Wheel of fortune finally favors the Bandit

Anyone in harness racing will tell you, that it’s often getting there that’s half the battle!

And for Victorian hobby trainer Ian Miller and his pacer Belvu Bandit that was certainly the case when the four-year-old finally broke through for his maiden victory at Geelong.

Just a week earlier, the trainer-driver had to scratch the improving Belvu Bandit from a Melton engagement, after a transport mishap left him without a float to get to the races.

“I was coming home from the farrier, and I lost one of the wheels off the float.  I don’t know where and I didn’t even notice until I pulled up at our gate,” Miller laughed.

“But it meant I couldn’t get him to Melton, and I thought he was going okay, too,” he said.

The team atoned at Geelong, though, with a half-head victory in the Betfocus Maiden Pace.

Belvu Bandit was given a good trip by Miller from a wide gate (5), sitting in the one-out, one-back position.  The gelding knuckled down in the home straight to claim victory in the last stride over Roblen Demon and Fireside.

“He’s been around the mark and racing reasonably well,” Miller said.

“I put pull-down dollies on him and that seems to have got him concentrating a bit more.”

For Miller, who combines his small harness racing operation with running a 1200-acre Merino sheep property at Meredith, near Ballarat, racing has always been about enjoyment rather than chasing the big time.

The sheep are Miller’s main occupation, with the horses very much a hobby, with wife Kylie helping when she can, and son Aaron, a builder by trade, also lending a hand when time permits.

Belvu Bandit is currently the only horse he has in work, although Miller generally keeps one or two around the place.

“He’ll never be a champion, but we are having a bit of fun with him,” Miller said.

“At this stage I’m quite happy just to keep racing him and enjoying it.”

The son of R Eleven is owned by Louis Franc, who bought him at the sales and Miller hopes his pedigree might suggest patience could prove important.

“His breeding is probably more the type that comes into their own as four and five-year-olds,” he said.

“So hopefully there is still a bit more to come.”

The partnership between Miller and Franc also has a football connection.

Miller is the first aid trainer with the Beaufort Crows Football Netball Club, where Franc has also been involved.

“I played up at Beaufort, and my boys are playing up there as well, so we’ve had a long association with the club,” Miller said.

Football has been another constant in Miller’s life, who played with Ballarat and Sebastopol, as well as Beaufort, in the Ballarat league, and was on the Geelong Under 19s list in his youth.

These days, his role with Beaufort keeps him involved on weekends when he isn’t occupied with work or horses.

Miller initially combined football with working as a butcher before eventually returning to the family farm.

Miller is the fourth generation of his family on the Meredith property and grew up around horses through his father, Ernie.

“Dad always had horses and pretty much always had one or two around.  When Dad had them racing, he would jog them up, then Barry Timmins used to take them for him when they were racing,” he said.

“So horses have always been part of what we’ve done.”

From Terry Gange for Harnesslink