In a Family Way
His climb up the greasy pole of steeplechase management was swift. Mason Hardaway Lampton inherited stewardship of the Callaway Gardens meet when he took the reins in 2016.
Join the race week conversation with one of the sport's youngest execs.
When the flag falls in the first at Saturday’s Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens near Columbus, Georgia, it represents more than just the start of a race. The backstory behind the National Steeplechase Association’s most southerly meet enfolds three equestrian dynasties, three of the nation’s premier hunt clubs and three of the jump circuit’s top-rated events.
By Betsy Burke Parker
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Mason Hardaway Lampton has a gentle manner, wears dark-rimmed glasses and speaks with the slight drawl of his Georgia upbringing.
He's the kind of man who can laugh aloud without irony - unabashed, all teeth. In short, he doesn't look - or act - like your typical steeplechase superhero. But given Lampton's bloodlines, the strong support he's curated for the Callaway races, and his innovative thoughts on how to drag the sport into the 21st century, he might just be it.
Race chair for Saturday’s
Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens near Columbus, Georgia, the 46-year-old Lampton is thrilled with an overflowing
entry box for the 35
th annual races. It’s been a struggle for the National Steeplechase Association’s most southerly meet, often sharing their late-season date with other meets, and always contending with a long-distance haul for most of steeplechase horsemen, these days chiefly based in the mid-Atlantic region.
Lampton says Callaway hit it just right this year, with no tussle for the thin-stretched horse and jockey pools. They retained longtime race sponsors, and gained new ones. A new race division breathed life into the sport, with lots of entries and lots of money for the Nov. 9 meet.
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Names’ the same
This story features many similar names. Current race chair for the Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens, Mason Hardaway Lampton is son of meet founder Mason Houghland Lampton.
Though their names are not identical, and, therefore, the younger Lampton is not “officially” a Junior, for the purposes of this story, we’re taking literary liberty to help the reader out.
When not obvious of which we’re speaking, we refer to the younger Lampton – Mason Hardaway Lampton, as Lampton Jr., and to his father – Mason Houghland Lampton, as Lampton Sr.
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The Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens pulls out all the stops with tailgating competitions, pony races, hat contests, Jack Russell terrier races, and stick pony races in addition to the five-race card.
M&D Images photo from The Steeplechase at Callaway in 2018
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“These are the best entries we’ve ever had. We’ve struggled since we usually had to share a date (with other meets.) This year, we’ve got the weekend to ourselves. Our (right-handed, irrigated) course looks great – we’ve gotten good weather.
“(Trainers) Todd Wyatt and Lilith Boucher give me (input) on race conditions all the time. They suggested a 4-year-old race this year. There was a 4-year-old race at Far Hills that filled real well, and we’re three weeks later. It gives those horses a place to go, (and) we put a $30,000 purse, and it drew excellent entries.”
Lampton’s father, Mason Houghland Lampton, established the Callaway meet in 1984, the first NSA meet in the Columbus area. “We’ve got great sponsors – the Amos family are huge supporters, they’re a foxhunting family," says Lampton Jr. "Georgia Crown, and this year we’ve got
Southern Living magazine.
“I mean, we promote this as a fun family day, but like 10,000 people come to watch in person. With Southern Living, we’re reaching an audience of a million (for our sponsors.) That’s a big reach. Their editor Sid Evans came as our guest, and he called it ‘the greatest sport that we know nothing about.’ I mean, in the south, in the fall, you’ve got two choices – stay home or go to a football tailgate. The magazine
helped us articulate our message – the sporting lifestyle.”
Lampton took time out from busy race week preparations to trace the long and winding road that led him from his pony club days to managing one of the south’s premier social events, and the sporting pedigree behind three of steeplechasing’s past, and present, headliners. His father, Mason Houghland Lampton, joined the conversation to add to the story.
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Mason Hardaway Lampton on his “crazy” family history:
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‘So, my great-grandfather Mason Houghland, crazy story, true story. He organized the first
Iroquois (Steeplechase in Nashville.) So, my grandfather Dinwiddie Lampton Jr. won it on Mason Houghland’s horse, Rockmayne.
After the race, they all went back to (Houghland’s Bright Hour Farm, just outside toney Brentwood, Tennessee.)
That very night, Dinwiddie Lampton proposed to (who became my) grandmother – Nancy Houghland.’
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Mason Houghland helped establish Tennessee’s
Hillsboro Hounds in 1932, and he quite literally wrote the book on the subject: his “
Gone Away” remains a staple of the discriminating sporting library.
