Harrah's Hoosier Park: Miller and Coach Stefanos aim for Dan Patch Stakes score

Marcus Miller is feeling at home in Indiana, sitting second in the driver standings at Harrah’s Hoosier Park this season, and looking forward to his first time competing in the track’s Grade 2 Dan Patch Stakes.

Hoosier Park hosts the $300,000 Dan Patch for older male pacers on Friday, when a field of 11 will go behind the starting gate in the 32nd edition of the event. Miller will drive Coach Stefanos for his father, trainer Erv Miller, leaving from post six.

Coach Stefanos, the 2024 Breeders Crown Open Pace champ, has one graded-stakes victory to his credit this season, capturing a division of the G3 Dave Brower Memorial in June, and missed by just a neck in the G2 William R. Haughton Memorial in July. Both races were at The Meadowlands, where James MacDonald was in the sulky.

♦ Watch the Dan Patch card at Hoosier Park live on DRF

Miller has driven Coach Stefanos five times this year, most recently to a fourth-place finish in the Open at Hoosier on July 25. The two teamed up for a win in the Open in May and were second despite a 25 3/5 last quarter in June.

“Hoosier has become like a home to me pretty quickly and I’m excited to be a part of it,” Miller said about the Dan Patch. “I think we drew good. It looks like a good spot. It’s a group he could handle if things work out. I’m excited.”

The 36-year-old Miller, a native of Illinois, won multiple driving titles on the Chicago circuit before moving east in 2013. Last year, he began driving more frequently in the Midwest again and decided near the end of December to return there.

“I spent most of the second half of last year in the Midwest,” Miller said. “I was talking to my wife, and we’d always wanted to come back at some point. I had my foot in the door already, so it seemed like the right time to go. We’re real happy we have.”

Last year, Miller finished second in the driver standings at Illinois’ Hawthorne Race Course. He began driving at Hoosier in the fall and so far this season has posted 142 victories at the oval. He is second in wins behind perennial champion Trace Tetrick, who has 180 triumphs this year, and tied for second among track regulars in win percentage at 16.6.

He also drove at Oak Grove Racing & Gaming this year, where he tied for fourth in wins and was fifth in purses. Overall this season, Miller has 190 victories (ranked 22nd in North America) and $2.58 million in purses (26th).

“It’s been going great,” said Miller, who has 4,919 career wins. “I’m enjoying coming to work. I’ve gotten support from a lot of barns real quickly, and I’ve been lucky to get a strong lineup of horses to drive. I couldn’t be happier with how this summer has gone.”

In Friday’s Dan Patch, Miller and Coach Stefanos will face a field that includes 3-1 morning-line favorite Little Rocket Man, 7-2 second-choice Desperate Man, McKee Memorial division-winner Captain Luke, and multimillionaires Bythemissal and Charlie May.

Coach Stefanos finished a dead-heat second in last year’s Dan Patch. The 5-year-old gelding is best known for his Breeders Crown victory in October at The Meadowlands, where he came from 10th with a quarter of a mile to go to win by a half-length in 1:48.3. He was more than nine lengths back at three-quarters but paced home in 25 3/5 (fastest in the race by a full second) to score the upset at 13-1 with MacDonald.

Coach Stefanos has gone 25 4/5 or faster in his last quarter 18 times in 56 lifetime races, including a 24 2/5 scorcher in 2023 at Hoosier in a Breeders Crown elimination triumph.

For his career, Coach Stefanos has hit the board 38 times, winning 20, and earned nearly $1.37 million for owners Ken Duffy, D & M Trading II, and John (Coach) Stefanos. His 1:47 2/5 victory in his Brower division is only one-fifth of a second off the fastest mark by any pacer this season.

“He’s so wicked fast,” Miller said. “There are quite a few horses that can pace that much early in the mile, but the way he does it on the end of the mile is pretty amazing. A lot of times, the Opens (at Hoosier) come up with a short field, and everybody knows the way he likes to race best, so it’s tough to have that happen for him when there are only five or six in it. I think he will be better in a big field like (the Dan Patch).

“He’s never out of contention. He’s always got a shot.”

First-race post time is 5:30 p.m. (EDT) Friday at Harrah’s Hoosier Park, with the Dan Patch Stakes as race 13. Beginning at 8 p.m., racing will air live on FOX Sports. Gabe Prewitt and Jessica Otten will be on track to provide commentary, going back and forth with Horseshoe Indianapolis from 8-9:30 p.m. on FS2 before shifting to FS1 from 9:30-11 p.m.