by James Platz

When Gerald Miller stepped away from his role with Eash Racing Stable at the end of the 2021 season, he did so with the intention of spending more time at home with his growing family. He expected to train and race a couple of horses on the side, but it wouldn’t be what paid the bills. Miller has found the lure of doing what he loves hard to resist. With a barn of eight horses under his care, he is again immersed in horse racing, but he is trying to approach it differently this time around and find a suitable balance.

“Initially, I just felt like I wanted more time at home. I kind of wanted to get away from the racing a little bit more. It didn’t really work out like that,” Miller said with a laugh. “I kind of fell back into training. I guess old habits are hard to break.”

The soon-to-be 41-year-old began focusing on equine dentistry and shoeing, building his clientele list in 2019 and 2020. Miller believed the two services would become his primary occupation, working from his home in Yorktown, IN, not far from Harrah’s Hoosier Park Racing & Casino.

“My plan all along was to train two or three on the side and stay busy with the dentistry and the shoeing,” Miller said. “It kind of flipped around to now where I’m almost too busy to do that, let alone keep up with my own on that end. Between all of it I have way too much. A lot of days I tell myself I should just stick to doing one thing. I enjoy all of those.”

Between his long stint with Eash Racing and his prior experience with trottingbred ponies, Miller has trained horses for over 20 years. In the time that he focused on other pursuits, he found that he missed the daily activities in and around the barn that he tried to escape.

“There are other things that I could probably make a living at, but this is something I really enjoy,” he said. “Developing horses, that’s something I’ve always enjoyed. I didn’t really know how much I enjoyed that until I took a step back from it.”

While in the employ of Don and Rosie Eash, Miller had tried unsuccessfully to keep and campaign an occasional horse of his own. However, the large Eash Racing Stable operation made it difficult to serve both interests. Once on his own, the trainer leased a few horses and began competing in Ohio and Indiana.

“They did okay and I made enough money to get into other horses,” Miller said. “At this point, I’ve got all I want as far as horses to train.”

The 2022 slate was the first full year that Miller operated his own stable, again focusing on Ohio and Indiana, primarily on the fair circuit in the Hoosier State. He campaigned not only horses he owned but also those he trained for other owners. He connected with trainer Terry Haimes and together they teamed to earn an Indiana Sired Divisional Championship with freshman pacing colt Lil Joe IV. Miller also picked up catch driving opportunities at the fairs, sitting behind several entries for owners Nat and Patty Hill.

“Great people and I got to become good friends with them,” Miller said. “I had a blast.”

The trainer finished the 2021 season with eight trips to the winner’s circle to go along with 40 other on-the-board performances. His starters earned just over $102,000 in purses. Miller feels it was a good start and a learning experience. For years he was responsible for helping manage many aspects of the Eash stable, but classifying and entering horses was not one of them.

“I felt like it was a success with what I had,” Miller said. “It’s a lot different when you’re on the training side. All those years you just had to show up and race, you didn’t have to follow conditions and know where your horses were at. It takes a little bit to master that. Once you learn a track’s conditions, you keep up on where they fit.”

He admits that this winter in Ohio his stable did not fare as well as the year before, but he still managed to record one win with trotting mare Imalovelylady. Dennis Petty owns the My MVP 5-year-old, racing under the Single G Stable banner. Since Petty claimed her last August, the trotter has won three times, the latest victory a 1:56.1 score at Hoosier Park. This season she has accumulated $15,700 in earnings.

“She’s turned out to be a nice horse,” Miller said. “She’s a little bitty thing, but she seems like the kind of horse that can make decent money. She’s off to a pretty decent start this year.

Six of the eight horses Miller is training are pointed to the Indiana fair circuit, which kicks off June 1 and 2 at Converse. His roster includes a pair of freshmen and four sophomores, three of which are qualified. Fleeting Flivver, a Check Six filly, won at Hoosier Park Thursday evening (April 27). Miller conditioned and steered the 3-year-old pacer to a 1:56.1 victory. He guided Fleeting Flivver on the fair circuit last season, and owner Therl Hensley asked if he could take on training duties this year.

“I was happy to take her,” he said.

Even if that meant pushing the stable a bit beyond his comfort zone. Miller would prefer to keep his numbers around five or six horses, particularly when all the responsibilities fall on his shoulders.

“I do all the work,” he said. “I do all the training, shoeing, shipping, all the barn work. I like doing it all myself. I’m happier that way. I know what’s going on with everything. I’m not picky, but I know the way I want to do it.”

Miller has a clear vision for what he wants in a stable, the challenge lies in fulfilling that vision. He is currently racing two or three nights each week. Once fair racing begins, he hopes to pare that back to one night each week at the pari-mutuel tracks, allowing him more time at home with his still-growing brood. He and his wife, Brooke, have four boys between the ages of 11 and 3, with another son on the way.

“I’m still not 100 per cent satisfied with my schedule,” he said. “I’ve got four kids and another one coming in about six weeks. It’s always a struggle between making enough money and devoting enough time to home. I don’t feel like I’ve found that balance most days. Priorities are kind of shifting. The biggest thing I want is financial stability and time. With a family, I don’t think anybody truly has enough time. For now, this is something I want to pursue. I don’t really have any aspirations on getting up to a 30 or 40-horse stable.”

Fleeting Flivver’s victory Thursday marked the fourth of the season for Miller as conditioner, already tallying half his total from 2022 with two-thirds of the year remaining. When presented with that information, the conditioner focuses less on the numbers and more on his pupils. It reinforces why the pull of sitting behind a young horse is so irresistible.

“It’s been going a little better than I expected,” he said. “The other night I was second with one horse and she raced well, but I was more excited with the way the trotter that was sixth raced. I know that doesn’t pay the bills, but I tend to get excited about improvement.”