Our Owner of the Month award winner for December is Joanne Miller part owner of Second To Nun, Joanne told us this:

I would like to nominate myself for the Owner of the Month for January.

I offer the following in support of my nomination:

Many people will remember my great friend Tom Butler who owned and operated Shamrock Park at Meadows for twenty years.  After Tom’s death in March 2015, my involvement with racing changed, and while I continued to follow the races, I was no longer actively involved.

Early in 2022 I decided that I wanted to reinvigorate my involvement in racehorse ownership. It was important to me that the stable I became involved with had a connection to Tom.  I have photos of Tom and I visiting Performance Park while Will Clarken was the manager and Tom had always spoken very highly of Will, so that is where I started looking.

Amongst the Ownership Opportunities listed on Will’s website was an unraced two-year-old filly by Akeed Mofeed out of Tidy Prophet.  I liked that she was two and had already done some work and I liked that Will had trained her mother for most of her career and that Tidy Prophet had been a more than handy performer.

That unraced filly is now named Second to Nun and at the time of writing has a race record of 18 starts for 6 wins and three placings.

Second to Nun (Wilma) has proven to be second to none in my experience as a racehorse owner.  She is the 15th racehorse I have been involved in, as such she is my first horse to have won more than one metropolitan race, my first horse to have won more than three races, my first horse to have won two, three and now four races in a row.  In fact, by winning her sixth race, the Strathalbyn Cup, she has now won the same number of races as all my previous 14 horses combined were able to do.

As well as the thrill of her racetrack performances Wilma has enabled me to meet new people and to reconnect with others.  And to talk about Tom, to share stories and to reminisce.  

I am certainly enjoying the ride that Wilma is taking me on and I am excited about what is to come.  She feels like a dream come true to me.

Second To Nun is by Akeed Mofeed out of a Keep The Faith mare Tidy Prophet, and was bred by Racing.com form analyst John Kelton who retains an interest in the filly. Currently she has amassed over $230,000 in prizemoney.

The dam was successful on the track winning nine races and placing a further eleven times with earnings just shy of $250,000. The mare has only had one other starter so far which has only raced once.

 The granddam Bella Belluci by Flying Spur has also left six-time winner Breaker Of Chains (by Good Journey) and his full brother Defining Moment who won four in Hong Kong and returned to Australia where he finished racing as Mussoorie Magic The third dam Morning Lover (by Daybreak Lover) was a listed winner in Brisbane.

Congratulations to the Joanne and hopefully her success with Second To Nun continues.