Twas the night before Perth racing’s new Christmas, and all through the town, creatures are stirring like the unique marsupial its new $4m slot race The Quokka is named after, all except the man thought most likely to win it.
That’s Simon Miller who trains the $3 favorite Amelia’s Jewel, who some might outrageously claim to be the best sporting machine out of the west since Australia II with itswinged keel 30 years ago.
What special motor (already likened to a Ferrari for horsepower), Amelia’s Jewel possesses may be well needed from it’s now well known outside barrier in The TABTouchQuokka, she is racing in the slot of the sponsor for the $2m first prize.
And if Miller is John Bertrand come Ben Lexcen, the mare’s owner Peter Walsh is its Alan Bond (perhaps a touch richer). Both larger than life characters but nonchalantly refusing to get carried away or ahead of themselves as Amelia’s’ Jewel tries to put a big stamp on Racing And Wagering Western Australia’s huge investment in the tri-code Western Trilogy series including The Nullabor (trots) and Sandgroper (greyhounds).
While wherever you look in Perth is a picture of a cuteish Quokka or front and back pages of Amelia’s Jewel, there is no need to mention any pressure to Miller or Walsh. They eat it, and both look as though they love a feed.
“I don’t feel the pressure, I actually enjoy it,” said Miller.
“The media thing doesn’t bother me (he had five radio slots lined up just on Thursday morning), we had a photoshoot with a model and Ferrari which didn’t really work out one day, but I just ride the bumps if there are any and keep doing what I’m doing,” Miller said at a blissfully quiet Ascot trackwork morning this week.
He bounces around rollicking banter with his loyal staff. “Everyone knows the drill, I don’t have to bark orders, I just muck around with them all,” he says.
And there are just 28 horses in the stable, though he leads the premiership and money stakes for the season. “I suppose I should get 50 or 60 but I don’t’ want any more, it doesn’t mean I will not be getting any faster ones and it just puts pressure on the system.”
So, you get the sense no pressure cooks around the Miller barn. It seems more loaded with fun. And with that comes the awe of watching Amelia’s Jewel, and the sense of serenity and excitement she brings.
“When I go to the races, I don’t get jittery, I’m just a fan. I go there and thoroughly enjoy it, the reality is you won’t get your mitts on a horse like this again, if you do you are going alright, so why shirk from the task, enjoy it, take it head on and see where you end up on this wild ride.”
This wild ride has only been relatively short seven Ascot wins from eight starts, but with that has come the hype, albeit some self-induced, and as much ‘how good could she be.” And come Quokka time some say she may need to be, others, including Miller a little reservedly so, suspecting we might get to see the answer.
“Everything suggests we are about to see the best of her and that’s the exciting part. At the races or at home we have never had to bottom her out and as of right now we haven’t got to the bottom of her,” he said.
“But I do know she is a machine, she’s bombproof, has the best brain, no horse I have worked with or seen has a turn of foot, the acceleration, that she has, that’s what gives me the confidence."
“I could train her for anything but the only thing I haven’t worked out is what her best distance will be and winning The Quokka might not solve that part of the puzzle, but all I can say is it has been plain sailing this time in and she is ready to go.”
You sense that is Miller was any more relaxed and laid-back he’d be nonchalantly horizontal.
On Miller’s Quokka day, he has six other runners prior, including four in the Group 2 Karrakatta Plate, a race won last year by Amelia’s Jewel, and he is part-owner with long time stable client Ray Meadowcroft in odds-on favorite Live To Tell (running against Walsh’s colours on Wiley Girl).
“I’ll just get there and enjoy the day, punch a couple of beers with a few of the different owners. There is one (Meadowcroft), he likes to have one or two beers in a certain bar, go and pat the horse and then watch the race, so while that’s keeps happening, I’ll keep doing it.”
Not as comfortable though is his partner Ellie Crispe, who is going to The Quokka but under sufferance. No marquees, no tables - ‘she’ll be watching out the back, we’ve got some friends coming from the east, so if they’d made the effort, she is making the effort to go, but hates it.”
“She gets pretty nervous on the big days,” said Miller. “She stays home and cleans the house and when I say clean the house, I can get home after a big day and it’s just spotless because she’s too scared to watch.”
Like Karrakata Plate day last year when Miller was desperate to win the race for Walsh whose Amelia Park brand had sponsored it for years without success.
“It was COVID time, we couldn’t get an Uber, go to a restaurant or a bar, Pat (Carbery) took his kids out of school for a week, we just wanted to win the Karrakatta, we were desperate for Walshy,” Miller said.
“My partner (Ellie) stayed home as usual to clean the house. I remember breaking down crying at the track which I never do, but then when I eventually went home, I walked in and the front half of the house was pristine and the back half was as is, as soon as she’d crossed the line, she broke open the champagne and kicked back to enjoy it,” Miller said.
There are plenty of others with plenty riding and vested interested in an Amelia’s Jewel win today, thanks to Miller.
There are massive multi’s - “super spreaders” - Miller calls them from tips he gave when at a charity lunch for his late great mate Deane Lester.
“We are already out, I tipped them Awesome John to win the WA Derby (which it did last week), because I knew it was coming to stay at my joint and if it turned up it would just win, it was about $11 or $12 at the time and I just told them it can’t lose but back it to cover the bets and take them into Live To Tell in the Karrakatta and Amelia’s Jewel in The Quokka."
“I think some got as much as $130, some $80, some $60 and then they took ins and outs, Awesome John into the pair separately but there are some massive results riding on the day,” Miller said.
None more so than Walsh and Miller, not the $2m first prize will change the owner’s life, but being a proud West Australian and a thoroughly through and through Busselton boy to boot, it’s why they are running in the local TABTouchslot, (and it was announced on Thursday that their share of the prizemoney would be going to local charities.)
“It was only a couple of years ago, a big client of Neville Parnham’s, Mick Fagan, came up with our slot race idea, 12 shares for a minimum $4m, trainers signed up for 10, Bob Peter took one and we went to RWWA to take the other for a sponsor or sell it, but it got squashed on the head at the time."
“Then about a year or so later they came up with their own version with 14 slots and here we are, but it’s very easy to fall of the cliff in returns if you don’t run top two,” Miller said.
And it was Amelia’s Jewel won the Group I Northerly and Miller announced that The Quokka was the autumn goal, that slow holders stepped up.
“We got an offer from every one of the slot holders. Pete just said that we’ve got to nip this in the bud so other slot holder and do their thing and I can get on with training her."
“There were absolute rippers in the deals, some charity, some adventurous, but for Pete it was about being local, and you can see at Ascot the TABTouch sign next to the Amelia Park sign just past the winning post so there is no coincidence in that.”
And post Quokka? There is a trip east with The Golden Eagle the main target, how to get there (perhaps via Melbourne) to be determined.
And after that?
"Walshy just got back from the Dubai World Cup and said next year let’s just bloody enjoy it, he said Dubai, Royal Ascot, but let’s just enjoy the ride and lap it up,” Miller said.
You sense they will, in spades.
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