Miller making plans for his top runners
ARCADIA, Calif. – Through Sunday’s program at Santa Anita, the 62nd day of the six-month winter-spring meeting, Peter Miller was very much in contention for leading trainer.
Phil D’Amato topped the table with 39 winners, closely followed by Miller with 37 and Bob Baffert with 33. The season ends on June 20, sufficient time for Miller to challenge D’Amato.
At the same time, Miller said on Sunday that there are several major stakes around the nation in coming weeks that are more meaningful to him than the title. Moreover, there is the unknown of which races at Santa Anita will draw sufficient entries to include any trainer’s leading runners.
“I think it comes down to whose races go,” Miller said. “Who gets lucky.
“He’s having a great meet and we’re having a great meet. It would be nice to win it, but that’s not foremost in my thoughts.”
Finding suitable races for runners such as the 3-year-olds Get Her Number and Good With People, the well-regraded unraced 2-year-old Bet on Mookie, the sprinters C Z Rocket and Shashashakemeup, and turf female Laura’s Light are a priority for Miller.
Some will be bound for the Belmont Stakes weekend from June 4-6 at Belmont Park. Get Her Number is a candidate for $300,000 Texas Derby at 1 1/16 miles at Lone Star Park on May 31 or the third race of the Triple Crown, the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on June 5.
“We’ve got plenty of time to choose,” Miller said.
Last September, Get Her Number and Rombauer, the winner of Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, were first and second in the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita. Rombauer followed with a fifth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last November.
Get Her Number did not race again at 2 after the American Pharoah. This year, Get Her Number is winless in two starts, including a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park on April 10.
Good With People, a two-time stakes winner against California-bred 2-year-old sprinters last year, won his first start against older horses in an allowance race at six furlongs on Saturday.
“I think three-quarters is his wheel house,” Miller said.
Bet on Mookie, a colt by Uncaptured, is nearing his career debut, having been purchased at a 2-year-olds in-training sale for $125,000 earlier this year.
“He’s very fast,” Miller said.
In early June at Belmont Park, the four-time stakes winner Laura’s Light, the winner of an allowance race at a mile on turf at Santa Anita on May 2, may run in the Grade 3 Intercontinental Stakes at seven furlongs on turf on June 3 or the Grade 1 Just a Game Stakes at a mile on turf two days later.
C Z Rocket, second in the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland last November and the winner of the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap at Oaklawn Park on April 10, may run in the Grade 2 True North Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs at Belmont Park on June 4 or the Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile the following day. Shashashakemeup could start in the True North.
Miller has two turf milers in training for summertime comebacks in Mo Forza and Neptune’s Storm.
Neptune’s Storm was transferred to Miller earlier this spring, he said. Neptune’s Storm, a four-time stakes winner in 2019 and 2020, was previously trained by Richard Baltas. Neptune’s Storm has not raced since a fourth-place finish in the Tourist Mile at Kentucky Downs last September.
Mo Forza, a five-time stakes winner since November 2019, has resumed training with the summer meeting at Del Mar as a goal, Miller said.
“He looks super,” Miller said. “We’re excited to get him back for Del Mar.”