Crimson Palace with her 2017 Animal Kingdom foal (photo: Sara Fagan)
They say beginner’s luck is often the best. So when your very first horse is good enough to campaign – and win – abroad, that’s pretty outstanding. And an outstanding story deserves an outstanding ending and in Dr Alan Miller and Crimson Palace, we have just such a tale because the star race mare has recently retired to Dr Miller’s home to live out her days at his farm in upstate New York.
Dr Miller explains, “I saw Secretariat run in 1973. I’ve always dreamed of being in racing, but was not from a wealthy family. I swore if I ever made it, I would buy horses. I got my medical degree and was raising a family and one day in about 2003, I was talking to my wife and said I wanted to get involved.”
He researched syndicates and found Barry Irwin’s Team Valor. “Barry was pretty well known and back then he’d had incredible success with Ipi Tombe,” he continues. “So I wrote to him and he sent me some information on a couple of different horses – one was a New York bred and the other was from South Africa – Crimson Palace.”
Breeding A Champion
By Elliodor out of the Northern Guest mare, Perfect Guest, Crimson Palace was bred by Adv Altus Joubert and born at Lionel Cohen’s Odessa Stud in the Western Cape. The story goes that after foaling the mare, Lionel thought so highly of the foal that he was moved to tell his wife he had just witnessed the birth of a champion. The only problem was that the ‘champion’ belonged to a client.
Crimson Palace wins the 2003 Gr1 Paddock Stakes (photo: Gold Circle)
When the filly went on auction as a yearling, Lionel was determined to secure her, instructing the agent bidding on his behalf, ‘just don’t stop’. She was eventually knocked down for a sales-topping R300,000, earning her the honour of the second highest priced yearling filly to be sold at auction in South Africa that year.
The dark bay filly, eventually named Crimson Palace, went into training with Mike Bass and won four of her first six starts, culminating with a Gr1 win in the 2002 Paddock Stakes.
Beginner’s Luck
It was at this point that Team Valor snapped her up and Dr Miller came on board. He remembers, “She looked gorgeous on the internet, so I thought ‘why not?’ and bought in.”
“The idea was to send her to Dubai and try to replicate what Ipi Tombe did,” explains Alan. “Unfortunately she got hurt, but she transferred to Dubai early in the winter. She didn’t do anything until the following year’s Carnival and then we suddenly started getting emails from Mike de Kock saying she was working as well as Ipi Tombe. You must remember this was my first horse, so it was pretty exciting.”
Crimson Palace wins in Dubai (photo: Team Valor)
Crimson Palace made her Dubai debut in the Team Valor emerald and crimson in the 2004 Alhaarth Stakes over 1800m, beating the colts and setting a track record. “My wife and I watched the race from home. I was going nuts!” enthuses Alan. “I was so excited, I was in tears. Her next race was supposed to be the Dubai Duty Free, but a few days later we got an email from Barry saying the Sheikh wanted to buy her and had made a substantial offer. Of all the partners, I was the only one that said no. I’d been making arrangements to go to Dubai and everything, but I got outvoted, so we sold her and she only had that one run for us.
With that money I bought a tractor for the farm and another South African bred horse (also by Elliodor) called Super Brand that we brought to the States to run in the 2004 Breeders’ Cup. She was up against horses like Ouija Board in the Breeders’ Cup, so didn’t do too well, but she was quite a horse. Easy game, huh?” he chuckles.
Full Circle
“We obviously followed Crimson,” he continues. “She ran for Godolphin in the Dubai Duty Free on 27 March 2004 and finished 4th. From there she went to the UK and won the Group 3 Middleton Stakes and then finished mid-field in the Group 2 Windsor Forest Stakes at Ascot. We found out she was going to America to run in the Beverly D, which is one of the premier Turf races in Chicago and run on the same day as the Arlington Million. She won it at about 8 or 10 -1. We all bet on her and made a lot of money. But right after that I think she got hurt, I don’t really recall the detail, and she was auctioned off for around $2 million, I don’t remember the exact figure.” Crimson Palace closed off her career with 7 wins from 11 career starts.
“When she retired to stud, we kept an eye on her. She didn’t throw anything fantastic and then in 2014 I saw something on the Sporting Post about her being put on auction at Keeneland. I rang Barry and said wouldn’t it be a story if we bought her back again? A few days later Barry rang and said ‘We bought her back!’
2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale Hip 2405 (Animal Kingdom – Crimson Palace) (photo: Sara Fagan)
Crimson Palace was purchased for $75,000 in foal to Elusive Quality. Although she delivered the foal safely, it unfortunately sustained an injury and had to be put down. Team Valor then sent her to their Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup winner, Animal Kingdom. “She now has a yearling and a weanling by Animal Kingdom,” continues Alan. “The yearling is good-looking and will be offered as hip 2405 at the September Kentucky Yearling Sale and the weanling is gorgeous too – we’ve got high hopes.”
Happy Ending
Crimson Palace still looking amazing (photo: Sara Fagan)
A few weeks ago, Alan and his wife were in Kentucky to watch the Rolex three-day eventing and the pair decided to drop in and pay their old friend a visit at Denali Stud. “She looked spectacular – you’d never believe she’s 18. She had this beautiful coat and is a really sweet animal. We saw the baby and the yearling and took a lot of pictures. When we came home, Barry sent an email explaining that she’d lost the foal she was carrying and asking whether we wanted to keep breeding her at this age. She hasn’t produced particularly great runners and persevering didn’t seem like a good investment, so he said perhaps it was time to find her another home. I thought after everything she’s meant to me, she really deserves to go somewhere good. We have a home with a matching barn and 22 acres in upstate New York. We’ve got 4 dogs and chickens and cats, two Tennessee Walkers and a Quarter Horse and another one coming. We have stall room so I said to my wife, ‘Honey, I’d love to have this horse stay with us for the rest of her life. She brought me into racing and has been really good to us,’ and my wife agreed.”
“I went back to Barry and said if she was going to retire, we’d love to take her. Barry had to check with the partners, but everyone was on board and she’s retiring with us, so I’m preparing the corner stall for the Queen,” he beams. “I have a picture of her Dubai win and the trophy presentation in my medical office and now I can say this horse is coming to my house.”
“So that’s the story. Our racing journey started with her and it’s appropriate that she’s ending up with us. She’s going to be spoiled rotten and I’m chuffed to bits as you say out there,” he teases.
Continuing Association
The journey with South African racing that started with Crimson Palace has continued ever since. Alan and his wife are frequent visitors to Summerhill Stud farm in KZN where Alan is a patron of the School of Excellence and he also has a number of partnerships in mares that he breeds with.
“Barry deserves a mention for getting me involved and getting me into South African horses. We hit a bit of a drought for a while, but we’ve got some really nice animals. We’ve now got Cot Campbell and Ebony Flyer’s other colt, Captain Tortuga who we think will be even better.” They also have an exciting prospect in Anna Pavlova who is destined for an international campaign. “She’ll go to Europe and we’ve got another one. It’s a pain in the butt to get horses out of South Africa, but hopefully they’re making progress.”
We wish Crimson Palace a long and happy retirement.