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Nancy Houghland was the sister of longtime Iroquois race chair, the late Calvin Houghland.
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Dinwiddie Lampton Jr. and son Mason Houghland Lampton organized the Hardscuffle Steeplechase near Louisville in 1974.
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Mason Houghland Lampton founded the Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens when he moved to Columbus, Georgia to take over a family business in the early 1980s.
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Mason Houghland Lampton and son Mason Hardaway Lampton are joint-masters of the
Midland Foxhounds.
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Ben Hardaway was Midland master and huntsman when the pack became recognized in 1961. He hunted the hounds through 1994 when son-in-law Lampton Sr. took the horn. Lampton Jr. came on as joint-master in 2007, 10 years before his grandfather Hardaway died in 2017.
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Lampton Jr.’s uncle, Dinwiddie Lampton III – “Bubba” – is joint-master of Kentucky’s
Long Run Hounds.
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Midland Fox Hounds Opening meet 2018: Left to right is Mason H. Lampton, Lulie Lampton, Lucile Cogswell, Eliza Lampton (white pony face blocked), Mason Hardaway Lampton, Mary Lu Lampton, Whit Lampton, Kate Lampton, Henry Lampton, Meade Cogswell, Mason Cogswell. Incredible to see all the generations hunting together.
Photo courtesy of Mason Hardaway Lampton.
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Mason Hardaway Lampton on the call that changed it all:
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I’ve got Eben Sutton to thank for fueling my passion for steeplechasing.
I was at Episcopal in Washington D.C. I grew up riding, hunting with my grandfather Ben Hardaway and his world-famous Midland hounds. They were Crossbreds from the “July” lines.
I rode with
Midland Pony Club, and I liked eventing. My aunt, Ann Hardaway Sutton (now Taylor), was an upper level event rider.
Eben had horses in training (with) Dot Smithwick at Sunnybank Farm, an hour west of Washington. Eben called me one weekend. He said “hey, you’re coming out to Middleburg this weekend. It’ll be fun.”
I had a blast.
I ended up having so much fun, I asked to come back for the summer. My mom was like, “what?,” but she let me. I helped them bale hay, rode the hunters, galloped with Speedy (Smithwick, who was training from the farm.) I fell in love with the sport.
I didn’t really ride while I did my undergrad at Duke (BA in English) and my MBA at Tulane, but soon as I got out in 1998, I came back and spent the summer with Dot at Sunnybank. I told her I wanted her to find me a horse for me to ride in the Virginia point-to-points. She told me that was a terrible idea. But everything was a terrible idea to Dot Smithwick.
She knew I was serious.
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The 2004 Maryland Hunt Cup at the third fence. Lampton, Jr. (number 5) riding Ivorgorian, owned by Benjamin H. Hardaway, III and trained by Dot Smithwick. Lampton, Jr. was unseated at the 16th fence. We're pretty sure that's Rosbrian Farm's Rosbrian, with Gordon Elliott up, jumping behind.
Douglas Lees photo
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Smithwick found just the right horse, Waukey, from amateur owner-rider Henry Wood. Together, Lampton Jr. and Waukey won their first five in a row, earning the Virginia Point-to-Point Association foxhunters timber title. He got a second horse, Ivorgorian, from Jack Fisher the next year.
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NSA briefly offered a foxhunters timber division of their own, Lampton Jr. and Ivorgorian winning series races at My Lady’s Manor, Middleburg Spring and at Callaway.
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Lampton won 15 of some 70 starts. He retired after the 2005 season, citing family responsibilities and weight issues as ‘time to quit.’
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Mason Hardaway Lampton – By the numbers
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Age:
46
Education: Episcopal High School, Washington, D.C.; B.A. in English, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; MBA, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana
Titles:
- Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens race chairman
- CEO Standard Concrete Products, a multi-million dollar regional precast concrete fabricator
- Joint-master Midland Foxhounds
- Husband and father of five (Whit, 16, Henry, 14, Julie, 12, and twins Kate and Eliza, 10)
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Charitable contributions:
$4 million raised (from 34 runnings of the Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens) for five arts foundations – Historic Columbus Foundation, Columbus Museum, Springer Opera House, RiverCenter for the Performing Arts), Columbus Symphony Orchestra
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Each year, the Steeplechase at Callaway hosts an Art Contest, open to all school age children in the area. In addition to displaying their art work in the gorgeous Columbus Museum, there are cash prizes awarded at a reception held at the Museum.
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Mason Houghland Lampton on the first Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens:
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I was chairman of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce. I wanted to do something significant.
