The sophomore trotting filly posted a career best 1:52.2 victory recently in an Indiana Sires Stakes event at Harrah’s Hoosier Park.

by James Platz

When Harrah’s Hoosier Park Racing & Casino played host to a special July 4 program two weeks ago, it was trotting filly Myrll Vally that provided the early fireworks in an Indiana Sires Stakes event. Sent off at 20-1 in the night’s second race, the sophomore and driver John De Long sprung the upset with a lifetime best 1:52.2 performance. Although still relatively green, the Swan For All distaffer has earned just over $85,000 in limited starts for the partnership, which includes trainer Darryl Lyons, Delvin Miller, his younger brother, Aaron, and their friend, Luke Miller.

“She just keeps amazing us,” said Delvin. “She’s a gamer, that’s for sure. When she gets behind that gate, she has the heart of a good racehorse.”

The young owner is the son of Daryl Miller, proprietor of the Middlebury, IN-based Bluebird Meadows. Like his father, Delvin has an affinity for horses, and decided to pursue training and horse ownership a few short years ago. Little by little, he and some partners, including Aaron, have slowly added horses to their portfolio. Any money made he reinvests back into buying more horses, both for the track and the broodmare band.

“The last four years or so that’s what we’ve done,” he said. “We’ve been fairly successful, and we keep reinvesting. I’ve been buying a broodmare every year too. I think I’ve got three broodmares.”

The pursuit began with Guccio gelding Bluebird Rocky. Delvin and Doug Lyons campaigned the trotter during his sophomore year and most of the 4-year-old campaign in 2021. Darryl Lyons, a long-time friend of the family, served as trainer.

“It goes way back,” Delvin said. “We’ve known him for years. I think it goes back to Bluebird Regal. Ever since, from time to time we’ve had horses he’s taken from dad and tried them, just project horses I guess. Bluebird Rocky would be the first horse that he and I bought and it’s gone from there.”

To date, Bluebird Yoshi is the biggest success for Delvin, his brother and Lyons. Sired by Jailhouse Jesse out of the Indiana Sires Stakes final winner My Sweet Shiela, the gelding is a six-time winner with just shy of $119,500 on his card. Now 5, the trotter is close to returning to the track.

“He’s made over $100,000 for us and he’s trotted in [1]:52 as well, though he doesn’t have a mark of :52,” said Delvin. “You get excited and it’s fun. When Yoshi races I get shaky because I know how good he can actually be, but he has soundness issues.”

Bluebird Yoshi may be the favorite, but Myrll Vally is making a strong argument with her recent exploits. The filly was purchased at the inaugural Northern Indiana Speed Sale in Topeka in September 2021. Consigned by Mast Standardbreds, the trotter was the fourth yearling to pass through the sale ring, bringing $15,000. Delvin and his partners were prepared to spend more on the first foal from Cantab Hall mare Myrrh.

“We don’t obviously spend big money, you just can’t buy whatever you want,” he said. “I figured this filly would bring quite a bit more. I was really surprised we got her for that. That’s the one I went to the sale trying to buy. Lucky enough, we got her for what we did.”

Delvin works during the day at Jayco, one of the many recreational vehicle factories in northern Indiana. Outside of work, he breaks the yearlings and trains them, establishing a foundation before sending them to Lyons each April. He remembers the ease with which Myrll Vally took to training.

“On the farm track we went in [2]:30 with her,” Delvin said. “The day we broke her we really liked her. I just remember coming in the barn a couple times and I told the other guys, ‘I wish I had two like this and no other horses.’ She was just good gaited. She’s pretty sound and wears no equipment. She’s probably one of the easier ones to get going. She is real simply shod; she wears four plain shoes.”

Last season, the filly made seven starts, recording one win while finishing runner-up on two other occasions. After winning a division in the opening round of Indiana Sires Stakes last July, she finished out of the money in the next leg and was sidelined shortly after.

“She had two starts, and right after she won the sires stakes leg, she came up with a head nod,” said Delvin. “She actually ended up having a hairline fracture on her P1. We ended up giving her six weeks stall rest. She was ready to go for the second to last leg, but she made a break. In the last leg she came back and finished second.”

By virtue of that second-place effort, Myrll Vally qualified for the $270,000 Super Final, where Dale Hiteman piloted her to a fifth-place finish. She ended the season with $55,750 on her card.

“She had some bad luck with being hurt for a little bit in the middle of the summer,” Delvin said. “Overall, we were really, really happy.”

This season, four different drivers have sat behind the sophomore. Hiteman steered her to victory in a late-May qualifier, while Kyle Wilfong took the controls for her 3-year-old debut, a fourth-place effort. Trace Tetrick guided Myrll Vally to fourth in an opening leg sires stakes division before De Long reached the winner’s circle on July 4. The first seasonal score, and second win overall, came in her 10th career start.

“I didn’t think we could beat two or three of those fillies,” said Delvin. “If we raced well, we would be lucky to get a third out of it. We thought she would race good, but [1]:52 was a shocker.”

To top it off, the owner missed the race and had to get the results second-hand. Vacationing in California, Delvin was in the mountains and couldn’t get a signal to watch. His brother informed him afterward.

Heading into tonight’s (July 19) fourth leg, Myrll Vally has drawn into a bulky 11-horse field battling for the biggest share of a $96,500 purse. Without the field splitting into divisions, points become all the more crucial as five legs remain before the Super Final in October. The filly currently ranks fourth in the standings thanks to her July 4 triumph. With De Long opting for points leader Swanya, a filly he has steered to three sires stakes wins, Myrll Vally picks up the services of LeWayne Miller. She will line up in post 5 as fourth choice on the morning line with odds of 6-1. The contest caps Hoosier Park’s 14-race card tonight, with an advertised post time of 10:48 p.m.