Miller Plays His Joker For $4.2M

Hobby trainer and his dream horse thrust in limelight of Perth's richest race, The Quokka

- Michael Lee

Former power lineman Bernie Miller knows all about working off the ground, but could be scaling heights he probably would not want to come down from should Jokers Grin win Perth's richest race on April 26, The Quokka (1,200m).

The 70-year-old has been an off-and-on hobby trainer for four decades, relying on his day job at an electrical company to pay the bills.

Fatter cheques did, however, come his way with, amazingly, five "black type" winners among his haul of 67 winners all-up.

It is no coincidence those highlights occurred after he turned to training full-time in 2007, albeit still on a boutique scale.

The stable star had all along been Cup Night, who won the 2021 Group 3 Northam Stakes and two Listed races in 2019 and 2020.

Such is the romance of racing that Cup Night's full brother has now become Miller's "horse of a lifetime"—and is now in the hunt for the thicker end of a A$5 million (S$4.2 million) bounty.

Fourth on debut at Belmont, the son of Maschino out of Walk In Beauty then struck a purple patch of five wins in a row.