Ross Campbell was born on October 23, 1962, the son of National Hunt jockey Eric Campbell. He served a six-month apprenticeship with Barnstaple trainer John Hill, then joined Denys Smith for 18 months, finishing with one year at Chris Thornton’s stable.
He rode his first winner on the Ryan Jarvis-trained Futan in a Pontefract apprentices’ race on October 15, 1979. He rode 14 winners on the Flat the following year, the highlight being his victory on Denys Smith’s Hedge School in the H Geary Ltd Sprint Trophy Handicap at Catterick on June 7, 1980. However, the best horse he rode was John Spearing’s multiple winner On Edge (right), on whom Ross won a one-mile handicap at what was to prove Stockton’s penultimate meeting on June 2, 1981.
He then graduated to riding over jumps, partnering a dozen winners in that sphere during the 1983/84 campaign. The best horse he rode that season – the best he rode during his career over jumps – was Brian Swift’s juvenile hurdler Emlyn Princess, on whom Ross won four in a row between September and November 1983, at Fontwell, Cheltenham, Newbury and culminating in Sandown’s Toll House Hurdle on November 5.
Ross continued as a jump jockey for the next decade, scoring 11 wins in the 1993/94 season, riding mostly for his trainer brother Ian Campbell. Among their most prolific winners was Reggae Beat, on whom Ross won two early season hurdle races at Market Rasen in August 1988 and later that season scored at Fakenham on Easter Monday. Ross went on to win four more races on him, two over hurdles and two novice chases.
His career was ended by a first fence fall from Reggae Beat, trained by his brother Ian, in a handicap chase at Huntingdon, on Boxing Day 1994, in which he broke and dislocated his right shoulder. Despite intensive treatment over the course of the next seven months, including a week-long visit to the Lilleshall rehabilitation centre, the injury failed to heal and doctors could not predict how much longer recovery would take. Furthermore, he was warned that another fall on the right side of his body could cause severe disability.
Thus, in August 1995 Ross announced his retirement from the saddle on medical advice, bringing to an end a 16-year riding career that had produced 90 winners, 19 of which were achieved on the Flat.
