Miller thriving after year of tragic, magic

Peter Miller was asked for a shorthand description of his 2018 season, which finds the trainer on the threshold of the Breeders’ Cup armed with salty squad of resolute speedballs in razor-sharp form.

“A roller-coaster doesn’t do it justice,” Miller said.

Let’s just say it has been a year to test Miller’s resolve, one in which his large public stable has soared to inspiring highs and suffered demoralizing lows. Passionate, combative, and obsessively dedicated to his job, Miller, 52, will be on the scene at Churchill Downs this week in an attempt to accomplish something no trainer has done before, namely to successfully defend titles in two Breeders’ Cup races with the same runners who won last year at Del Mar.

Those two are Roy H, who defeated a deep field in the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, and Stormy Liberal, the upset winner of the Turf Sprint. What they have gone through since that glorious day makes Gulliver’s travels look like a trip to the store for a pack of smokes, including evacuations, relocations, and multiple trips abroad.

This time around, Roy H will be joined in the Sprint by stablemate Distinctive B – both owned by Gary Hartunian’s Rockingham Ranch and David Bersen – while Stormy Liberal will line up in the Turf Sprint alongside the familiar faces of Richard’s Boy, second last year to “Stormy,” and Conquest Tsunami, owned by Gary Barber. They are all geldings, 6 or 7 years old, with 136 starts among them, 42 wins, and earnings of more than $5.2 million.

Sitting in his no-frills office at the San Luis Rey Downs Training Center, about 25 miles northeast of Del Mar, Miller snacked on a bag of salty nourishment as he reflected on the past 12 months. The wall with the bulletin board and official veterinary notices was dominated by large oil painting of California Diamond, a multiple stakes winner and barn favorite. The Breeders’ Cup was seven days away.

“What did we have, all of three weeks of training bliss to enjoy our big day at Del Mar?” Miller said.

A bit more than a month, in fact. The Del Mar Breeders’ Cup ended on the evening of Nov. 4. On Dec. 7, while Miller was running one at Los Alamitos, the Lilac fire ignited just to the east of San Luis Rey Downs and then swept through half the center, eventually destroying seven barns and most of an eighth, including the two housing Miller’s 80 terrified horses.

As the flames bore down, Miller’s stablehands rose to the emergency and released as many horses as they could to relative safety at the far end of the smoke-filled property. Eventually, the evacuees of San Luis Rey were gathered at Del Mar, where veterinary triage cared for victims of burns and smoke inhalation, and their traumatized stablemates huddled in strange, makeshift surroundings on a cold December night, tended to by an impromptu army of volunteers.

Eventually, the grim toll was announced: 46 horses from San Luis Rey perished, five of them trained by Miller. California Diamond was one of the five.

Richard’s Boy, Conquest Tsunami, and Distinctive B suffered varying degrees of burns and smoke inhalation, while Roy H was safe and sound at Santa Anita with assistant trainer Ruben Alvarado. As for Stormy Liberal, he was in Hong Kong, preparing to run in the rich Sprint on Dec. 9, but there would be no fairy-tale ending. He never found his trademark kick and beat only two horses.

“The trip was pretty hard on him,” Miller said. “It took him a while to get his weight back. On top of that, when he got home somebody had burned down his house.”

So ended the best year of Miller’s career, during which his runners banked purses of $7.3 million. As 2018 unfolded, Miller found himself at Gulfstream Park on the night of the Eclipse Awards Dinner in January to celebrate Roy H, his first champion. The trainer also was pressed into service to accept a Special Eclipse Award on behalf of the many people and organizations who had a hand in the rescue and relief of the Lilac fire survivors, both man and beast.

“That was hard,” Miller said. “I knew I was representing a lot of my fellow horsemen who had gone through something terrible. But the way everyone came together to get through it, I was really encouraged. There was a unity in adversity I hadn’t seen before.”

Miller’s sentiments were well received, and his image as a fiery critic of racing’s authority figures was temporarily softened. Then came the ruling of March 18, when the trainer was cited by the local stewards for his seventh “disorderly conduct” violation – compared to zero serious drug violations in California – this time for highly derogatory comments made to a former employee the previous September.

Miller was suspended seven days, fined $2,500, and placed on probation through October of 2019. He also was ordered to submit to anger-management counseling through the Winners Foundation.

“Actually, it was good,” Miller said of the counseling. “It has helped me, and I needed help. There were a few other things going on that I had to work through. I don’t want to make excuses, though. And I’m still an emotional, volatile guy.

But it’s a slower burn. I’ve had to learn control.

“Sometimes this business can be too much for the nervous system to handle – mine, for instance,” Miller added. “You drive up in the morning, and you’re just waiting to find out what’s gone wrong. I do love to compete, though, and it’s a game that challenges you to be better, and smarter, all the time.”

In the immediate wake of the ruling, Miller put his head down and called his road warriors together for an assault on the World Cup Festival in Dubai. Roy H finished third in the Golden Shaheen, beaten threequarters of a length by Mind Your Biscuits, while Stormy Liberal, Conquest Tsunami, and Richard’s Boy ran 2-3-6 in the Al Quoz on the grass. Miller returned home and served his days.

The barn had a relatively quiet spring, but the Del Mar meet, being practically in Miller’s backyard, offered a fresh start. Still, even though he’d already been twice champion there, the trainer was making no promises. Then came the morning of July 22 and the death of Rockingham’s stakeswinning sprinter Bobby Abu Dhabi, who sustained a fractured leg and a fatal fall during a workout. Hall of Fame jockey Victor Espinoza, aboard for the work, suffered serious spinal injuries and is still recovering. A dark cloud descended upon the barn.

“When a horse gets sick, or hurt or dies, I take it very much to heart,” Miller said. “We try so hard to keep them safe, but you’ve still got to send them out there. Just like your kids. You do everything you can to protect and nurture them, but at some point you just have to hope everything works out.”

Amazingly, the Miller stable recovered to take Del Mar title, winning 31 races with a number of horses who had survived the San Luis Rey fire. Given the circumstances, the trainer could only describe his summer onslaught as “unbelievable.”

Miller put his five geldings on a plane this week, bound for Churchill Downs and a date for their races on Saturday. He is a consistent winner out of town, with shipping victories in races like the Woodford Reserve, Kelso, Tom Fool, True North, Jim McKay Turf Sprint, and Nearctic.

“I think for horses who travel regularly to run, like ours do from San Luis Rey, it’s not a big thing,” Miller said. “All our games are road games, so they’re used to it. And my people are also happier when I give them shipping money. They tend to line up for the gig.”

In terms of recent form, Roy H and Distinctive B just finished 1-2 in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship, Stormy Liberal edged Conquest Tsunami in the Grade 3 Eddie D on the Santa Anita grass, and Richard’s Boy was a solid runner-up in a Cal-bred stakes Oct. 20, only his second start since Dubai.

“It will be tough, very tough, to accomplish what we did last year,” Miller said. “But these are my go-to guys.”