DEL MAR, Calif. – The opening two days of the Del Mar summer meeting last Friday and Saturday gave trainer Peter Miller a much-needed boost, and the hope the eight-week season will revive a quiet stretch for his prominent stable.
Miller has won eight training titles at Del Mar since 2012 – four at summer meetings and four in the fall. He has not won a training title at Del Mar since the summer of 2021 when he won 26 races. From 2022 through last year, he finished summer meetings ranked third, fourth and sixth.
Securing the title will be difficult with colleagues such as Bob Baffert, Phil D’Amato, Mark Glatt, and Doug O’Neill expected to be prominent through closing day of Sept. 7.
Through Sunday, Miller was one of four trainers with three wins through the first three days of the meeting, joined by D’Amato, Michael McCarthy, and John Sadler. There were five trainers with two wins.
Miller’s 70-horse stable will need to excel through the season to be that competitive, he said.
“I don’t know if we can do that,” Miller said of a training title. “I don’t think we have the numbers of the bigger barns. It’s a numbers game. I hope to win at a good percentage.”
By his standards, the 58-year-old Miller had a quiet 2024 season, winning 66 races with runners who earned more than $3.35 million. The figures were a far cry from his career-best of 133 wins and earnings of more than $8.07 million in 2018.
Through Sunday, Miller had 29 wins this year and stable earnings of more than $1.66 million. He was suspended for 15 days in February for a medication violation found in his one of his runners in 2024, a situation Miller described at the time as an “accidental contamination.”
A successful Del Mar summer meeting can enhance his statistics for the full year.
“I hope we can beat” 2024, he said. “It was a sub-par year. This year has been sub-par and I hope we’ll be up.”
On Friday’s opening day, Miller won two races with five starters – an allowance race for turf sprinters with Tejon Pass, and the $102,500 Oceanside Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile on turf with 19-1 Game Warrior.
Game Warrior, owned by Steve Reger’s Jethorse LLC, won for the second time in his 11th start, ending a five-race losing streak. Game Warrior will be pointed for the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby at 1 1/8 miles on turf on Aug. 31. The $100,000 La Jolla Handicap for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles on turf on Aug. 3 is a possibility, though the 16-day gap from the Oceanside is a concern.
“He’s going to have to tout me that he’s ready to go,” Miller said.
“I’m not ruling it out. He’s a big, stout horse that can take some training and racing.”
Miller is set to have a busy start to the four-day racing week at Del Mar. He has entries in three races on Thursday, and five runners entered for Friday, including Young Love in the $150,000 Fleet Treat Stakes for California-bred 3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs.
Young Love, owned and bred by Kirk and Judy Robison, won her first start of 2025 in a maiden race for statebred fillies at six furlongs on turf at Santa Anita on June 15. She finished sixth of 10 in her only other start, in June 2024.
In coming weeks, Miller has stakes goals with Style Cat and Mo’ Em Down.
Style Cat, winner of the Echo Eddie Stakes at Santa Anita on 3-year-olds on April 5, is expected to run in the $150,000 Real Good Deal at seven furlongs for statebred 3-year-olds on Aug. 1, while Mo’ Em Down, who won a maiden race at 5 1/2 furlongs by 9 1/2 lengths at Churchill Downs on June 21 in her second start, is a candidate for the Grade 3 Sorrento Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at six furlongs on Aug. 10.
Mo’ Em Down was Miller’s third winner in June and part of a late spring-early summer revival for the stable, which has 11 wins since June 1. Miller tied for leading trainer with Steve Knapp at the Los Alamito summer meeting with six wins.
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