by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Kimberly French

Louisville, KY — Unfortunately Bob Miller is unable to witness what his namesake will accomplish throughout his career, but his connections are extremely excited about the future that lies before Bobs Hope.

“My husband passed away in November and Randy (trainer Beeckman) and I were not sure what we were going to do with the horses,” said his owner Barbara Miller. “We decided to race them this year and see how things turned out.

“I don’t know much about this one, as he hasn’t raced very often and my job is to pay the bills, but he really has us tickled to death, especially with how he raced last week (a second place finish to Pinkman in the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes at Harrah’s Philadelphia).

“He was born at Spring Haven Farm and they named him after Bob as a yearling. I think Bob is watching from above and it would be terrific if the horse does well. It is a shame he is not here to see him though. He really enjoyed all the horses and we had a lot of fun with them over the years.”

Bobs Hope is a 3-year-old altered son of Donato Hanover, which Miller owns breeding rights to, and the SJ’s Caviar mare Real Hope. He is the third foal from his dam and only faced the starter once as a 2-year-old.

Conditioned by Beeckman, who cared for the tremendous Mack Lobell, Bobs Hope is a very large horse that simply required some additional time to grow into himself. He was third in his sole freshman start and has been second in both of his 2015 contests.

He will attempt to break his maiden on Friday (May 29) in his second consecutive engagement in Pennsylvania Sire Stakes company. With Hall of Famer David Miller holding the lines, Bobs Hope will leave from post position four in race eight at the Meadows, a $63,739 division of the Super Bowl-PASS. Acquiring that first win, however, will be no simple task, as the gelding must face Pinkman again, along with that one’s talented stablemate, Whom Shall I Fear.

“Those two Takter horses are definitely tough,” Beeckman said. “But I was very pleased with what he showed last week when he finished second to Pinkman. He’s still a very green horse and is learning what he needs to be doing out there, but he is coming along quite well. I always knew he had speed. I just didn’t know how far he could carry it.”

What really seemed to work wonders for keeping the gelding’s mind on business was castration. Bobs Hope possesses the personality of a little kid and certainly enjoys his playtime, but that type of mindset, combined with his imposing physical stature, were not conducive to a successful racing career.

“He actually broke my wife’s hip last year,” Beeckman said. “He’s not a mean horse at all and only did that because he was playing around. Even after cutting him, he can still be rambunctious, but gelding him was like flipping a light switch.

“The only other horse I’ve ever seen where cutting them made such an immediate difference was another one of the Millers’ horses, Lightning Force, (3,1:53, $169,906) who we just sold to race over in Norway. With each horse, it was like they could finally focus.

“Bobs Hope still looks around but now he can pay attention to things. Before gelding him, he could not do that. Same with Lightning Force. That was when he became a racehorse.”

Although Beeckman and Miller are not sure what is in store for Bobs Hope over the upcoming months, it appears the gelding will remain on the Pennsylvania circuit while learning the tricks of his trade.

“Since he was growthy and colt sore last year, we didn’t really stake him to much,” Beeckman said. “But I do have him in the Old Oaken Bucket at Delaware and a couple other races at the end of the year. We will let him tell us where to go and what to do.

“He has barely gotten started but he is already picking up on what he has to do. He just has to race more to put everything together, but I do think he has the ability to be a nice horse for us. It also makes it even better if he does well because he is named for Bob. We aren’t going to rush him though. This year we will teach him how to race and then hopefully have a very nice open trotter at age 4, 5 and 6.”