Thanks to Joe Clancy of This is Horse Racing for much of the information and quotes in this article.

 

UNIONVILLE, Pa.--F. Bruce Miller, 89, the top steeplechase trainer who trained Hall of Fame Lonesome Glory, died in early April.

Bruce Miller (Photo by Tod Marks)
Not only was Miller a top trainer, but he passed on his ability as both his children were top jockeys as is his grandson.

His daughter Blythe was the National Steeplechase Association champion jockey in 1994 and 1995, and his son Chip was NSA champion jockey in 1996.

Miller's daughter Blythe rode Lonesome Glory throughout most of his illustrious career, and Blythe's son Teddy carries on the family tradition as a top young steeplechase jockey.

 Miller, who trained both flat and steeplechase horses but was best known for hurdle horses, trained for 60 years and won 561 races on the flat and over jumps, earning more than $10 million.

He was NSA Leading Trainer Races Won in 1996 and Leading Trainer Money Won twice, in 1995 and 2000, despite never training more than 15 horses at a time.

Miller trained the top steeplechaser Lonesome Glory, who was elected to the Hall of Fame, won over $ 1.3 Million, and is the only jumper to capture five Eclipse Awards,

Miller also conditioned NSA 2000 champion All Gong and NSA 2012 champion Pierrot Lunaire, owned by Calvin Houghland.

Miller's other top runners include grade 1 stars Pelagos, Popular Gigalo, and Yellowroad, along with stakes winners Turkish Corner, High Card, Najim, Best Attack and Serenity Prayer.

 

MILLER trained out of Fox Ferret Farm near Unionville.

"We used to fox hunt from his farm near Lahaska when that area was still so open," said Jeanne Sharpe. "Bruce was such a Renaissance horseman involved in so many equestrian disciplines and excelled at them all!. He will be greatly missed."

Miller also loved foxhunting.

He  was joint-master at Cheshire Foxhounds from 2003 to 2013, and enjoyed hunting with Cheshire huntsman Ivan Dowling.

Miller’s father Fulmer was the huntsman of the Huntingdon Valley Hunt in Pennsylvania and operated a local horse shipping business.

Miller showed and foxhunted through high school.

He entered the U.S. Army in the mid-1950s.

While at Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty) in North Carolina, he rode with the Moore County Hounds in Southern Pines and in 1957 rode in the Sandhills Cup and Carolina Cup timber races.

 He started a horse business after the Army.

“I gave lessons, tried to make hunters, worked as a whip,” he said in 1996.

Miller rode races as an amateur, winning a single NSA-sanctioned race, the open timber at Monmouth County aboard Durock in 1976.

He rode in four Maryland Hunt Cups, falling at the fifth fence in 1964 with Chestnut Chief and riding Eastmac three times.

On Eastmac, he fell at the third in 1972, finished second in 1973 and was third in 1975.

As a trainer, Miller won the Maryland Hunt Cup three times, with Our Steeplejack in 1985, Solo Lord in 2001 and Make Me A Champ in 2005.

Miller trained mainly flat horses trough the 80s training 37 winners in 1984 and 43 winners in 1985.

Our Steeplejack’s Hunt Cup victory helped attract horses and owners to train with Miller.

In 1988,, Virginia Kraft Payson sent Grade 1 turf winner Uptown Swell to Miller, and, in 1989, the son of Master Derby won his first four starts over jumps and finished second in the New York Turf Writers Cup at Saratoga.

Kay Jefford's Lonesome Glory was sent to Miller in 1991, and as a 3-year-old ran three times on the flat at NSA meets, then won his hurdle debut at Fair Hill on the 1991 Breeders’ Cup Steeplechase undercard.

He ran eight times in 1992, winning four over jumps and two on the flat topped by an unprecedented novice hurdle triumph at Cheltenham in December.

The victory earned Jeffords a $75,000 bonus, made Miller the first American trainer to saddle an English hurdle/chase winner and gave Lonesome Glory the Eclipse Award as America’s champion steeplechase horse as much for making history as anything he did on the track.

He won the Eclipse Award again the next year thanks to an 8 1/2-length romp in the Breeders’ Cup at Belmont Park, and stayed a force in the division through 1999.

His 1995 season – second in the Temple Gwathmey and wins in the Iroquois, A.P. Smithwick, New York Turf Writers and Colonial Cup plus a chase win at England’s Sandown Racecourse – is one of the best by an American steeplechaser.

Lonesome Glory won 17 American jump races including three Colonial Cups, two Carolina Cups, the Iroquois, Smithwick, Turf Writers, Breeders’ Cup, Temple Gwathmey and Grade 1 races at Keeneland and Churchill Downs.

His $965,809 in purse earnings are still third all-time.

On top of that, he won twice over jumps in England (one hurdle, one chase) and earned another $325,000 in bonuses.

Combined (flat, jump, U.S., England), he won 24 of 44 starts, earned $1,325,868 and was inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame in 2005.

Belmont Park’s September Grade 1 jump race is run in his memory.

“He’s one of a kind, that’s for sure,” Miller said about his star after winning Keeneland’s Royal Chase in 1999. “You try to look for what he has in other horses,

but most of the time it’s just not there.”

Milller saddled his final runner in 2017. 

In 2022, he was at the Maryland Hunt Cup when grandson Teddy Davies won on Vintage Vinnie.

Miller broke a hip nearly two years ago, which cost him some mobility but did little to diminish his interest or enthusiasm.

“He had a wonderful life, and had a ton of fun and success,” said his oldest daughter Ann Miller. “Even after he broke his hip, he never got unhappy or anything. He was at Fair Hill watching horses gallop not that long ago. We had sushi, and Tastykake Krimpets , for dinner Monday night.”

She said her father had breakfast Tuesday morning, was awake and alert for several visitors that day and died that night.

Survivors include children Chip, Blythe and Ann, sister Brenda Redfield, brother Butch Miller, grandchildren Teddy and Scarlet Davies and several nieces and nephews.

A memorial service is pending.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Bethany Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 17, Mendenhall, PA 19357 or bethanychurchpa.org.