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Miller wins Del Mar summer meet trainer championship

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

Peter Miller, whose horses train at the San Luis Rey Training Center when they are not at the track where they are racing, won the 2021 Del Mar Thoroughbred Club summer meet trainer championship.

Miller saddled 26 winners during the meet which began July 16 and concluded Sept. 6. Bob Baffert was second in the trainer standings with 20 victories.

"It feels great to win the title," Miller said.

Miller's 144 starts also included 23 second-place results and 23 third-place finishes. His $1,888,594 in earnings also led all trainers for the meet. "Very nice to win both the number of wins and money won," he said.

Doug O'Neill and Richard Baltas both have some horses based at San Luis Rey while also having stalls at Santa Anita Park. O'Neill and Baltas won 14 races apiece during the meet to share fifth place in the trainer standings. O'Neill's horses finished second 23 times and third 20 times, and O'Neill had $1,043,000 of earnings for his 146 starts. Baltas saddled 99 mounts with 10 of those finishing second and 14 taking third, and he had earnings of $1,136,420.

Miller's None Above the Law finished ninth among the 12 horses in the July 16 Runhappy Oceanside Stakes, but None Above the Law raced in two other stakes races during the meet and won both. He won the July 30 Real Good Deal Stakes by 5 1/4 lengths. His race on the meet's final weekend was the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby for 3-year-olds and in that Sept. 4 race he had a 3/4-length final margin over second-place Flashiest and won the 1 1/8-mile turf race in 1:48.97. None Above the Law was also voted as the top 3-year-old of the meet.

Miller added a second stakes race win on the meet's closing weekend Sept. 5 when Liam's Dove won the Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf Stakes race for 2-year-old fillies. She won the one-mile turf contest in 1:36.65 and finished a head in front of second-place Helen's Well.

"Great to win two stakes closing weekend," Miller said.

Baltas and O'Neill each had one San Luis Rey horse win a stakes race on the summer meet's final weekend. Baltas trains Going to Vegas, who was at San Luis Rey in 2019 and 2020. The 4-year-old filly won the Grade 2 John C. Mabee Stakes contested Sept. 4, finishing the 1 1/8-mile turf race for fillies and mares 3 years old and upward in 1:48.14 and finishing 2 1/4 lengths in front of second-place Dogtag.

Mackinnon is trained by O'Neill at San Luis Rey. The colt won the Sept. 6 Del Mar Juvenile Turf Stakes race for 2-year-olds, finishing the one-mile turf contest in 1:36.24 and crossing the finish line 1 3/4 lengths ahead of Thirty Four Coupe.

Miller was also the trainer champion for Del Mar's 2020 summer meet. Last year attendance was restricted to owners. The 2021 meet allowed fans. "Much nicer with the fans there," Miller said.

The Del Mar meet championship was the ninth for Miller at the track where the turf meets the surf and his fifth for a Del Mar summer meet. He won his first Del Mar trainer championship in 2012, shared the 2014 Del Mar summer trainer championship with Jerry Hollendorfer, and won the 2018 summer meet championship. Del Mar's fall meet began in 2014, and Miller has won the 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2018 trainer championships.

"All the credit to my great team and my owners for giving me the opportunity," Miller said.

 

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