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By Betsy Burke Parker

Since 1985, Mason Lampton has hosted the Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens just outside Columbus, Georgia, introducing an area more focused on NASCAR to a type of horsepower they'd never seen.

But for 36 years, the sport’s southwest cornerstone has given steeplechasing a southern accent, providing a November outlet for hurdle and timber horses looking for what has often been a softer spot to close out the year. At the same time, patrons are supporting the area arts and drawing attention to the world-class Callaway Gardens resort that plays host to the annual event.

A strong booster of the arts, Lampton told the Columbus newspaper that he “believes a strong cultural community improves the quality of life. It’s been proven that communities that invest in the arts reap the benefits of more job availability, (and) economic growth and a diverse group of talented people are drawn to the area. The arts play a vital role in the community, and the Hardaway and Lampton families are proud to support that effort 110 percent.”

Steeplechase at Callaway has given more than $3 million over three and a half decades.

“Even this year,” Lampton says. “What amazed me was that our regular patrons and sponsors started writing checks before we even started soliciting. They figured they’d help us get through the downturn, and at the same time, it kept our good image intact, and we’re now able to make money for our charity, and give back to the community.”

Lampton’s son, Mason Hardaway Lampton (left, ©Tod Marks) took up jump racing after business school, winning the NSA-sanctioned amateur timber race at Callaway in 2000.

He took over as race chair in 2015. Young Mason says the course looks great for Saturday. “The whole place looks beautiful,” he says. “We overseeded the (native) Bermuda grass with annual rye, and the weather this fall has really greened it up.

“We add sand to the (native) hardpack red clay, and we have a full irrigation system. It makes a huge difference. Our footing is excellent. Safe and excellent.”

The Lampton family legacy was the driving force behind Callaway. His grandfather, Mason Houghland was an avid foxhunter who founded the Hillsboro Hounds south of Nashville in 1932. Houghland wrote the classic foxhunting tome, "Gone Away." Hunting led naturally to steeplechasing; in 1941, Houghland helped establish the Iroquois Steeplechase.

Winner of the inaugural running of the Iroquois was Mason Lampton’s father, Dinwiddie Lampton, Jr.

Dinwiddie Lampton later created the Hardscuffle Steeplechase that ran at his Ohio River-side farm near Louisville, Kentucky 1974-1996.

Mason Houghland Lampton (photo ©NSA archives) carried the ’chase tradition to his adopted hometown of Columbus, Georgia when he married Georgia native Mary Lu Hardaway, daughter of legendary foxhunter Ben Hardaway, longtime master and huntsman at Midland Foxhounds.

Establishing the Callaway racecourse was pretty much a snap, with things falling into place as he started looking for a big, undeveloped parcel with easy access and other selling points.

He found just what he wanted adjacent to the already-popular Callaway Gardens resort, acres of pine forest on gently rolling land that looked prime to mold into a racecourse, spectator viewing area, permanent stabling and plenty of parking. (photo, below, courtesy of The Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens)

Lampton enlisted the help of his longtime friend and fellow amateur steeplechase jockey George Sloan and his wife Jane, a leading female jockey in her native England and in the U.S. and sister-in-law to leading English ’chase trainer Nicky Henderson.

“George came in here with his recommendations, don’t you know,” Lampton recalls. “I’d bitch, but I’d do as he said, because, between them, they really knew best.

“They liked it, liked the layout, but said it was too short at first. We figured out how to add almost a half-mile to the (right-handed) course.

“It’s carved out of a pine forest. I like the way it undulates. I really like the hills. From my own (race) riding days (1960s-’80s), I wanted to put more an emphasis on the rider.

“It’s gone well, right from the start. What we found was that people around (Columbus and the surrounding area) were interested and eager to have a big sporting event to look forward to all year. There wasn’t a big event like this before.”

From the 1985 American Steeplechasing:

The first meet ran Nov. 3, 1985. It was mostly supported by Midwest Hunt Race Association horsemen – John Griggs ran horses, as did Sloan’s trainer Frank Raquet, Mike Berryman, and Gill Johnston was training her own at the time. But some of the sport’s heavy-hitters were lured by a solid purse structure and promises from Sloan and Lampton the course was good. Jonathan Sheppard sent a van-full, Doug Fout sent a few, along with Janet Elliot and Gene Weymouth. Bert Firestone’s Statesmanship (Tom Finn up) won the first feature, a $50,000 handicap hurdle stake. (below, ©Maher/NSA archives)

Callaway got a boost at their 1987 meet in the form of the newly designed Sport of Kings Challenge. The series was created by Lampton, George Sloan and Cheltenham Racecourse executive Edward Gillespie as a way to bring English and Irish horses to America, and send American horses to England and Ireland taking part in a novice hurdle series.

