Horse Person of the Month for June: Alafia ‘Laffy’ Campbell

Happy thoughts race through her mind each time Alafia Campbell and one of her horses begin the walk toward the Woodbine paddock.

It starts with a gentle pat and a warm embrace -those moments when the diminutive groom with the big smile prepares one of the four horses under her care for race day.

“I love being able to groom my horses, but when I take them over to the frontside and they show how wonderful they are, it is the best feeling,” said Campbell. “I don’t care if it is a win, a second, third, fourth – they always try. That makes it special for me.”

Her time in the shedrow and barns began 12 years ago, not long after she came to the racetrack for the first time.

That visit was an eye-opening experience, to say the least.

“I had no connection to horse racing or horses. It was in 2013 when my stepdad at the time brought me to Woodbine. I had literally never met a horse before I came to the racetrack here.”

Fascination soon turned into curiosity, and then into the hope of finding work on the expansive backstretch.

Campbell landed her first job with highly respected horseman Danny O’Callaghan.

“It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with the horses,” she recalled. “My first year, I learned how to walk horses. By the end of the year, I wanted to groom. Danny was telling me about grooming and giving me a little background on the role. I decided I wanted to do that. When I got back the following year, Danny asked me if I was still interested in being a groom. He gave me three horses to start with.”

Campbell felt an immediate kinship with the horses under her care.

“The way I groom and love on my horses came through Danny – that’s what I saw every day from him.”

In August of 2018, she joined trainer Ron Sadler’s barn.

“He trusts you, which is great. That means a lot.”

Campbell quickly bonded with an Ontario-bred son of Old Forester.

The two were inseparable.

“He was my baby, and he had my heart. At first, he reminded me of a horse I groomed at Danny’s, Silken Thomas (also a son of Olde Forester). “They almost looked similar. Being able to groom Mambointheforest – he was so sweet, and he loved to cuddle.”

Mambointheforest also gave Campbell a treasured birthday gift.

On July 5, 2019, the dark bay gelding—winless in nine starts up to that point—took to the track in a seven-furlong turf race over the E.P. Taylor course.

Sent off at 4-1, Mambointheforest, under Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame jockey Gary Boulanger, powered home to a 2 ¾-length victory.

“I started grooming him when he was three, just before he ran for the first time. He broke his maiden on my birthday. It was the best birthday gift. I was so happy. I couldn’t stop smiling. At that time, he was still running a little green, but he put it all together today.”

And there is Ron’s Gizmo.

Trained by Sadler, the towering son of Giant Gizmo out of the Lemon Drop Kid mare Street Kid gave Campbell a different kind of gift – an early Christmas one.

The dark bay, standing well over 17 hands, recorded his first stakes win in the Steady Growth Stakes on December 15, 2024, the final card of the Woodbine season.

“I love all my horses,” said Campbell. “But Gizmo is very special. When he won the Steady Growth, that was my first stakes win. I almost cried. I was holding it back the best I could. I don’t even know how to put it in words… breathtaking. It was amazing.

“He is so nice in the barn. He is so cool.”

Campbell unabashedly adores every horse she grooms.

And it seems the feeling is mutual.

“They are all happy. When you come in the barn, they are all shaking their heads as if they are saying, ‘Good morning. Come over here because I need some attention.’”

Campbell is always happy to oblige.

“It never gets old. I could never find the right words to say how much I love being around the horses. They make me happy. My mom was telling me, ‘I guess those horses are my grandkids.’ I told her, ‘Yes, you have four of them.’ She’s very happy for me.”

When time permits, Campbell often makes her way to the main track rail early in the morning to watch her horses train for upcoming races.

“They are beautiful. If I have time to watch the horses train, I love it.”

It elicits a feeling – almost, but not quite – the same as the one she experiences whenever she walks a horse to the paddock on race day.

A moment she’s deeply grateful for.

“When we make our way over, I am always smiling. How could I not be? I am grateful to take that walk together.”

Chris Lomon, Woodbine