LOUISVILLE, Ky. – At long last, the dream became reality. Just as he had envisioned thousands of times before, Chase Miller passed the eighth pole atop a speeding Thoroughbred on his way to winning a race. “Aahhh, man!” Miller exclaimed early Friday after winning the fourth race Thursday evening at Churchill Downs aboard a filly named Bethy. “It was indescribable, really.” Miller was doused shortly afterward by his fellow jockeys with water, eggs, and baby powder. That’s a decades-long racetrack tradition for any rider following his first win. And yet, Miller’s story deviates far from the template that usually involves a teenager. More often than not, it’s an apprentice riding with a 10-pound weight allowance celebrating a career first. But Miller is 27. As the son of Darrin Miller, a longtime trainer on the Kentucky circuit, he has been around horses since he was a tot. In the spring of 2007, when Chase was 13 and Darrin had his first and only Kentucky Derby starters in his stable – Sedgefield was fifth and Dominican was 11th behind Street Sense in the 133rd running – Chase experienced a proverbial 15 minutes of fame as a media darling. It was his lifelong goal, he would say matter-of-factly in shed-row interviews, to become a jockey, to follow his dad in the horse racing profession. He was a child prodigy, a whiz kid, his obsession with racehorses extraordinarily advanced for someone so young. It was adorable and all that. :: DRF Bets players get FREE Daily Racing Form Past Performances and up to 5% weekly cashback. Join Now.  Somewhere along the way, however, as adolescence turned into young adulthood, the dream never materialized. Even as Chase attended Oldham County High School just east of Louisville, he was already becoming a seasoned racetracker, working for his dad as an exercise rider. His weight, however, did not permit him to begin riding races, except for one very brief span in May 2012, when he left home for the first time to ride three also-rans at Delaware Park. As the years went by, he settled into a racetrack routine, working in New York, Kentucky, and elsewhere for various outfits as an exercise rider and assistant trainer, his ambition of riding races in dormancy. As recently as March, he weighed 140 pounds, some 25 pounds more than what a typical jockey weighs. “I didn’t really know a lot about nutrition,” he said. “I was impatient. I’d diet for a week or two, and then I wouldn’t see the results I wanted and I’d say, ‘Aw, it’s hopeless, I’ll never do it.’ And then this year, I just kind of closed the cups on those blinkers and spent two months detoxing my body from sugar and stuff, eating fruit and drinking water and working out. I didn’t even tell anybody I was wanting to ride. I had a goal for myself and I kept it.” His first mount back came April 28, the Wednesday of Derby week at Churchill, on Tactical Edge, who was sixth in a $40,000 claiming race. Miller had five more mounts, finishing no better than fourth, before getting a leg up from his dad Thursday on Bethy, a gray 3-year-old filly bred and owned by the Silverton Hills Farm of Tommy and Bonnie Hamilton. The filly was carrying 118 pounds as the 4-5 favorite in a field of five bottom-level maiden-claimers going six furlongs on the main track. Breaking from post 2, Miller rode like an old pro, patiently stalking the pace and waiting for an opportunity that availed itself at the top of the stretch. Bethy angled out into the clear and quickly opened daylight, her jockey growing more and more excited down the long Churchill stretch en route to a 3 1/4-length triumph. “I’d spent probably 15 years dreaming of that moment,” he said. “There’d been daydreaming, there’d been doubt and hopelessness – a bunch of emotions. I contained myself, but there were so many thoughts, so many faces, so many people I thought about after the race. So many mixed emotions, mostly really good ones. It was a great feeling.” Miller was back working early Friday a few miles from Churchill at the Trackside training center, where Darrin keeps his 18-horse stable. For the time being, he’ll maintain the same regimen he’s had for years, getting on 10 horses a morning, sometimes more, sticking close to the animals he loves. Miller is competing without “the bug,” the weight allowance that apprentices can claim, mostly for reasons involving constraints related to apprenticeships and because he won’t be able to get below 115 pounds, not including tack. His agent is the ex-jockey Joe Steiner, and after the ultra-competitive Churchill meet ends June 26, they intend to focus on securing more rides at Ellis Park this summer, then Turfway Park next winter. “Probably sooner than later, I’ll start full-time walking around” the barn area every morning when seeking mounts, said Miller. “But for right now, my dad needs a hand.” And right now, with one dream fulfilled, there are more to realize.