About 2 or 3 years later I was in University and worked part time to pay my tuition. One of those jobs was working weekends for a friend of my mothers husband, being a helper for his flea market stand, which was the best and most profitable one at any flea market we went to. They lived down the street from me and I'd walk over, pick up his truck, drive it to the market, unload all the contents, including the tables and things like that, all the boxes, sell the stuff all day, and load the entire thing back into the truck and take it home. All for 40 bucks, which seems strange now but that was enough over an entire winter to pay for my tuition. The one that we did that year was the Stouffville Flea Market, the one in the video below.
As far as I know, that is where the Cam Fella's connections met. Faulkner owned and ran the market, Clements was the main customer, operating the National Sports there, which was massive and not really like anything you'd see at a flea market. Side note, Rocco Auciello, Carmen's dad, who is and was also a horsemen, even back then, ran the kitchen and made my lunch when I got it. He made great fries.
The next summer, the owner of the stand, whose name was Mike Kagan, asked me if I wanted to work all summer, and do all the markets he went to. That was 6 days a week, a lot of travelling, and a lot of work. But I said yes and did it. I made enough that summer to put money in the bank for after university. The money was very good. We went all over, from as far west as Aylmer, Ontario, well north of Orangeville, Wasaga Beach, Pickering, and a whole bunch of other places I don't remember. Plus the 2 weekend days at Stouffville, which was the biggest flea market I've ever seen, and also an outdoor one in the summer. In the summer, that market paid 100 bucks a day, not 40. For every trip, we got free dinner paid for by Mike, which was usually Harvey's or Swiss Chalet. I was a Harvey's junkie, as I loved their burgers and fries, and Swiss Chalet had the best fries of any place going. I don't and have never eaten chicken, so when we went to Swiss Chalet, I just had 3 orders of fries. You can sense a trend in how I ate back then. Fries were my staple.
When you worked the summer, you needed help, as it was busier and the road trips required two people to do it. So, I was hooked up with Chris, who had worked for Mike a long time. Chris was a big, strong, very nice guy who worked his butt off and knew how to sell. He could charm girls into buying 2 jeans instead of one, while at the same time convincing an old Italian guy to pay almost full price for work boots, when they could probably go to the mall and get them for the same price. Most people at a flea market want the deal, and expect it. Chris could get them to pay almost full price. He had that charisma.
Chris and I started to become friends, as he also just lived down the street from me. We traveled to all the markets together. Chris had no idea what a horse race was like and had never been. He was curious, as I was always reading the program when he drove the truck, which he mostly did. One day, I took him after the Saturday gig. On the program, he noticed the name Cam Fella, as he had foals by then and it was a Saturday night stakes card, loaded with Cam Fella's. Camtastic might have been one of those that year.
On the way home, he mentioned that he knew the name Cam Fella because of the owners of the market, who he was tight with. I didn't know them at all, and in fact, to this day, have never met them. Side note, my friend Les went to school with Dan Clements, the son of Norm, and who most would know as a successful driver for a long time, and some time trainer at stages. I remember one night he won at 43-1 from the 8 hole with a horse called Disreali Hanover, a son of Cam Fella.
I didn't know them, but Chris had their trust. One day, when we were finished loading the truck back up, he took me to the office of one of them, I think Faulkner, and it was like a shrine, like a museum dedicated to Cam Fella. You had to see it to believe it. I never forgot that. I got that same feeling many years later when I went to the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame and they had a special room upstairs dedicated to Bruce Springsteen. The immensity and volume of stuff and memories can really grab you when you view it that way. To me, Cam Fella was to racing what Bruce Springsteen was to Rock N Roll, an unlikely hero from humble roots who connected with the common man while still showing true greatness.
Fast forward to when Presidential Ball first came out for his first baby race. He was a son of Cam Fella. To see him on the track....I was along the rail at Greenwood, which was very up close by track standards, you could just tell how classy and good he was. He came a very fast last quarter and was clearly the best at that point. A year later he won the North America Cup. His trainer, Bill Robinson, had a power stable of two year olds that year, including Presidential Ball, Lotta Soul and Riyadh. There were others as well. He dominated every race around there. Presidential Ball was always my favorite Cam Fella foal of the high end ones. In the Cup, he was parked every step, 3 wide for almost the entire last turn, and set a Stakes and track record to win, moving down Life Sign, who was a very tough horse to beat. Presidential Ball was just a very tough customer, much like his father.
