Born East Fremantle WA
28 April 1933
John Miller experienced many highs and lows during his 41-year career as a jockey. He rode more than 2200 winners but forfeited hundreds of possible winning rides through suspension, disqualification or weight problems. His fearless riding and volatile disposition led to many scrapes with the stewards and more than 30 penalties meant he spent about seven years of his career on the sidelines.
From an Irish family with a strong racing background, horse racing was in his blood. His father was a successful trainer, four of his uncles were jockeys, he married Kay Zinneker, daughter of a prominent Fremantle trainer, and their sons, Shane and Mark, blossomed into accomplished jockeys.
Miller rode his first winner when having his sixth race mount in 1947 and had his last mount in 1988, though he did not officially retire until 1990. He rode winners in all Australian States and also experienced success in Mauritius, Ireland, England and Singapore. His first mount in Ireland was a winner but he could not stand the cold climate and returned home after six months.
Miller had several scrapes with WA stewards before heeding advice to try his luck elsewhere and he eventually settled in Adelaide where he rode for leading trainers Colin Hays and Bart Cummings. After having been photo-finished into second place in the 1965 Melbourne Cup, Miller hit the high spots in the 1966-67 season when he completed a rare Caulfield-Melbourne-Sydney Cups treble on Galilee, his choice as the best horse he ever rode.
Home in Perth after 10 years in Melbourne and Adelaide, Miller rode the winners of six Australian Derbies, two Perth Cups and a Railway Stakes. His fondest racing memories are winning the 1986 Perth Cup on Ulyatt and 1987 Railway Stakes on Miss Muffet, both trained by his wife.
Miller was not noted for a copybook riding style. But there was no doubting the effectiveness of his superb balance, coolness in a tightly-packed field, ability to seize needle-eye openings with split-second timing and power in the dash to the winning post.