Stonehedge Farm South owner Gilbert Campbell dies at 91

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Posted September 27, 2021 | By Summer Best, Special to the Ocala Gazette

Gilbert G. Campbell, a longtime thoroughbred breeder and Ocala farm owner, died on Sept. 16, after a brief illness. He was 91.

Campbell and his wife, Marilyn, established the 500-acre Stonehedge Farm South near Williston in the late 1980s.

They built it into a recognized thoroughbred operation, whose runners won nearly $20 million in purses.

“He was quite a guy,” said Larry King, Stonehedge Farm South’s manager, who has worked for Campbell for 33 years. “He and his wife would come down to the farm, and he would get so excited. He’d say, ‘Let’s hurry up and get these horses out there!'”

King said Campbell and his wife, Marilyn, watched every race and followed their horses closely throughout their careers.

“I sure do miss him,” King said. “I sure wish I could have him back.”

Campbell was a past president of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association. In 1997, 2013 and 2016, Stonehedge Farm South was named Florida Breeder of the Year. The farm averages about 150 horses between its breeding and training operations, and the farm was often ranked among the top 100 programs in North America by wins. Stonehedge races most of its horses on Florida tracks.

Brent and Crystal Fernung, owners of Journeyman Stud in Ocala, are co-owners with Campbell on Florida’s leading sire, Khozan, and another stallion named St. Patrick’s Day, the full brother to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. Fernung, also a past president of FTBOA, first met Campbell in 1978 while a groom at the then-Lasater Farm.

“He was quite accomplished,” Fernung said. “Gil was just a good man. They say he treated everyone the same, whether you are the janitor or royalty, and I can attest to that. When I was a groom, he treated me just as well as anyone else.

“He was old school. Gil’s outfit (farm) is one of the few left that races their own stock and has been successful at it,” Fernung continued. “He’d get excited about all of them. Khozan had success right away, and I’d call them after races. And they were right on top of it, having seen it all.”

Campbell was a builder by trade, constructing more than 1,500 houses, 3,000 apartments, and multiple commercial projects, including a hotel and restaurant. In 1959, one of Campbell’s model homes was part of the U.S. State Department’s exhibit in Moscow for the American National Exhibition to showcase American technology. In the 1960s, he was named New England Builder of the Year. He was an original co-owner of the Lowell Lock Monsters professional hockey team in Lowell, Massachusetts.

He was a past president of the Massachusetts Home Builders Association and a lifetime director and former vice president of the National Home Builders Association.

In 2002, Campbell was elected to the Northeast Builders Hall of Fame.

“I was blessed to be befriended by Gil and Marilyn upon my arrival to Florida years ago,” said Lonny Powell, FTBOA CEO and executive vice president. “Gil had so much life and passion for our thoroughbred industry and was not afraid to let his thoughts and opinions be known in his classy and humble ways. He was a larger-than-life human in every way and was a huge player on the Florida and national racing scene. He will be missed greatly.”

Survivors include wife, Marilyn; son, Gary Campbell; daughter, Susan F. Campbell; five grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.