It is not uncommon to see athletes try their hand at different sports, but in this case, we have a unique transformation.

We have wrestlers who are known for their impressive knockouts, stunt jumps, and entertaining fights in the ring, who transition to a more calming place of training horses. Well, equestrian sports have that magic to peruse athletes from different sports whether it is only for investing in horse racing, to a full stable management.

We have professional soccer players and trainers who went on to become racehorse owners, tennis players who also became racehorse owners, and there are some wrestlers who also changed their minds and careers into horse racing.

To be honest, there aren’t many wrestlers who transitioned from WWE to becoming a racehorse trainer, but there are many of them who love horse racing as a sport, or enjoy being around horses in their free time.

In today’s article, we will dive deeper into the world of wrestlers and try to find athletes who managed to do the unthinkable. Transition to horse racing trainers.

Frank Miller

Coming from Louisville, it is not surprising to see that Frank Miller has become a racehorse trainer. After all, we are talking about the home of the Kentucky Derby. A place where they live and breathe horse racing.

Most people when Kentucky is mentioned immediately think of handicapping the Kentucky Derby, and it was probably the same case with Frank Miller.

If you want to dive deeper into Kentucky Derby handicapping, check out the link below: twinspires.com/kentuckyderby/handicapping/

But back to Frank Miller. How does a pro wrestler with 20 years of experience in the industry transition to becoming a racehorse trainer? Despite being a wrestler, Miller shared a passion for horses from a young age and always knew that this was something that he would love doing for the rest of his life.

From a young age, he spent a lot of time around horses, and his grandfather took him to the track every day.

But how did a kid who spent most of his life around horses get into wrestling?

Well, at a young age, he found out that Danny Davis was starting a wrestling school in the area, and he decided to join. After a few successful trainings, he decided to pursue a wrestling career and got the nickname Trailer Park Trash. He held the OVW heavyweight title and was a six-time tag team champ.

His wrestling career was quite impressive. Apart from wrestling locally, he also traveled all around the world including Mexico, Puerto Rico, and even Japan.

“We lived the lives of rock stars man, maybe on a different level we weren’t flying around on jets all the time but we still felt like rock stars and I wouldn’t give nothing I’ve done up,” Miller said.

But after pursuing both careers from 2008 up until 2013, he decided to hang up his boots and quit wrestling just so he could focus entirely on horse training.

“When I used to train wrestlers and a little bit of MMA, I use a lot of the same things I did in that with these horses because they’re not a whole lot different; the way you train, you keep them fit,” Miller said.

Johnny Love

With Johnny Love, we have a different story. He actually got interested in wrestling at a young age just from watching the ultimate wrestling stars on TV. But despite his passion for wrestling, this wasn’t the first career he chose.

In fact, he started by playing football for four years, then transitioned to baseball playing for Concordia College in St. Paul, but his passion for wrestling was ignited again when he joined the Eddie Sharkey wrestling camp.

Wrestling is an active sport, thus skill and athleticism are critical to a wrestler’s success. However, as Love stated, wrestling is more about being a good entertainer than it is about being a good wrestler. Each wrestling battle portrays a tale, with each contestant in the ring playing a role.

He had a rather successful wrestling career competing in the United States, Calgary, Alberta, and Europe. Love was living the life he always wanted, but as we know, when you live a high life, temptations will come.

Drugs and alcohol became so big of a problem for Love that he decided to change his career. But in life, when one door closes, another one opens. When he got back to the States, he opened a gym and that was his main source of income.

During that time, Love became interested in watching horse races. He spent years handicapping racehorses and even managed to nail a $36,000 pick at Hollywood Park in 2008. This is where his handicapper career started as he was hired by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and since then he got involved in horse racing on a much deeper point.

He went on to purchase some shares in racehorses and owned a filly named Lil Zila, which was racing at Saratoga Racetrack in New York a few years ago.

So, as you can see, even wrestlers can soften their hard when exposed to too much horse racing. It is an attractive sport, not just because of the money, but also because of these incredible animals.