That Was Buster

By Jude T. Feld

By the time he retired in 1984, Buster Millerick had forgotten more about horses than most Thoroughbred trainers learn in a lifetime. A private man, who never suffered fools, Buster was surprisingly religious for a fellow who peppered his conversation with expletives.

Now, after 26 years of novenas to St. Jude, the patron saint of hopeless cases, and impatient waiting by his countless fans, Michael E. Millerick will finally have his plaque in the Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame.

Buster avoided the spotlight, so he probably wouldn’t have showed up at Saratoga for the ceremony, if he was alive to do it. He eschewed winners’ circle photos, preferring to let his horse’s performance do the talking. There was none more verbose than Mr. & Mrs. L.K. Shapiro’s Native Diver, a Cal-bred like Buster, who amassed 34 stakes victories between the ages of two and eight, including three straight Hollywood Gold Cups.

Many trainers, including several Hall of Famers, idolized Buster and called upon him for advice. Laz Barrera, trainer of Triple Crown winner Affirmed, credited Buster as the reason for his emigration to the United States from Cuba.

“He was my idol,” Barrera once told me. “I would read about his horses and wish I could meet him. The first time I came to Santa Anita, I went to his barn. He was sitting on a bucket cutting carrots with a pocketknife. He looked up at me and said, ‘Who the fuck are you?’”

That was Buster.

Bobby Frankel, who was also the idol of many trainers including myself, had a horse named Hacawind, a talented sprinter who had tons of speed but a penchant for bolting to the outside fence. One morning at the quarter-pole gap of Santa Anita’s main track, Frankel was lamenting another “grandstand side” finish by the gelding.

“I can fix that horse.” Buster said, spitting tobacco juice.

“Tell me what to do,” answered Bobby. “I don’t have a clue.”

Buster went up to his barn and rummaged through an old trunk in his office and brought a strange looking bit down to Bobby’s barn. It was a straight round bar of steel, covered in leather that extended about four inches past the bridle. Its ingenious design allowed it to be used from either side – for horses that got out badly or for those that lugged in.

Bobby worked Hacawind with it a couple of times and the rest as they, is history. The son of Plotting became one of California’s most consistent runners, winning 14 races, most of them with Hall of Fame inductee Don Pierce in the saddle.

“You’re the fucking greatest,” Bobby said to him the morning after the first win without mishap.

“Not me. That bit.”

That was Buster.

He was quite a character and even at the tail end of his 50-year training career, the competitive spirit never left the man that trained over 1900 winners. One of my favorite Buster stories was one that former jockey turned steward, Alfred Shelhammer, was fond of telling.

The best horse Buster had in stable right before he retired was Sardara Sengara’s Mr. Prime Minister, who won the 1983 Los Angeles Handicap at Hollywood Park. Rennata Rupp, an Eastern European girl, who rode the occasional race, was galloping and working Mr. Prime Minister and somehow thought she would be able to ride the colt if his regular rider Sandy Hawley was unavailable.

Hawley had a commitment in Canada on the day of the race, so Buster entered Mr. Prime Minister with Martin Pedroza named to ride.

Rennata was incensed and “took Millerick to the stewards.”

She told the men that Millerick had told her she could ride the horse if Hawley was out of town.

“Are you sure that’s what Buster said?” asked Shelhammer at the hearing.

“Yes. That’s what he said,” she told him. “But that’s not why I am so angry. It’s o.k. if Pedroza rides the horse.”

“Then why are you so upset?”

“Buster called me a name.”

“What did he call you?”

“I don’t want to say it.”

“If you don’t tell me what he said, I won’t be able to question him.”

“He called me a cocksucker,” she said.

“Oh dear,” said Shelhammer. “He calls us that too.”

That was Buster.

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