Dogwood Stable has final runner
Monday marked not only closing day at Saratoga, but the end of an era, as pioneering racing partnership Dogwood Stable, in partnership with Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, was represented by its final runner.
The stakes-placed winner Pipes, who Dogwood and Eclipse purchased last year as a juvenile, carried Dogwood’s colors to a runner-up effort in Monday’s seventh race. He was claimed for $30,000 by trainer Tom Morley for Thomas Albrecht, ending the horse’s association with the partnership.
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“The association has been the ultimate honor, and the industry owes Cot Campbell a debt of gratitude for forever changing the game for the better,” Eclipse, which merged operations with Dogwood in 2013, posted on its Twitter account in noting this final runner in partnership.
The late Cot Campbell syndicated horses for several years before officially launching Dogwood Farm in 1973. By pioneering the now-popular plan of group ownership, he opened the door for more people to participate in Thoroughbred racing at a reasonable cost. He is widely considered the originator of the modern racing partnership model, and several other groups began popping up in the years following – including Eclipse Thoroughbreds, launched in fall 2011.
Campbell died in 2018 at age 91.
Dogwood and Eclipse, which had already begun to develop a working relationship and share facilities, officially merged operations six years ago as Campbell began to scale back his work. New horse purchases were made and managed by Aron Wellman’s Eclipse, with Jack Sadler, who had served as Dogwood’s vice president for 37 years, becoming vice president of operations for Eclipse. Additionally, the group’s financial operations were streamlined under a single chief financial officer, former Dogwood treasurer Bill Victor. Both groups have had classic success, with Dogwood campaigning 1990 Preakness Stakes winner Summer Squall and 2013 Belmont Stakes winner Palace Malice, and Eclipse’s colors carried in the 2017 Belmont win of Tapwrit.