Plastic suits, elephant juice and a very hot oven: JJ Miller reflects ahead of Hall of Champions honour

It’s a mixed bag, the life of a jockey. There are the silk road days when the fasting and physiotherapy, dealing with testy trainers and fending off prickly punters make it all worthwhile. There are the bad days when the gods frown down from equine heaven. And then there are the this-is-a bloody-hard-job sort of days. West Australian hoop John “JJ” Miller experienced them all over four decades of dominance from 1947 to 1988 when he rode more than 2200 winners. None more than Ascot on New Year’s Day, 1987, when temperatures soared to 34C by mid-afternoon for the 101st running of the Perth Cup. Colourful racing and business identity, Laurie Connell, “shouted” the members’ section at Ascot after his four-year-old Rocket Racer won the Perth Cup with Miller on board. Connell was feeling generous because he’d invested $500,000 – and also scooped up the $210,000 in prizemoney for first place in the 3200m classic – after Rocket Racer had started a $3 favourite. They were wild times in the West and no one defined them more than Connell, who would five years later be charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice and serve a year in prison after paying a jockey to fall off a horse. While Connell was partying, the scenes were not as jubilant a couple of floors below when Rocket Racer and Miller returned to scale. Miller was drained after he’d shed about 6kg to get down to a weight of 48kg in order to ride Rocket Racer. His wife Kay and children had bet him he couldn’t get down to 48. They should have known better. It was always a big mistake to bet against Miller. Miller recalls living in a “plastic suit” but was also “black and blue” from a bad fall in a race in the lead up. “I got my weight down and I didn’t feel too bad considering the night before I was 45kg and I rode him at 48,” Miller told The West Australian. “But I also had this hematoma (blood clot) in my right leg that was nearly as big as a football and that was causing a bit of pain and aggravation. “I was told ‘Don’t worry JJ, if you get to the mile and it hasn’t affected you, it’ll be OK’. Well, you wouldn’t credit it, I went past the mile at Ascot and I felt it burst in my leg.” Miller recalls another unusual part of Perth Cup race day in 87 when Connell produced rosary beads from his pocket which he said were blessed by the Pope. Miller told Connell he didn’t need them as the horse was a “certainty” but, looking back, wished he’d accepted them. A few months earlier, Miller had ridden Rocket Racer for the first time in Queensland. “I remember Laurie asked me what I thought of him and I said he is a Cup horse. And Laurie said great I want to win another Perth Cup. But I was thinking more of the Caulfield-Melbourne cups,” Miller said. Rocket Racer looked in trouble early in the Perth Cup but soon settled into a nice pace under Miller riding in yellow with purple striped sleeves and a quartered cap. Miller was over 50 at the time and nearing the end of a glorious career that was headlined by the 1966 Triple Crown – Melbourne, Caulfield and Sydney cups – on Galilee. The triumph on Rocket Racer gave Miller back to back Perth cups after his win on Ullyatta in 1986. “I was asked before the race how I was going to ride Rocket Racer and I said ‘if I can’t find a pacemaker he can lead all the way’,” Miller said. “He used to pull. He wasn’t easy to ride. We go past the mile and ping, my leg goes, and we went down the hill at the six furlong at Ascot and I led him out to the front and he is working along going beautifully. “Halfway around the turn, Harry White (on second placed Puckle Harbour) was pushing and I said F…k off Harry. I let him go and he won by nine lengths.” As Miller was giving his post-race interview, a feisty Rocket Racer could be seen in the background sweating buckets. “I don’t know how many gallons of sweat he lost because it was a very hot day and he got dehydrated,” Miller said. Chief steward John Mahoney ordered the entire directly to his stall for emergency treatment where he was given a saline drench. He could not be swabbed which has remained a contentious point to this day as two of Connell’s horses had tested positive to Etorphine, or Elephant Juice. Both horses were trained by George Way, who was disqualified for two decades. Rocket Racer was trained by Brian “Buster” O’Malley. “I reckon I rode seven horses who were alleged to have had elephant juice … one of them who tested positive never raised a sweat and ran like a kid’s pony,” Miller said. Four weeks later, Rocket Racer finished fourth in the Queen’s Cup and enjoyed a few months of rest before beginning a preparation for the Melbourne Cup. Sadly, on July 9, 1987, he was rushed to Murdoch University Veterinary Hospital after suffering a severe colic attack and passed away the next day. Miller is convinced the horse did not run assisted. “It was b… s…t. They couldn’t test him because they had already treated him for the dehydration,” Miller recalled. “If you believe all the talk, they reckon he dropped dead on the track. But he actually ran again.” An already decorated life in and out of the saddle will be honoured when Miller, now 91, is elevated to legend status in the WA Hall of Champions at Crown Casino on November 11, having been inducted in 1995. Thirteen years earlier, Miller’s horsemanship was on display when he piloted three-year-old colt Haymaker to victory in the 1974 Victoria Derby at Flemington. Miller accepted the offer to ride Haymaker from trainer Colin Hayes on the Monday before the race, along with three other mounts. The derby was the first time Miller had ridden Haymaker, who was well backed from $7 into $4.50. Hayes was so confident of his