A year before that, on a nothing Friday night in the spring, I remember my first encounter with Precious Bunny. He was an okay New York Sires horse, but didn't look like a champion that many Cam Fella's were. Until this night, when, off a qualifier, he won by at least half the stretch, in a speed we had not seen before. I was at the Greenwood intertrack that night, and the race was at Mohawk. Most that were at the intertrack were hard core players who didn't care any more about a stakes horse than a 10 claimer, as long as they cashed on the winner. That night, there was just a complete silence watching that race, then a buzz for about a week or two. People just talked about what Precious Bunny did that night like they had seen Jesus on the track. We all know he backed that up with a summer of big time wins until the Provincial Cup.
About 6 or 7 years after that, when I was owning a few, my trainer, who was also a friend of mine, phoned me at work and told me he didn't have time to train mine anymore, as he was scaling back. I had owned some decent OJC horses before, but at this point, I owned strictly mediocre B track horses. Four to be exact. I also had a very demanding day job, and a new wife. I tried to find someone to train them, but nobody that I thought was right for what I wanted, so, since I'd always wanted to try training, I thought I would do it...along with my day job. That is and was as crazy as it sounds when you just read it.
At work, one of my coworkers knew a guy who had a farm in Mississauga, which was about a 30 minute drive in the mornings from my house, and about an hour from work after work. Some days I did both, other days I did one or the other. On the weekends, I did full days, every week for a couple of years. When the horse had to race, I sent them with another guy that I was stabled with unless it was a Saturday night or Sunday.
One of the horses was a cheap claimer, Edward Seelster, and he was easy. He was a robot in terms of doing what he was told, he was sound, good gaited and had zero problems. But he was only a cheque getter, so, eventually he got claimed when I dropped him a level to get a win, which he didn't even do that night. A second one was a mare I bought that I always liked and I thought would be a good broodmare when done racing. Her name was Almahurst Loraine. Turns out she was sterile and could never get in foal. When she came to me to train, she had just bowed a tendon and been turned out 6 or 8 months. Going against the advice of everyone I met, I fixed her up, got her trained down in about 6 weeks, and she won tons of races and money for me.
A third horse I sold because I found I could only handle 3 and do it right. She was a nice filly named Winwood Dancer and did okay for others. My trainer had bred her, owned her mother, and when she didn't sell for enough as a yearling, he kept her and I bought half. She was a nice horse and was capable enough to get 2nd in a Sire Stake at 2 which went for very good money. She seemed to go backward mostly from there.
The last one was a green horse, a very green horse named Eddie Lebec. He was by a son of Cam Fella, Carlsbad Cam. I remembered Carlsbad Cam as a horse that went very tough trips, but still won by just as much as he needed to, just like Cam Fella. In the video above, he got a great trip and won, and once he made the lead late, he wasn't letting anybody by. In the race I remember him most for, his win in the elim of the NA Cup, he was first over a long way but just kept going and drew off late. That video is out there somewhere, but I couldn't find it. That memory always stuck with me.
I bought Eddie Lebec for 1600 bucks at a Mixed Sale when he was 2 years old and did not make it that year. Side note, the guys at the sale I spoke to that year, who I didn't know at all, I ended up stabled with about 4 or 5 years later. They told me he had trained in 2:11 before they stopped with him. He had clean legs, but he had suspect ankles even then. He was not likely to last. He was an expensive yearling to some extent, I'm going to say about 20 to 30k. He looked the part. Big, dark, had some of the attitude that Cam Fella was known for, and I remembered his half brother, Skippy Handleman, as a durable and solid mid level horse for a few years. My trainer was also partners with me on that horse, but he could not get him to go. He asked me what I wanted to do with him. He suggested sending him to the Mennonites. We were also partners on Winwood Dancer that I didn't end up with and sold back to him. I took Eddie, who we called Sam, and he took the filly and sold her off to another guy he was stabled with. By the time I started training Eddie Lebec, it didn't look like such a smart exchange.