“It’s absolutely correct that George Sloan’s time spent in England (vying for the) amateur title was what led to the original Sport of Kings challenge,” Lampton remembers his friend asking to bring the Callaway meet into the series. “He’d gotten the idea of international races. George came to me and asked me to host one of the U.S. races at Callaway.

“I said sure, yeah, let’s do it. It was a great way to promote our meet.”

It turned out to be true – Calvin Houghland’s Saffan (George Sloan up) topped a quality novice hurdle field, and Eclipse champion Inlander (Gregg Morris) won the handicap stake. The Sport of Kings fizzled out as an international series a few years later, though it lives on in the Sport of Kings maiden hurdle races. (photo, left, of George Sloan ©Douglas Lees)

Since, Callaway has had good years and not-so-good years, both Lamptons say, but they’ve always appreciated the support of the steeplechase community. “We’re pretty far out, I get that,” says the younger Lampton. “But we put on a good show. The course is great, and we make our races suit (the horse population.) I think it’s pretty fun that most of the amateur apprentice riders on the circuit today started out in our junior races.

“That’s fun to have them coming back this year and riding the card.” (photo, below, of pony racing at Callaway courtesy of The Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens)

Read more about Mason Lampton's experience bringing the sport of steeplechase to Columbus in this article by the Ledger-Enquirer.

In 1970, Marion duPont Scott funded and founded an international steeplechase worth $100,000, creating Camden, South Carolina’s Colonial Cup as one of the greatest American jump races. Then one of the richest jump races in the world, the inaugural Colonial Cup attracted horses from all over the world, coming to the November meeting for the money, the prestige, the lark and the lure of true international measure. American-connected top to bottom, Mrs. Ogden Phipps’ Top Bid, trained by Mike Smithwick and ridden by Joe Aitcheson, beat 21 others over the 2 3/4 miles and 17 packed-pine fences. Behind the winner came the best challengers from England, Ireland, France, Germany and Australia.

Kentucky-bred by Wheatley Stable, Top Bid wound up 1970 ’chase champion. Top Bid was half-brother to Bold Bidder, champion older male of 1966 and the sire of Spectacular Bid, Caveat and Cannonade.

George Sloan, who died in a shooting accident in 2001, won more than 100 races, including the Iroquois in 1961, 1964, 1970 and 1976. He was once all-time leading amateur steeplechase winner in the U.S., and in 1978 became the only rider to be champion both here and in England. (photo, left, of Sloan winning at Morven Park in 1994, ©Douglas Lees)

Founder of the International Steeplechase Group, Sloan hoped by linking American jump racing to England and Ireland, he could broaden the scope of the domestic game.

“I always had a dream to give steeplechase (in America) a much wider fan base and wider exposure,” Sloan told the Nashville Business Journal. “I wanted people to see it, because once they did I knew they would fall in love with it.”

With the help of Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens founder Mason Lampton and of Edward Gillespie of England’s Cheltenham Racecourse, the Sport of Kings Challenge linked novice hurdle races at the Royal Chase in Nashville, the Callaway race, a November race at Cheltenham and a December race at Leopardstown in Ireland.

Sloan, himself, played an active role in the first Challenge in 1987, one that Lampton recalls as nearly too close for comfort.

Ever the promoter, Sloan announced with bravado that any horse winning both U.S. races that first year would grab a $200,000 bonus, in addition to purse money.

Shortly before the Royal Chase at Nashville’s Percy Warner Park -- host of the spring Iroquois meet, Lampton informed Sloan that his efforts to secure an underwriter to insure the $200,000 prize had fallen through. “So if someone won both races, we were on the hook for the whole $200,000,” Lampton recalls.

From the 1987 American Steeplechasing:

Bert Firestone’s Irish-bred General Knowledge (Gregg Morris up) handily won the $100,000 Sport of Kings novice hurdle at in October, giving Sloan and Lampton a sinking feeling. "I begged George to ride my uncle Calvin's horse in the Callaway race” a month later, giving the ISG partners an extra shot at thwarting the bonus payout.

Calvin Houghland had, just weeks before the Nashville race, imported Saffan, a three-time hurdle winner in Ireland. Curiously, Saffan was Virginia-bred by Newstead Farm in Upperville, a historic breeding farm a few years later purchased by Firestone. Saffan had been sent to Britain by Firestone to race, but was brought back to the U.S. when Houghland bought him.

