Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Erv Miller Shifts Focus

December 22, 2005

Springfield-based Erv Miller is slowly shifting his focus to training just two and three-year-old stakes competitors. This year at Harrisburg Miller spent just slightly less than $1 million purchasing a great group of open bred pacers, including Modern Desire for $255,000 and Western Threads for $110,000. Modern Desire is by Real Desire, out of the Wendy M Hanover, while Western Threads is by Western Hanover, out of Threads of Life. Miller is spending less and less on the Illinois breeding program and concentrating more on open bred horses.

"I'm buying more open-bred yearlings now because the local market in Illinois just isn't that good," Miller noted. "Illinois was a great state to be in until we lost the Million Dollar Bonus, but since we lost that, we've been on the down side."

The Million Dollar Bonus was for Illinois-bred horses who won three of four races at Springfield, DuQuoin and Chicago and were then rewarded with $1 million dollars or a share of that if there were multiple winners.

"We need to figure what makes horse racing attracctive to the public today, like it was years ago," Miller said. "Today there are so many other forms of entertainment that we have to figure out a way to make horse racing THE entertainment. Something like NASCAR. Make it a big event, so that it's just not horse racing. You have your nightly racing, but once a month, put together a big event, like the Illinois Super Night. Make it so people want to see it--make the quality of horses better so people are encouraged to attend the races."

"There's a saturation in Chicago," Miller continued. "I'd like to see a schedule similar to New Jersey or Delaware, where tracks take two to three months off. Instead of racing year-round for the same amount we race for, go just two-thirds of the year. That's something that might help, so that our market won't be so saturated. As it stands now, I'll have a stable in New Jersey and Canada from about May through the end of the year. That's just because of the limited opportunity to race here in Illinois for those folks with quality horses."

"You can't promote mediocrity and you don't want it," Miller added. "Horses like Loyal Opposition make the sport. They're the type of horses that fans will follow." "As well, sooner or later I'll be forced to move my family and my entire operation elsewhere, where the industry is a lot stronger," he said. "I'm a proponent of the idea that in this sport, the harder you work at it, the more you try, the better you can be."