Miller reaches milestones

Erv Miller, the 2005 winner of the Glen Garnsey Memorial Trainer of the Year, reached two milestones recently. The Illinois native celebrated his 40th birthday on Dec. 11, and he surpassed $5.6 million in earnings for the year, already eclipsing his 2005 total.

“Yes, I thought everything went pretty well again this season, although, I thought our 2 year olds were a little slight this year from where I expected them to be,” said Miller. “Things kind of came together at different times, from Lis Mara to Shark Gesture.”

Miller won a pair of Breeders Crowns with the two pacers. Lis Mara set a Breeders Crown record of 1:47.3 at the Meadowlands and is a contender for Older Pacer of the Year and Pacer of the Year honors, winning 10 of 17 starts, including eight sub-1:50 miles, and accounting for earnings of $967,485.

Miller-trainee Cactus Creek won the Adios final and was second in the Little Brown Jug. He also harnessed Art’s Temptress, the runner-up n the Jugette final.

“Finding Lis Mara and the way he turned out was a highlight for me,” he noted. “He was just a very fast horse, relatively sound and a pretty smart horse, too. He was real easy to manage. I had been working on the owners (MJG Racing Stables and Andy Willinger) to put him away for the year. I tried to talk them into not getting him beat up too late in the year, and his 5-year-old year should be better. There was nothing major wrong with him, and I’m hoping he comes back the way he should.

“Shark Gesture’s win in the Breeders Crown was just phenomenal, to bounce back the way he did,” Miller recalled. “After going down on his knees (in his elimination) the way he did, he showed some guts. It’s a testament to the way I have quality people looking after my top horses. If you work hard, it pays off with people like my assistant trainer, Tony Alagna, and Brooke Pollard.”

Miller’s mares have contributed to the stable’s success. Vysoke Tatry was the winter wonder, capturing the 2005 Snow Angel, 2006 White Ruffles and Night Styles finals.

“Vysoke Tatry hadn’t really come back to where we she was when she won those series at the Meadowlands, so we’re going to give her some time off and the owners might possibly send her to Canada or breed her,” he noted. “I’m not going to have a stable up there this winter.”

Miller has a pair of fillies in Thursday night’s $47,300 Snow Angel final–7-5 morning line favorite Enhance the Night and 4-1 Heavenly Beauty.

“Enhance The Night was sent to me late this season, and she was one those mares who needed some more work,” he said of the Western Ideal filly with a three-race winning streak on the line. “She had some soundness issues. She wasn’t quite stakes material but right below that. Now she fits right in there in those late-closers.

“Heavenly Beauty has some talent, but we’re going to have see where it all falls into place with her,” he noted. “She scoped with some mucus up there last week. I don’t if we’ll have her cleaned up enough.” After winning three in a row, Heavenly Beauty faded to 10th last week.

“We’re taking on some horses for Perfect World Enterprises on a small scale, and we’ve got two in on Friday,” he explained. “Dangerous Years (in the third race) is a little light right now. She’s not a very heavy filly. She’s not quite as strong as I’d like to see her and probably just needs more conditioning. Show Time (in the fifth) raced OK in her first start for me at Chester Downs. Andy (his brother, driver Andy Miller) was real impressed with her, so we’ll take a shot at the Meadowlands.”

Nationally, Miller’s stable has 308 wins, 180 seconds and 126 thirds from 1,122 starters.

“I always talk about striving for more quality and starting less, but it’s hard to do,” he added. “My in-the-money percentage is over 40 percent, and I try to race them when they’re ready to race. I’m still based in Springfield, Ill., and I’ll continue to do what I did last year. I may actually ship out east more because the opportunity is looking pretty strong. So, you might see a little more of me in 2007. I have some 2 year olds that I didn’t do too much with this year, and they’re maturing and coming around pretty good right now. Plus, we bought a lot yearlings again.” (Meadowlands with Horseman files)

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