Eddie Lebec was a major challenge for a young inexperienced trainer like me. He had a mixey gait, in that he couldn't trot a step, but he was a jerky pacer slow, and would put in an extra step at any speed, unless you put the hopples on him. I didn't have a lot of time when I got to the barn from work, or in the mornings. So, because I was fighting against the daylight disappearing, I didn't use the hopples with him except on the weekends. That probably ended up being a good thing, as he gradually learned to pace better and find his balance. When I finally got him going and he was ready to train fast, I put the hopples on him and he was smooth as silk with them. He was really only mixey gaited because of his weak ankles, which puffed up when I started to race him later on. Eventually, that is what cost him a longer career.
For a short time, I was just too busy at work, so, I sent the two, Edward Seelster and Eddie Lebec, that were racing or ready to to my former trainer for a month. I kept the mare with the bow and worked on her daily to get her to where she was going to need to be. She was a lot of work for a horse that never really jogged or trained. Just making her sound and getting her fit without that was a big job. But, that could be done in the dark, so she was more suitable to the schedule I had at the time.
One day, my other two were going to train and I took off work early to go out to see them and sit behind one while the trainer sat behind the other. He took Eddie Lebec, I took the Edward Seelster, who was racing steady every week in about 1.58 or 2.00. Eddie Lebec liked to lead, and he didn't like to be passed. At that point, he had never been faster than 2.20 since I'd had him, but, on that day, when I came up beside him with the racehorse, he would not let him by and could not get by. He had that Cam Fella toughness. A week later, work lightened up and they came back to the barn I was stabled at.
About a month later, Eddie Lebec was ready to qualify, which he did, and was ready to race the next week. The trainer, also my long time friend, was there at the rail with me as we watched the race. He went right to the front and wired them. Only ahead by a small amount the entire way, but never letting any horse by him. He won by probably a neck. Just like Cam did most of the time. The trainer said to me.....I can't believe that is the same horse. Eddie Lebec went on to win 3 of his first 6 races, and I even took a shot with him at Woodbine, but he just couldn't go fast enough without his ankles starting to flare up so I aborted that ambition.
I had him for a couple of more years, but by then I had other better ones than him, plus Almahurst Loraine who was a winning machine, so I decided to drop him into the cheapest claimer they had and lose him, which I did. That night, even though he wasn't sound and had a bad post, he laid parked first up the entire way, and went even with the leader every step, until the last step, when he went by him. He was like that. I never forgot how tough he was. He also bit me once in the crossties. He was a nice pleasant horse most of the time, but he had that nasty side too if you didn't watch yourself. In the paddock the other horses stayed on their side and didn't mess with him. In the crossties, when you touched him, he always had his ears pinned back.
A year later, I was racing at Flamboro, and by then had stopped working a day job. I had a cheap mare I really liked, named Mac Ms R Nukes. That day, for whatever reason she was extra good and won at 50-1. I was chatting with a guy I knew from around, Jason Klein, and mentioned I was looking for a place to train closer to home, as the constant travel was wearing me down. He mentioned he was stabled just about 10 seconds drive from where the Stouffville flea market was. There were quite a few empty stalls. I called the owner, and I took them.
One day, while there, my wife came to visit me and bring me lunch, which she did on the weekends sometimes. That day, she came, but we went to get the food instead. Some ice cream at the corner. While we were there, I got fries. I loved their fries. She had the ice cream. The restaurant was not in the actual flea market. While passing the market though, I noticed they had a banner that said Cam Fella was there that day. By then, he had been gelded and retired as a stud. They had him in a makeshift stall they put there. He was eating his hay when I arrived. At that point, I had been training a long time and had a lot of experience with handling horses. I wasn't a novice fan looking to pet him. I just got up close to him, which I had to to see him. He was eating the hay, his back to me, and in a split second, he turned, wheeled would be more accurate, lunged at me, snapped his teeth and bit me. Why he chose to do that, I don't know. But he did. I lept back, but he clipped the top of my hand and left a small bite mark. It didn't hurt, but it was certainly a memorable scar to have for a month until it healed.
He died a year or two later. That was my Cam Fella experience, start to finish, with a few stories in between that he played a part in.