I had to tell everybody down there, “We’re going to have a steeplechase,” and they said, “What?”
They didn’t have a clue what I was talking about.
It worked out really well, (but) it rained so terrible the first year, it was just a sea of mud.
Anybody who was there, all they can remember is mud. All the ladies lost their shoes. It just came together and stuck. It’s been a little labor of love.
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Mason Houghland Lampton, Callaway chairman emeritus, on the family dynamic:
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I was named after my grandfather, Mason Houghland. He was a dynamic fellow who started his own chain of gas stations across the South (the aptly-named Spur Oil.)
As I look back over my 72 years, foxhunting and steeplechasing have been my passion. I rode in the Iroquois, and raced for 14 years. This gave me a window on how race meets were run.
After I graduated from Vanderbilt, I joined the army, and (that) led me to great hunting and the sweetest lady. Love stepped in and I married Mary Lu Hardaway. Her father was a great foxhunter who became my mentor.
(My son) Mason has been an amazing addition as he took the reins to manage the (Callaway) meet starting in 2016. Mase has great people skills.
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Generations of foxhunters: Lampton, Sr. enjoys the hunt brunch after hunting with his three grandchildren, Henry, Kate, and Eliza Lampton. Photo courtesy of Lampton, Jr.
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Standard Concrete Products – What is it?
Whenever you drive across a highway bridge in the southeast, there’s a chance Mason Hardaway Lampton had a hand in it.
His family’s Standard Concrete Products has provided precast concrete fabrications for decades, winning dozens of design awards.
Like the family’s long lineage in horse racing and foxhunting, the roots of the family tree run deep in the specialty business.
Standard Concrete traces to the 1890s when B.H. Hardaway Sr. started the Hardaway Contracting Company. In 1997, Mason Houghland Lampton, Ben Hardaway III’s son-in-law purchased the Hardaway Company’s Tampa Prestress Yard.
Plants are located in Savannah, Atlanta and Tampa, with corporate headquarters in Columbus.
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Mason Hardaway Lampton on strategizing steeplechase:
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I think we just need to get our game on. Look at the (regulatory and organizational) hurdles you have to overcome to start a new meet – they are vast.
But the thing I am most excited about in steeplechasing is the reconstruction project at Fair Hill (Maryland’s training center, steeplechase track and eventing infrastructure.)
I hope it becomes the Cheltenham (England – home to one of Britain’s top racecourses) of America. Maybe multiple days of racing, the sort of atmosphere that really draws a crowd. This would be a way to offer sponsors a real payback on their investment. Maybe a weeklong festival, maybe in November. Not in summer when the ground is hard, and it’s hard on the horses.
Promote it as a really fun event, a must-attend thing.
Everything we’re doing as a sport should try and get that off the ground.
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Turf installation is almost complete on the new Fair Hill track. The pump house for irrigation is being installed. Fence post installation around all three arenas is complete and the footing installation has commenced. Fence posts are also being installed for the rail of the race track as well as for crowd barriers. Trees and shrubs will be going in shortly.
The entire project is scheduled to be wrapped up by the end of 2019 and will include three arenas in the infield; a new irrigated turf track with safety upgrades - wider, more sweeping turns and all new turf; and a new CCI5* cross country course. Steve Horah photo courtesy of the
Fair Hill Foundation
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But it’s also all about accessibility. I really think that steeplechasing needs to have varying levels of the sport, so everyone can compete where they’re at.
Sure, Far Hills and Virginia Gold Cup, goals that people go for. Maryland Hunt Cup.
But at the lower end, kids that are good enough riders need to see they can do it.
And what’s the mechanism to teach someone to do it, if you don’t happen to live in (northeast) Maryland or (southeast) Pennsylvania or (northern) Virginia? There are thousands of kids learning eventing. Tap that. “You like cross-country? I bet you’d like steeplechasing.”
The pony races are the easiest sell when we’re making out race card – they totally resonate with the crowd, totally relatable. Anyone could watch it race and think, “heck, we could do that. Even with our fattest, slowest pony, we could do that.” All the kids get cheered, even the last place kid gets cheered.
I think that what Regina Welsh is doing, making the
pony races happen – on so many levels, and literally taking kids from other sports, is what it’s going to take.
She’s remarkable. What she’s doing is remarkable. A statue should be built in her honor. Seriously.
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Pony riders at the 2018 Steeplechase at Callaway. M&D Images photo.
Pony riders and Young Riders will have another opportunity to race in 2019, with a Pony Race, a Field Masters Chase, and a Young Rider Flat Race
on the card
for Saturday's races in Georgia.
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