Strive for perfection could create instant ‘Classic’ in New Jersey

by Debbie Little

There’s always electricity in the air at The Meadowlands when an undefeated horse is competing.

Tonight (Sept. 11), the connections of Wall Of Fame and Aintmyfirstro Deo hope lightning strikes twice, as they both look to remain unbeaten in their respective New Jersey Classic (NJC) finals.

In all, there will be eight finals contested at The Big M for male and female freshmen and sophomores on the trot and pace.

Wall Of Fame is the 9-5 morning-line favorite (race 6, post 2) in the $250,000 NJC final for 2-year-old filly trotters, while Aintmyfirstro Deo (race 11, post 9) is the early 2-1 choice in the $150,000 final for 2-year-old male pacers.

Wall Of Fame is a product of the trainer-and-driver / wife-and-husband team of Julie and Andy Miller and is owned by Andy Miller Stable Inc, Jean Goehlen, Hutchison Harness LLC (Doctors Randall and Robert Hutchison), and Rick Huffman.

“I’m really lucky, me and Andy, we’ve really developed a business model of trying to own as many as we can with our partners slash friends that we have the horses with,” Julie said. “And with this horse, that’s what’s happened, and I don’t know, I’m just trying to take it race by race and not overthink things.”

The daughter of Walner out of the Donato Hanover mare Saadet is seven-for-seven in her young career.

“Right now, she makes it very easy on me; she’s an easy keeper, she’s easy on herself,” Julie said, adding with a laugh, “I don’t have any major issues that I worry about that are not just the normal daily issues with any horse in my barn, so I try to keep that type of mentality because I could just end up in a straitjacket if I don’t.”

The Megan Scran-trained, Scott Zeron-driven, Aintmyfirstro Deo, a gelded son of Perfect Sting out of the Somebeachsomewhere mare Some Renditions, is five-for-five on the season.

Other than both being undefeated, Wall Of Fame and Aintmyfirstro Deo share a commonality in ownership as the Doctors Hutchison are co-owners of the former and sole owners of the latter.

Wall Of Fame and Aintmyfirstro Deo may both be perfect, but their paths to get there were quite different.

Julie had her eye on Wall Of Fame at the 2025 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, almost didn’t walk out with her.

“They actually said that she got sold, but I was screaming I didn’t get a bid in,” Julie said. “I was like jumping up and down in my spot… and where I stand, I guess the sun hits me where they can’t see me very well. And my brother-in-law [trainer] Erv [Miller] was standing behind me and he was like, ‘Hey, she’s trying to bid over here.’ And then they reopened up the bidding and sold her to me for $60,000.

“When I got her for [$60,000], I was just tickled pink, but you never know when you buy a yearling what you’re going to get until you get home.

“What I always try to do is explain it to people in human terms. Every day you get up, do you want to hop out of bed and get going? Some days you’re groggy and some days you think you could run a marathon, and other days you just want to get up and get a cup of coffee and sit down. Horses are living animals, they’re the same way.”

The creatively named Deo Volente Farms-bred Aintmyfirstro Deo was sold the same day as Wall Of Fame about 100 hips later, for $27,000.

“The owners picked him out and just asked me to train the horse,” Scran said. “I’d never seen the horse before or looked at him. They just said, ‘We bought this horse, we’d like for you to train him. Would you take him?’ And of course, I said yes.”

As Miller said, Wall Of Fame has been easy from day one, but Scran did not have that same experience with the fella they call “Rodeo” in the barn.

“He got gelded early because he was pretty naughty on the track when he first got broke,” Scran said. “He would actually lay down all the time with the jog cart on. He would throw tantrums and just lay down. So, you know, it took him a while to actually get going, and he was a bit behind and he caught up rather quickly, and once he got it all figured out, we were all getting along finally.”

Scran said she and the owners were totally on the same page in making the decision to geld Aintmyfirstro Deo.

“At that point you’ve just got to take a step back and go back to the drawing board again,” she said. “Why is he behaving like this? Is there anything we’re doing he doesn’t like? Is he just being naughty or is this just the process of learning? Every horse is different.

“Once he finally was like, ‘All right, I’ll do what you want,’ he just was like, one, two, three, four, never really put a foot out of place, and he’s just done his work excellent.”

Some of the special sauce that goes into the mix of making both of these horses as good as they are is the relationship between their trainer and driver.

“We’ve never had an argument about a drive because he knows what’s going on,” Julie said of her husband of 30+ years. “We might have a humorous conversation when I go, ‘Really, Andy, :26 to the quarter?’ and he says, ‘Oh, I thought the light was out, I thought it was a 28.’ Then we laugh.

“Andy doesn’t have the luxury to hang up the lines and walk away. Andy has to look at the horse the next day.

“I think people gravitate towards us because they like that fact [that we’re a family stable], they like that [my son] Tyler and Andy drive them and know the horse very well and have a vested interest in them. And I think that’s what develops the chemistry. Andy’s seen her in the barn and Tyler broke her as a yearling because we were in Lexington, and we’ve all sat behind her numerous times, and we know the horse, you know, and that seems to work for what we do.”

Julie added with a laugh, “Hats off to everybody else that has to work for eight months on a horse and give the lines to somebody else and hope it works out, you know, I’m a very controlling person, so that’s hard for me.”

Scran has just as much confidence in her significant other Zeron, and she said he’s not afraid to let her know what he thinks of a horse.

“Maybe with a trainer where he’s just a catch driver, he kind of sugarcoats it a little bit, but he can be brutally honest to me,” Scran said. “And I tell him you’re out there for two minutes with this horse, it’s different for us trainers, we’re working so hard on these horses all week long and your two minutes of glory doesn’t work out, so sometimes it can be pretty upsetting when they come off the track mad and use harsh words.

“So, we’ve had our headbutts over that stuff before, but that’s racing, I guess.”

Despite the fact that Wall Of Fame has done so well up to this point, Julie said she’s not yet thinking about the possibilities for next year.

“So, Andy has done a good job of programming me to worry about what’s the present, so I don’t, I’m worried about this Friday,” Julie said adding with a laugh, “I can’t do that to myself because again, I would need medication and a straitjacket.

“I can think about something two weeks down the road or two years down the road, but the only thing I can control is what’s happening right now in the moment, so it serves no purpose, so I can’t do that to myself.”

Julie said she recently saw Scran in Kentucky and wished her luck for tonight with Rodeo.

“I told her ‘Five-for-five girl, get it done, get to six-for-six,’” Julie said. “She puts her heart and soul in her horses, and, we’re rooting for her.”

Scran said she’s happy with how far Aintmyfirstro Deo has come since being gelded.

“So, he’s been like a real pleasant surprise,” Scran said. “He’s shown that he obviously can win on front, he’s had to do that quite a bit, and the day he came from last [in his second] start, it was pretty impressive to see him come from last like that. Just his will and desire to win was pretty awesome.

“He’s not staked to a whole lot just because of all the early-on issues and, because of the issues we were dealing with, we missed some of the early-on payments with him. This could potentially be his last start of this year because it’s like a month-and-a-half break until the next Kindergarten [leg], and is it really worth keeping him going?

“He’s already done a lot on the track and that’ll be a discussion with the owners and, you know, hopefully he races superb on Friday and we will figure it out from there.

“I’m pretty confident in him, and Scott really likes him also. So, I kind of wish he was eligible to some type of Grand Circuit race this year, but we’ll have to plan ahead for that for next year at 3.”