colt winning the Derby he stated: “Whatever beats him wins the Derby. I would not swap my horse for any other in the race.” His confidence was well placed, despite drama in the starting stalls when Selenus, positioned next to Haymaker in the gate, reared and got his legs into Miller’s stall. After inspection, Haymaker was cleared to run and then stumbled on the jump and Miller had to call on all of his skill to maintain his place from the inside barrier. Then, at the first time past the winning post, Haymaker was crowded and suffered interference. Miller and Haymaker hung in there and sitting second with just 30m to go the leader Pyramul stumbled and lost his balance. Miller seized the moment, drove his colt forward on the line to beat Pyramul by a short head. “He drew two and was going to be in an ideal spot but the horse went off next to me in the barrier,” Miller said. “Having the blinkers on, he hesitated and missed the kick by about half a length. “So instead of being where I wanted to be running four or five I was at the arse end of the field. “That was the year they had the floods in Melbourne. Luckily doing my homework I knew when you hit the half mile it was going from a nice smooth surface into a bog. “We hit the bog and I lost a couple of lengths but I steadied him up on a bit better track and got him running again.” Miller rarely used the whip but says he had no choice in the 1974 Victoria Derby. “Haymaker got to the front and started to stargaze a bit and on one of the very few occasions I pulled the whip and turned his head so he could see the other horse and give him a whack with the whip and he put his head out and got the money,” he said. One of Miller’s great disappointments was a protest that was upheld and cost him victory on wonder mare La Trice in the 1970 Railway Stakes. La Trice was the first filly to win the Group 1 Karrakatta Plate for two year olds in 1967 and the Railway Stakes as a three year old in 1968. She cantered to a 2½-length victory in the 1970 Railway Stakes, with Miller in the saddle, but was stripped of the win due to interference at the start, with runner-up Kilrickle elevated. The protest caused a near riot at Ascot and Miller remains convinced it was the wrong call. “She drew badly and the talk was I was going to jump out and use her speed and get over but I decided to let her walk out of the gates and wait,” he said. “The Railway was always one of the races where … before it became a mile there was always interference in the first furlong. “I let her fall out of the gates and then when all the shuffling and interference was going on, I let her work out go around and one out, one back, a beautiful position. “I hung on to her til the furlong post, gave her a kick and she won by about two lengths. No problem. “Next thing there is a protest. La Trice, had she drawn four or five, would have been odds on favourite but because she drew so bad she was seven or eight to one. “I was behind them watching it all go on when the interference was going on. “It was controversial. But when you look at the footage and the head on video it shows exactly what happened.” Miller was born into an Irish racing family so was always drawn to the sport. His father was a successful trainer, while four of his uncles were jockeys and he married Kay Zinneker, daughter of a prominent Fremantle trainer. Their sons, Shane and Mark, also became successful jockeys. Two of Miller’s most emotional wins were on Ulyatt in the 1986 Perth Cup and Muss Muffet in the 1987 Railway Stakes as both were trained by his wife. He recalled Miss Muffet as being “in the box seat all the way”. “Everything went well. She didn’t win by much, but that was special to us,” he said. “Kay had selected her at the sale. She’s been such a big part of my journey. I owe her a lot.” At 91, Miller still looks like he could still ride a winner. He regularly scales the fence at the family’s old heritage listed Palmyra bakery and climbs a lemon tree to pick the best fruit and swims five days a week in the summer at Bathers Beach, Fremantle, and in winter will head to the “family” pool at Bicton. The bakery holds a place close to his heart. Back before saunas were de rigueur, Miller would lay on a wooden board in in two hessian sacks and slide into the oven, still hot from the morning’s bake, to lose weight before a race. Normally, Miller would stick his head out of the oven door but on one occasion he slid all the way in. What happened next almost changed the course of history. His grandpa entered the bakery, saw the oven door was open and slammed it shut. With Miller still inside. “He walks in and I hear his footsteps ‘clump, clump, clump’, and then ‘Who left this door open and bang. It shuts. Well, I was in shock. But the time I yelled out’ ‘Gramps’ it was too late and he wouldn’t have heard me anyway because he was too deaf,” Miller said. “Fortunately, Grandpa had this ritual. He would come in with half a kerosine tin of water and he would put it in where the coals are to heat it up. “I could hear him turn the tap on to put water in the kerosine tin and I knew I had one chance. “He opened the fire door where all the hot coals were, I got over as close as I could and yelled ‘Gramps, Gramps’ open the door’. “Lucky he didn’t have a heart attack. He pulled the door back and said ‘Gee John James you are lucky’, turned around and walked out. “I got out, went and got every bit of string I could and wound it around the door handle and tied it back and jumped back in. It wasn’t going to happen again. “Had he not heard me I would have been a biscuit and Kay would have been the youngest widow with two kids going around.” Having sat in the oven for a while, JJ then made his way to Ascot for that afternoon’s races. And rode two winners.