Mike Miller lands Scottsville quintuple at cumulative odds of 6,300-1

Mike Miller had the day of his horse-training life at Scottsville on Saturday, with five winners on the eight-race card.

A tad frustratingly for Mike, he wasn’t on course to join the stable celebrations – illness keeping him at home for the day. It was left to assistant trainer Craig Eudey to sum things up.

“It’s been an incredible day. It’s almost like a dream!” said Eudey after winner No 5, Ninety Nine Heroes, had gone from pillar to post in the last race on the programme, a 1950m MR78 Handicap.

Fellow assistant trainer (and Mike’s son) Sterling Miller, a co-owner of all the five winners, felt moved to ring up TV presenter Warren Lenferna to exclaim that he’d never enjoyed a treble on a single day, let alone the quadruple he’d just watched on TV at home. And then there were five.

All To Come Win combo

The Miller quintuple arrived at cumulative win odds of 6,300-1!

The yard had been confident of a decent day when they loaded up 11 horses at their Summerveld base – for the short trip up the highway to Hollywoodbets Scottsville – but no-one dreamt of venturing a measly rand on that All To Come Win combo!

It all started in Race 3, with stable jockey Tristan Godden steering 2-1 favourite Flight Maneuver to a comfortable victory in a Maiden Plate for females.

The Millers were back in action in Race 5, with Godden pushing Billy Of Tea to a narrow maiden victory, with stable companion Only A Poet grabbing third.

In Race 6, the jockey repeated the dose on the filly Sabatini in an FM84 Handicap – and again in the seventh with five-year-old gelding Barzalona, who completed his fifth career victory.

Could the Miller-Eudey team make it five?

Ninety Nine Heroes

They had a good chance, sending out four of the 12 runners in the lucky last race on the card, with Godden’s mount Ancient World the apparent stable pick at 9-2.

But it was 16-1 shot Ninety Nine Heroes that jockey Mathew Thackeray kept bowling along to deliver the rousing curtain call.

The five-timer lifted Miller’s winning aggregate for the current season to 16 (from 130 runs) – topping the KwaZulu-Natal log on wins and placing second on stakes-money accrued.

A few weeks ago, Sterling Miller said the stable had set a target of 45 winners for the season, more than they’d achieved before, but with notions of a provincial championship not top mind. Now, with just over three months of the season elapsed, the team is already a third of the way to the target and the regional title has swum into view.