Vulcan is now part of an elite group of New Zealand trotters.
But for a while there, co-owner and breeder Jenny Butt was wondering if Vulcan was going to join Lyell Creek, Take A Moment, I Can Doosit and One Over Kenny as a $1 million-winning trotter.
The 8yr-old was badly out of form during New Zealand Cup week, and was a far cry from the 10-time group 1-winning trotter who won five group 1 races in a month two seasons back for her son, Tim Butt.
There was only one thing for it - turn to another one of her sons for the solution.
Butt asked her son, Roddy, to have a try with the son of Earl and he took a human approach to training Vulcan.
''He's just been showing his age a wee bit and a bit of aches and pains,'' Jenny Butt said.
''But my youngest son has taken him over - he's a rugby coach and he's treating him like a rugby player.
''He worked on his back and he's just got the soreness out of him.''
Butt admitted the $1 million mark was looking some way off as Vulcan battled against the open-class trotters for a year.
''I was wondering about the million at one stage - it didn't look good a couple of times and we weren't going to race him if he's sore,'' she said.
''The minute he showed that, he was going to pull the plug - but once he came right, it was great.''
Vulcan first rose to prominence with an all-the-way win in the 3yr-old ruby section of the Harness Jewels at Cambridge in 2010.
''When he was a 2yr-old, they didn't like him that much. But as a 3yr-old he was awesome,'' she said.
''He had three trips to Australia. In the first one he ran second in the Interdominion [to I Can Doosit] and a couple of big races.
''The second one, he just won everything and last year he was struggling.''
Now the million has been topped, Butt is happy for Vulcan to tell her, son Roddy (now in the ownership) and fellow owner and breeder Don McKenzie what he wants to do next.
''It's been a wonderful ride,'' she said.
''He's just an awesome wee fella, but to get that [million] is unbelievable. We'll just look after him now, although we were going to anyway.''
