LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kenny Miller celebrated his 33rd birthday in triumph last Sunday when his filly Kept Lady won a race at Churchill Downs. A few days later, his racing business was in ruins.

A pre-dawn fire swept through a barn at a former race track in western Kentucky on Thursday, killing 27 horses — including the only two thoroughbreds owned by Miller.

"Everything I had in the horse business is gone," Miller, of Evansville, Ind., said in a phone interview. "I couldn't put a saddle, I couldn't put a halter on a horse right now. It's all in that barn, and it's gone."

Other horsemen were mourning their losses in the second deadly fire this year at Riverside Downs outside Henderson, Ky., near the Indiana border. Investigators did not know the cause.

The horses killed included one that survived the blaze but had to be euthanized. Four others in the barn at the time survived.

About 70 horses remain at Riverside, a former quarterhorse and harness track now used to stable and exercise horses, said co-owner Mark Bowling.

The fire, which started between 5 and 5:30 a.m. EST, was contained to one barn, which was destroyed. The barn was insured.

In January, six horses died in a fire at Riverside blamed on a vending machine electrical cord. Those horses were owned by John Hancock, a brother of Riverside manager Jack Hancock.

"It's just a terrible thing," Jack Hancock said Thursday. "The worst thing a horseman could ever hear is the word 'fire.'"

Miller was left contemplating whether he could start over in the business he loves.

"I've got to wait and see," he said. "I hope. It's in the blood. Maybe something will come through."

The recent win was Kept Lady's third, and Miller called it "one of the best presents I ever had." Miller hoped the 3-year-old filly had plenty more victories left.

"This business comes with a lot of highs and it comes with a lot of lows. And the low that you don't want is what happened today," he said. "You can survive losing races; you can go all year without winning races. But when you lose everything, it's a low that you don't want to go to."

Miller had spent his working days training Kept Lady and his other filly, Rodney's Lil Girl, which had a second-place finish in two career races.

"They're family," he said. "You're attached to them. The only thing you look back and you say they aren't one of your kin folks. But it's close enough where it hurts. I've shed a lot of tears."

Trainer Steve Larue lost two of five horses he had stabled in the barn. He helped three horses escape, including 2-year-old filly Countess Katie, who was being treated for burns.

"I had tried to reach for her in her stall, but the smoke was so bad I couldn't see her," Larue said. "A couple minutes later she come walking out and her hair was on fire."

Larue said he expects Countess Katie to live, but doesn't know when or if she'll be able to race again. She was scheduled to run in the first race at Churchill Downs on Friday.

Larue said many local trainers move their horses from nearby Ellis Park to Riverside Downs over the winter to train. He said that the facility was well kept.

"We were in a nice barn, good people and everything," Larue said. "You couldn't ask for better people."

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AP Sports Writer Will Graves contributed to this report.