"It bothers me that the fact that drivers are always considered talented when they win races. Like I've said many times, in this sport, if you're a trainer, at best you're a hard worker and at worst you're a cheater."
North America's leading trainer Ron Burke recently sat down with Meadowlands Racetrack's Sam McKee to discuss his powerful stable and what goes into making it so successful.
Burke has topped the harness racing standings for the past few years, leading to a career-best season in 2012 in which he sent out 4,148 starters, recorded 904 wins and earned an astounding $19.68 million in purses. This year he's already sent out over 200 winners from more than 700 starts to earn $2.4 million. His nearest rival in the North American standings has yet to hit $1 million in purses with just over half the amount of wins and starts as Burke.
There's no doubt the Burke brigade is big. But it didn't start that way. With his father Mickey at the helm, the Burke stable began to grow to the national level in the mid-1990s.
"It was right about then. There was talk that The Meadows was going to get slots and the idea was actually to come here and build a barn and take it back home when the slots warranted having better horses," explained Burke in a March 16 episode of Inside The Sulky. "Basically, we got out here and we decided to keep a barn here and build up a barn for back there. It's basically the pattern we follow in going from track to track as the purses got better at each place."
While the Burke outfit is no one-man operation, the conditioner's sharp memory has certainly helped him keep up with its expansion.
"The biggest thing is we have a great system and great help," said Burke. "It's not just me, it's everybody, at every barn. We've worked our way up to this. We didn't start just racing 4,000 in one year, we've worked our way gradually and learnt. And I have a great ability to memorize a lot of things. It comes in handy. I tend to be able to retain most things that I see, especially if I see them on paper, and that helps me to keep it going.
"And I enjoy it," he added. "If i didnt enjoy it and we all didn't enjoy it then we wouldn't be doing it and we wouldn't do as well."
Delving into a few training topics, Burke discussed how important it is to care for a horse's feet, especially given the high speeds they travel at in racing today. Burke explained that certain tracks like the Meadowlands are especially tough on a horse's feet making winning over those surfaces a greater achievement.
"That's the thing about the Meadowslands, it's still the one track where you win and you think you've accomplished something," said Burke. "It's still harder to win here than anywhere."
Burke also discussed how he feels the need for many of his new acquisitions to drop extra weight and develop an athletic build.
"Show me the first fat fast guy and I'll fatten my horses," said Burke. "I don't want them to be starved to death, I want them to be fit and look like athletes."
Burke went on to note that an aggressive training regimen keeps his horses fit and teaches them speed.
"We sprint them a lot and we teach them to be fast. It sounds stupid, but that's exactly what you're trying to do -- you're teaching them to go faster," he explained. "Horses don't just naturally go out there and run at top speed the first time you ask them -- you have to teach them to go fast."
However, Burke said his training methods for racehorses differ from those used on his younger horses.
"We usually keep the babies separate from the racehorses," he said. "You basically almost have to change hats when your going there. You can't go there and put the hammer down on them. For me, sometimes I find I have to stay away from the better ones because it's my natural tendency to push. My dad's got a lot more patience than I do and it's probably better that he has them most of the time and then I just come and push them when I want to see -- at stake payment time -- how much I want to spend up of my money and dad's money too."
Among the numerous success stories in Burke's career was one of last year's most popular glamour boys, Sweet Lou. After a dazzling 1:49 victory in the final start of his two-year-old season in the Breeders Crown and a stellar start to his sophomore campaign, including a 1:47.4 triumph in his North America Cup elimination, hopes were high for the Yankee Cruiser colt. Although he didn't go on to dominate the division as expected, he was a top performer in all the big dances en route to a million-dollar campaign, which included a 1:48.1 victory in the Tattersalls Pace.
"Things didn't work out -- it seemed like we were always in the wrong spot," commented Burke. "I don't know. It was bad luck. Maybe we overrated him. We'll find out this year -- he's going to come back this year, he's going to get a chance. I think he was just so good that last start as a two-year-old that maybe we couldn't live up to expectations. Maybe the worst thing that happened was coming out the first start and looking so good. And then maybe we did push on too much. Maybe we should have raced a different style, but at the end of the year he had things turned around and things were going great and then the last two starts he had a bad foot and we just shut him down. I never lost confindence in the horse and I think he's the best horse in our barn and the the best horse we've had."
But Burke doesn't expect Sweet Lou's four-year-old season to get any easier.
"The thing is this year the Free-For-All level is going to be the best it has been in ages," said Burke. "The aged horses, a lot of them are carrying speed into their later years and you have the best group of three-year-olds that have come out in a long time and a lot of them stayed [to race at four]. Jeff [Gural] encouraged people to keep on racing them until four. I think it's going to make a big difference. You're going to have to be a wonderful horse now to win these races. There's not going to be anyone dominating -- I don't feel -- these races anymore."
But Burke has dominated with top competitors like harness racing's richest pacer Foiled Again. With success there often comes criticism, but Burke is not afraid to confront any rumours or speculations concerning his integrity.
"It does bother me.... We don't drug a little, we don't only use the little things, no, we do none, absolutely none. And I don't care what anybody says. Our barn is an open barn, anybody can come in and see. There's cameras running at all times and Jeff [Gural], we've offered, they can come in and they can watch it full-time if they want, it's not a problem with us. When you have nothing to hide you don't mind anybody coming."