Miller rings up his 400th driving success

It almost went unnoticed, but the man with the ‘mo’ met his milestone 400 on Monday July 1 at Pinjarra when he partnered Jingling Jewels (Village Jolt) to victory in the seventh race on the card.

Mitchell Miller, who made his driving debut during the 2010/11 season was always destined to be heavily involved in harness racing, with his grandfather and father lifetime participants in the sport.

Driving horses from a young age, Miller never participated in Pony Trots, claiming he couldn’t go to the ‘slow’ ones after driving the real sized fast horses, but his parents had one rule before he was allowed to be as involved as he is today.

“Mum and dad made me go and get a trade before I was allowed to o trots which was a blessing in disguise, I didn’t think so at the time, as probably most kids would argue at the same time,

“I’m a Boilermaker by trade, I did that for four years and I think I quit two weeks after I got signed off as a tradesman and went and worked for Bondy (Greg Bond).”

JINGLING JEWELS REPLAY

With his driving journey starting at 15, he was an official race driver at 16 and

“I like to tell people that I had a pretty good apprenticeship, I went from Bondy’s, to Olivieri’s, I learnt a lot about horses and more of the training side of things when I was at Ross, and from Ross’ to Kim’s (Prentice), which has probably been the highlight of my career so far.”

Although yet to get that elusive Group 1 victory, Miller has had his fair share of big wins, with Gr2 fame in 2022 with Flametree in the 2YO APG Gold Bullion Final for the Fillies (albeit only a two-horse race), and Vultan Tin in the Gr2 Governers Cup that same year.

2022 was a big year for the then 27-year-old, with Flametree winning the Gr3 Gold Bracelet and again another victory with Vultan Tin, this time with the Gr3 Narrogin Cup.

Imahero won the Listed Western Crown Final for the fillies and in 2023 a stable favourite in Hector NZ winning the Gr3 Easter Cup, but it was the Busselton Cup in 2022 on board Awaitinginstructions that delivered Miller his most thrilling win.

“I’ve had big wins in town, but the best win would have to be Awaitinginstructions in the Busselton Cup,

“Because he was favourite and galloped on the first turn, lost 30/40m and caught them up, went around them down the back straight and won by the length of the straight pretty much,

“When he galloped I wasn’t very impressed with myself and I thought it might have been half my fault, I should have been a bit more patient and accept losing a position, but once he galloped I thought he lost his chance and in the end, it turned out he was a fair bit better than the rest of them.”

The humble young driver doesn’t have any big plans in the future and has just a simple goal of driving another winner or two in the next month.

For complete race results, click here.

by Ashleigh Paikos, for RWWA