up against it with the eight hole," said Campbell, who has won the Little Brown Jug three times, most recently with Nick's Fantasy in 1995. "He's in good form, but he's going to have to catch some kind of a break that would be considered good luck. Stranger things have happened. Depending on what happens at the start I'll want to try to leave with him, but I'm sure there are going to be two or three other horses inside of me who will want to do the same thing."

Metropolitan seemed to have put his bad luck in draws behind him when he got the rail for the Messenger, which he won in 1:52.2, a track record at Harrington for three-year-old pacers. His starting spots in other major races this year have been post 11 in the Hoosier Cup, post eight in the North America Cup, post 10 in the Meadowlands Pace and post eight in the Oliver Wendell Holmes. In addition, Metropolitan started from post seven in his Adios elimination race and post 10 in the Cane Pace elims.

Twenty-four horses entered the Little Brown Jug, which requires a horse to win two heats to be declared the winner. The top three finishers in each of the first-heat divisions will return for the second heat. If a first-heat winner fails to win the second heat, then the second heat victor will join the three first-heat winners in a race-off.

Western Terror is the favorite in the opening division of first heats and Blissed Out is the favorite in the third division.

Campbell will not have the luxury of simply qualifying for the second heat by finishing among the top three in his division if he hopes to claim the Jug with Metropolitan; winning the first heat is practically essential. The last horse that failed to win his first heat but still won the Jug was Nansemond, driven by Herve Filion, in 1971. Nansemond was second in his opening heat, won the second and then beat Albatross and HT Luca in a race-off. It is the only time it has happened since 1961.

"It's huge to win that first heat," Campbell said. "You have to pull out all the stop and can't worry about getting qualified and expect to win. It's just unrealistic to think that way. You have the three [first heat] winners draw inside of you, plus a third-place finisher in the nine hole, so you're giving up four good posts right there. If you give up that kind of advantage to speed horses in the second heat it's virtually impossible to win."

Blissed Out burst onto the Jug scene when he won a Simcoe division in a track record 1:48.4 at Mohawk on September 11. It was his first and only start for trainer Richard Banca, who had bought the colt for $75,000 from Bob Burgess and Karin Olsson-Burgess, then sold him for $250,000 to Tony Chiaravalle after the Simcoe. Banca still trains Blissed Out, who has won seven of 23 starts and earned $131,950 this year.

"I changed his shoes, changed some equipment," Banca said. "He had been wearing bar shoes up front and I changed him to all four aluminum. He had a Kant-See-Bak bridle and I changed him to a hood with cups. I'll probably train him on Monday and he'll leave [Toronto] on Monday afternoon."

Another colt entering the Jug on a roll is Santastic's Pan, trained and co-owned by Dan Altmeyer. Santastic's Pan, who is in the third division with Blissed Out and Meadowlands Pace winner Holborn Hanover, established the world record for three-year-old colt pacers on a five-eighths of a mile track when he won in 1:49.3 at the Meadows in a Pennsylvania Sire Stakes event September 4. He won his Jug Preview division at Scioto Downs a week later.

"He's gotten pretty good the last couple weeks," Altmeyer said. "We put him on Lasix on Adios Day (Aug. 14) because we found he was bleeding in his previous start. That seems to have picked him up pretty good. He's a very game horse. He's an incredible horse as far as durability and guts. He's done more than I expected him to."

The field for the $571,500 Little Brown Jug at the Delaware County Fair by first-heat divisions in post-position order with listed drivers and morning line odds:

First division:

• Finnegan Hanover, Brian Zendt, 15-1;
  
• Capt Silverheels, David Miller, 12-1;
  
• Maltese Artist, David Miller, 5-2;
  
• Western Terror, Brian Sears, 2-1;
  
• Western Prince, Yannick Gingras, 10-1;
  
• Rare Jewel, Luc Ouellette, 6-1;
  
• Driven To Win, David Miller, 8-1;
  
• Up Front Brad, Dave Palone, 4-1.

Second division:

• Four Starzzz King, Mike Lachance, 7-2;
  
• Yankee Lariat, Jack Moiseyev, 10-1;
  
• Sparkler, Paul MacDonell, 6-1;
  
• Timesareachanging, Ron Pierce, 2-1;
  
• Rogue Hall, Paul MacDonell, 8-1;
  
• Harry Hornet, George Brennan, 12-1;
  
• Armbro Baylor, Brian Sears, 15-1;
  
• Metropolitan, John Campbell, 4-1.

Third division:

• Blissed Out, Luc Ouellette, 9-5;
  
• Town Champion, Richard Silverman, 12-1;
  
• The Preacher Pan, Daniel Dube, 5-1;
  
• Kafka Hanover, Steve Smith, 8-1;
  
• Santastic's Pan, Mike Wilder, 3-1;
  
• You Rock, Brian Zendt, 10-1;
  
• Crombes Last Laugh, Luc Ouellette, 15-1;
  
• Holborn Hanover, George Brennan, 7-2.