Camnation sensation
Jeff Miller found a winner when he bought Eternal Camnation for $35,000, Mike Ulmer writes
By MIKE ULMER, TORONTO SUN
THE DIVA is usually possessive of her handlers and Lori Miller makes a point of not being jealous of the star's attention toward her husband. "She tolerates people, she tolerates me," Miller said. "But she loves Jeff and that's who she wants around her. What are you going to do when your husband works for a star?
"I don't mind any female being in love with my husband -- as long as she has four legs."
And so it is with Eternal Camnation, who nudged her way into Jeff and Lori Miller's life and has turned things upside down.
It started at a yearling where Miller had his heart set on a pacer named Miracle Mile, but not enough to cough up the asking price of $85,000.
"We were looking around the sale, feeling kind of bummed out," Jeff Miller said. "As soon as I saw her, I liked her. She just had that appeal, a beautiful head, her conformation was good. She was just a little small, that's all."
LAST OF THE LINE
And so, for $35,000, Jeff Miller bought Eternal Camnation, one of the last of the line of Cam Fella sires. He has been her trainer and co-owner ever since.
With $3,991,578 in earnings, Eternal Camnation has more than doubled the old career record for a mare. A poor race Friday at the Roses Are Red elimination at Woodbine kept a lid on her earnings at just under $4 million.
She will be trucked from her home in Haviland, Ohio, next week for a go in the final at Woodbine and that fits well enough.
The Ontario-bred Cam Fella remains a platinum standard in the standardbreds and Eternal Camnation has proven herself a durable draw. There could be no better place for her to break the $4-million mark.
By now, most seven-year-olds have been moved into breeding. Miller has watched steadily for signs that her run is nearing an end but on the rare times she runs poorly, Eternal Camnation makes up for it the next time out.
While age has not slowed her, it has exacerbated her challenges. Eternal Camnation has never enjoyed muggy weather. She has become more particular about the surfaces on which she is asked to run.
"She is more apt to be affected by outside factors as a seven-year-old than she was as a four-year-old." Miller conceded. "That's really the job of the trainer, to make those outside factors as tolerable as possible."
Still, the last of her three Breeder's Crown titles came just last year. The horse won the O'Brien Award as Canada's horse of the year as well as Woodbine's choice for the 2003 horse of the year. Three times she has won the Milton Stakes.
Driven by Chicago-based Eric Ledford and, occasionally, Canadian Luc Ouellette, Camnation has won 47 of her 96 starts.
"People don't understand that horses are very much like people," Miller said. "There are some that are athletic, and some not. Some will give you everything they've got. Others won't bother. And then, once in a while, you meet one that has great athletic ability and a heart to match."
It is that heart that has beguiled Miller.
"She knows when it's time for a big race. Maybe it's the extra anxiety that's around the barn. When it's a race day, I can take her out for a walk but she doesn't want anyone else around. She's not a biter or a kicker, but on race days she's a little possessive about me."
In her dowager years, Eternal Camnation faces the best field of mares she has raced against. Arch-rival Bunny Lake came to within one fifth of a second of equalling the world record for female pacers in winning on Friday.
And yet, it seems reckless to bet against Eternal Camnation.
"It sounds silly, but I'd compare her to Lance Armstrong," Miller said. "When she's really ready to go and running good, you can't beat her."
