The superstar mare — the namesake of a stakes race at WEG — was euthanized this week in Ohio at the age of 27.

by Melissa Keith

Eternal Camnation (p, 5, 1:49.2m; $3,748,574) was euthanized at her Haviland, OH, home on Tuesday (March 5). Lifelong owner and trainer Jeff Miller tearfully confirmed the 27-year-old mare’s passing this week.

“We had to put her down,” Miller said. “She went through a spell about three weeks ago where she just didn’t look like she had any energy to get up, but she got better. I actually thought I would get up in the morning and find her passed away, but there she was, running around in her paddock.”

When the great mare recently went down again, Miller said she was unable to muster another comeback.

“I was kind of expecting her to get up again, but she just couldn’t, so we had the vet come out and euthanize her,” he said.

Eternal Camnation is the top mare and seventh overall on the all-time list of North American pacers by earnings. Her 47 wins from 101 lifetime starts led to her induction to the U.S. Harness Racing Hall of Fame (2011) and Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame (2013). The daughter of Cool World out of the very last crop of just 19 foals produced by the legendary Cam Fella. She was all the richest of all 1,002 of Cam Fella’s foals.

Eternal Camnation was bred by Lew Amo and Fred Hertrich III of All American Harnessbreds fame, purchased as a yearling by Jim Hardesty of Fort Wayne, IN and later raced for the Eternal Camnation Stable, of Ohio. Eternal Camnation was owned by the Jeff Miller Stable of Haviland, OH at the time of her death. Miller trained her throughout her stellar career.

Through the Woodbine Mohawk Park stakes race of the same name, Eternal Camnation’s memory still shines. Since 2005, the best 2-year-old pacing fillies have competed in the Eternal Camnation stakes (formerly the Harvest Stake).

Miller said Eternal Camnation had so many memorable career highlights that it was impossible to single out just one best.

“The Jugette, the Breeders Crowns, and of course, she loved Canada,” he told HRU. “Some of those races, it looks like them horses were going to devour her, and she would come back and win… She wasn’t very big, but she had a desire to win.”

The former $35,000 Harrisburg yearling, originally named Allamerican Coin, began her career on June 16, 1999, winning a Hoosier Park qualifier by 11 and a half lengths in 2:00.4. She broke her maiden there in her second start, winning for regular driver Eric Ledford on July 4. Eternal Camnation went undefeated the rest of her 2-year-old season, capturing Champlain and Harvest victories that September at Mohawk before winning her Breeders Crown elimination and final at the Campbellville, ON track.

Eternal Camnation was voted Dan Patch, O’Brien, and Nova 2-Year-Old Pacing Filly of the Year, exceeding Miller’s hopes.

“You know, she always behaved well,” Miller said. “She kind of wanted things her own way, but that’s typical for a filly anyway. Until we got down to around 2:05, she didn’t excel any more than anybody else. It’s just that wasn’t her bottom, she just kept going and going and going. Once we got her to the races, she just had a competitive nature about her. She knew what it meant to win… She liked that.”

Long retired from racing, Miller said he cherished memories of quiet one-on-one moments with Eternal Camnation on the Mohawk backstretch, where he would take her out to graze for dandelions.

“When she was a 2-year-old, she was up in Canada because the [Breeders Crown] final was at Mohawk that year, and she won,” Miller said. “Of course, everybody was back at the barn, and I had spent a lot of time with her in Canada at that time. It was just her and I, and we’d go out for walks… When the race was over, I got changed and walked back into the barn. One of the security guards stopped me on the other side of the barn and was talking to me, and you could hear her over there, whinnying for me!”

At age 3, it took Eternal Camnation three qualifiers and four consecutive pari-mutuel losses to return to winning form, which she did in the 2000 Fan Hanover Stake at Woodbine Racetrack on Aug. 19. In September, she won her Jugette heat and final for Ledford.

The best was yet to come. Eternal Camnation’s first pari-mutuel win at age 4 was May 5, 2001 at Mohawk, sweeping down the stretch to a 1:52.4 Classic Distaff victory for catch driver Randy Waples. After beating mares in a 1:49.4 Meadowlands distaff free-for-all June 23, she improbably faced male M1 free-for-allers seven days later, finishing sixth. It proved an ideal tightener for her Breeders Crown Mare Pace elimination and final at The Meadowlands, which she swept that July en route to Dan Patch and O’Brien divisional honors.

Eternal Camnation had a fighting spirit rarely matched by rivals, said Miller, who did much of the mare’s care throughout her six years on the track.

“She was a one-man horse,” he said, adding with a laugh, “I’m not saying that to pat myself on the back, but she loved me and she just put up with everybody else. My wife would tell you that. It was a special bond.”

Returning at age 5, the New Jersey-bred champion made 21 starts against some of the all-time toughest female pacers. On the road with stablemate Cinder Best, “Cammie” recorded her first 2002 win on June 14 at The Meadowlands, holding off Cathedra Dot Com in a distaff free-for-all. She went undefeated that August, including her Roses Are Red elimination and final at Woodbine, plus an Aug. 31 filly and mare open. She ended the season by capturing the Milton Stake at Mohawk over Cathedra Dot Com and Bunny Lake, and repeating as Dan Patch and O’Brien Older Pacing Mare of the Year.

Eternal Camnation distinguished herself with a Canadian Horse of the Year campaign in 2003, repeating as Dan Patch, O’Brien, and Nova divisional champ. Her remarkable nine-race win streak kicked off with the Aug. 30 Breeders Crown final at Woodbine and concluded with the mile-and-a-quarter Classic Distaff at Dover Downs on Nov. 24.

“Usually when horses get headed, they just don’t fight back like that, but that was just her,” said Miller. “That last 30 yards to the wire, that belonged to her and she wanted everybody to know that. When she was at the top of her game, she was pretty much unbeatable.”

At age 7, Eternal Camnation won her May 2004 Classic Distaff elimination and final at Mohawk, followed by a July 9 Woodbine filly and mare open. Her last victory came in another distaff open pace, Aug. 20 at Woodbine. She retired after an Oct. 9 place finish behind Carolina Sunshine in the Allerage Distaff Pace at Red Mile.

While a financial controversy and the premature death of Eric Ledford made unfortunate headlines in the past, they never overshadowed the champion mare’s achievements.

“The business changed for us a few years back,” said Miller, adding that he began cancer treatment the day he lost Eternal Camnation. “I became a pastor, and she’s the only horse we had. This farm was her farm, and she had the best of both worlds. Sometimes she’d get a little lonely, so we had some riding horses that would stop in and stay for a while.”

Eternal Camnation never produced a successor from six foals. Her fastest and richest is her only son, Rocken Camnation (p, 6, 1:50f; $537,517). Her final foal died at birth.

“She wasn’t a good mom, I’ll admit that,” said Miller. “It wasn’t in her DNA. After a while, you just kind of throw your hands up and say, ‘She don’t owe us anything.’ Gosh, the thrills that she allowed us to have, Doc and Dorothy [Miller of the Eternal Camnation Stable] and Jim and my family.”

Her production record perhaps underscores her singularity: Eternal Camnation was more than a mare.

“She was a partner,” said Jeff, fighting back fresh tears. “We spent a lot of time together. I said this a long time ago: She took a guy from the cornfields of Ohio and allowed me to experience the best of our business. That was all God, all talent. She was just a wonderful athlete, a wonderful horse, and memories you’ll never forget.”