Saffan had floundered in the first U.S. start at the Royal Chase, ending up a dull sixth in the field of 13 that included nine foreign shippers.

Trainer Frank Raquet, who trained out of Sloan’s Panorama Farm near Franklin, understood the importance of Saffan’s effort at Callaway a month later.

Sloan understood, too, and Lampton recalls his friend riding like a man possessed.

Saffan shadowed front-runner Yaw (Ben Guessford up) then took a clear lead by the last.

“But, you coulda predicted it, that lead started oozing away down that long homestretch,” Lampton says, today laughing about something that wasn’t funny back then.

It was none other than Morris and General Knowledge pressuring Saffan to the line, but “George Sloan looked like a monkey screwing a football coming up that stretch that day,” Lampton says of Sloan's exaggerated riding style. But it worked: Saffan prevailed by a slim head.

“My father-in-law (Ben Hardaway) was laughing at me, for us being so dumb not to have insurance ahead of time,” Lampton says. “He said, ‘I’d pay 200-thou to see you sweat that much, you SOB’.”

Former Cheltenham general manager Edward Gillespie was less colorful describing the memories of the birth of the Sport of Kings, but no less enthusiastic. “It was an excellent idea that worked well to bring together racing,” Gillespie says as he thinks back on that magical time 33 years ago. “I miss (George Sloan) dearly for that power of persuasion and promotion. It was a fun project, that's for certain.”

The original name of Kentucky Downs, Dueling Grounds opened in 1990 as a world-class, pari-mutuel steeplechase course. The name came from the history of the former Sandford Duncan farm, in a slight corner of what is otherwise a perfectly straight Kentucky-Tennessee border. (photo ©NSA archives)

The farm was site of numerous duels in the 1800s: dueling was illegal in Tennessee but not in Kentucky.

Sam Houston once took part in a duel on the site.

The 1990 Dueling Grounds International offered a $750,000 purse – the richest-ever American jump race, and attracted a bonafide English superstar in the outstanding hurdle mare, Grabel. Paddy Mullins trained the British-bred Grabel (Tony Mullins and co-owned by his mother Maureen Mullins and Paddy Kehoe), who rallied from mid-pack to take the lead three fences from home. A winner of five-straight in Ireland leading up to the American raid, Grabel turned back Virginia Kraft Payson’s Uptown Swell by 2 1/4 lengths to win at 8-1. Behind them were English hurdler Nomadic Way and Cheltenham Festival winner Regal Ambition.

Dueling Grounds switched to flat-only in 1993, then underwent a tumultuous series of financial misfortunes, changes in ownership and legal battles. In 1997, the track was purchased at auction by Turfway Park, Churchill Downs and other investors. The name was changed to Kentucky Downs in an effort to remove the stigma attached to the Dueling Grounds brand under previous management.

Steeplechase returned in 2000 with a grade II hurdle stake, reverted back to flat-only, added jump racing in 2008, but now runs strictly flat races at a one-week late summer turf festival.

The facility operates as an OTB the rest of the year, drawing patrons largely from Nashville, Tennessee, a half-hour south. There’s no legal gambling in Tennessee other than their lottery. (photo, below, courtesy of Kentucky Downs)

In the field of this past Sunday's Athenian Idol flat race, making his long-awaited comeback was 2019 Eclipse Award winning steeplechaser Winston C. Unraced since the Lonesome Glory Stakes at Belmont Park in September 2019, Hudson River Farm’s champion is gearing up for a winter campaign in Europe, and was looking to stretch his legs and gain fitness. Though he finished seventh, Keri Brion, assistant to trainer Jonathan Sheppard, was thrilled with the 6-year-old’s performance.

“(We were) super happy with him,” Brion said. “Plan was to just take him back and stay on the best ground possible and let him pass some up the stretch, which he did. He got a very good blow out of it, which we wanted. His first run is Dec. 31 in Ireland, so having this run in him before shipping to Ireland will hopefully do a lot for fitness.

“It was also his first time back off lasix since he won’t be able to run on it over there, and he did not bleed, which was great. So yes, (we were) very happy with him. The plan was never to try to win or anything like that; hopefully it’s a good stepping stone for what’s next for him.”

(Tod Marks photo, above, of Winston C at the PA Hunt Cup on Sunday)

Tune into the NSA Network at nationalsteeplechase.com at 1:00 PM ET on Saturday, November 7th to watch the races live!

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