The New York herald., 1921-02-13
GUY MILLER 80,
BREAKING COLTS
ON CHESTER FARM
Has Just Finished School
ing Two -Year-Old for
W. f. Redmond.
HANDLED 20 LAST YEAR
His Connection With Harness
Racing, Never Broken, Began,
When Ed Geers Was a Baby.
BY GURNEY c. CUE.


Ed Geers is called "the Grand OLD
Mar" Of the trotting turf and Justly so
but there is horseman of countrywide
prominence near the little village OF
Chester in Orange county whose career
with the trotters began when the
famous reinsman from Tennessee was
in his three-year-old form and who is
still as active as Geers himself though
the latter is only 70, while Guy Miller
is So.
For his old friend W r. Redmond. the
breeder OF Al Mack. :051a, and Guy
Nella, 2:06%, Mr., Miller has just fin
ished breaking q well bred two-year -old
trotter. and he has in his stable nearly
a score OF other youngsters that he and
his assistants are jogging on the snow
1iaS CettinseT, VINO spent last summer
at Brook Farm. which overlooks the
Miller place. said the other day that the
veteran breeder and trainer was up and
about every morning at o'clock and
was busy with the horses until sundown.
He put In all his own corn, twenty acres
or more, and always found time to take
care of his farm. which is not a small
one as farms go In the onion belt Of
Orange county.
1t was to this farm that William NJ.
Rysdyk in 1S49 led the broken down
Charles Kent Mare, by imported Bell
founder. with her sucking colt by Alb
dailah beside her, when he bought them
both for s125 from Jonas Seely of Sugar
Loaf. Mr.. .Rysdyle occupied the farm
almost quarter OF 4 century. and II
thus became the home of Hambletonian
in his earlier years. When the horse was
five years old Guy Miller. then lad Of
l6, went there to work for Mr.. Rysdyk,
and for three years thereafter he had
charge of the great progenitor OF trot-
eers. He drove him in his exercise,
handled him in the stud and was the
first to throw leg over his back and
ride him.
From boyhood Mr.. Miller always lived
in this immediate vicinity, seeing the
horse almost daily. After Mr. Rysdyk
bought place in the village and Mr..
Miller went TO live on the old farm he
could see from his sitting room window
the stable which sheltered the winderfg
sire until he died. in March, 1876 And
he can now see the imposing monument
OF Ozark Mountain granite raised there
many years ago by the appreciative
breeders of trotting horses from Maine
to California to mark Hambletonian's
grave.
he owned one of Hambletonian's colts
His first trotter cost him S135--almost
q years wages-when a weanling. he
named the youngster Guy Miller. won q
race for three-year-olds with him at
Goshen in 1859, and sold him for $500 to
r +. Galloway of Suffern. The colt
trotted several races as a four-year-
old and on one occasion was matched
against the Felter colt, afterward
known as George Wilkes (2:22). Sin
gularly enough, the Felter people paid
forfeit, and the owner of Guy Miller
took the stakes Mr.. Galloway traded
him to California parties for the fa-
nous mare Princess (2 800 and bred
ner to Hambletonian. the result being
Happy Medium, sire Of Nancy Hanks
f2:04) and grandsire OF Peter the Great
(2:07A).
Ten years before Hambletonian died
Mr. Miller, having married the wife who
still abides with him and settled down
'pon the farm where they celebrated the
ffty-hfth anniversary OF their wedding
I few weeks ago, organized a trottng
stud by the purchase OF Iron Duke and
band of brood mares. From that day TO
this he has been breeding trotteis,
though never extensively. The fastest
one he ever bred was Kenneth Il.
t2:11N). winner Of tho Horse Dealers
Sweepstakes I'm Phila delphia last June.
This fast green horse was a direct de-
scendant of Hambletonian. six removes
from the old horse in the male line.
20 l. CROC
Mr.. Mlller's wide acquaintance with
horses and horsehnen and his sterling
honesty and independence OF character
made him the main reliance Of John H. |
Wallace as to Orange county pedigrees
when Wallace was compiling the early
volumes OF the American Trotting Regis
ter Many we're the frauds he exposed. !
and the conimotion stirred up when he
publicly questioned the Abdallah cross
in the dam OF Aberdeen is still fresh |
IN the memory of old time horsemen.
Aberdeen was bred and owned by that !
picturesque old New York politician and
horseman, Capt Isaiah Rynders, a rad /
icai American in the days OF the Know
Notlings and leader in the Astor Place
Theatre riots OF 1s4s. when the parti /
sans Of Edwin Forrest drove the English
actor William c. Macready of the stage
and out Of the country. Bynders threat
cned and clustered but Wallace and
Miller exploded his afiidavits and ex-
posed the fraudulent cross 50 that II
was thrown out Of the stud book.
Mr. Miller became n member of the
Board Of Censors Of the National Asso-
nciation Of Trotting Horse Breeders and
continued az such until the Western
horsemen gained control, about thirty
years ago.