Miller has four seeking pot of cash in Dubai

Not to be crass, but the California-based trainer Peter Miller, along with four horses under his care, are in Dubai for the money.

Two of Miller’s fellow travelers are 2018 Eclipse Award winners – the dirt-sprinter Roy H and the turf-sprinter Stormy Liberal. Roy H runs in the $2.5 million Dubai Golden Shaheen, Stormy Liberal will run in the $2 million Al Quoz Sprint. Both are part of Saturday’s blockbuster Dubai World Cup card.

Seven-figure races for sprinters are nearly as rare in North America as snow in the Dubai desert.

“You have the Breeders’ Cup – and then you have the Breeders’ Cup,” Miller said Monday, settling in for the night at his Dubai hotel.

Roy H and Stormy Liberal won Breeders’ Cup races last fall, Roy H easily in the Sprint, Stormy Liberal after a brutal battle with World of Trouble in the Turf Sprint. Both are in Dubai for the second time – Roy H took a surprising loss in the 2018 Shaheen, finishing third by three-quarters of a length, while Stormy Liberal was second by a half-length in the Al Quoz, the best showing ever by an American grass horse in Dubai.

Miller also has brought the mare Belvoir Bay for the Al Quoz and 3-year-old Gray Magician for the Group 2, $2.5 million UAE Derby. The UAE Derby and the other Group 2s on the card were drawn Monday, with Gray Magician, a solid if unspectacular colt, drawing post 8 in a 14-horse field that could have the filly Divine Image favored. The program’s five Group 1 races were to be drawn Wednesday.

Miller ran horses in Dubai for the first time in 2017, weighing the huge purses against the demands of the journey – a long ship with a long recovery, and no race-day medication.

“You have to have the right horse that you think is going to ship and not going to need the medication, and you have to be willing to give up a good portion of the spring and summer,” Miller said.

Stormy Liberal bounced back quicker from the trip than Roy H, turning in a campaign strong enough that he became the first sprinter to be named North American turf champion. Stormy Liberal has shipped well again and has already showed he can handle the straight-course 1,200 meters of the Al Quoz. Miller’s second horse, Belvoir Bay, is competent, too, and started her career in England, where she twice won straight-course sprints. Both have top-class Blue Point to beat Saturday.

Roy H was a heavy odds-on favorite in the 2018 Shaheen, but ceded his best chance with a poor start.

“He wasn’t on his ‘A’ game that night, but if he breaks with the field he wins,” Miller said.

Miller waited until July 28 to run Roy H again, but even then, finishing a well-beaten second in the Bing Crosby Stakes, Roy H lacked his usual spark. It wasn’t just the Dubai hangover that concerned Miller, but the chance Roy H, after a great run that began in early summer 2017, might be winding down.

“The alarm bells went off,” Miller said. “That was two kind of lackluster races in a row. I knew we needed to make some changes.”

Miller moved Roy H’s base to San Luis Rey Downs, and the change of scenery recharged his batteries. He won the Santa Anita Sprint, repeated in the BC Sprint with a real tour de force, and ran as sharp as ever Jan. 19 in the Palos Verdes, his Golden Shaheen prep.

“If this race were at Santa Anita, I’d be ultra-confident, but it’s an away game. And not just away at Churchill or in New York, but a long, long way from home,” Miller said.

A long, long way from home, but with a great big pot of cash sitting just past the finish line. Miller aims to bring a large chunk of that back to California.