One trainer recently said that Ron Burke let Mission Brief trot too fast as a two-year-old, and as a result she wouldn't be one of the top three-year-old trotters of 2015. How did Burke reply?
"It doesn't even make sense to me," Burke said of Ron Gurfein's comments. "What am I supposed to do: make her go slow at two just so she'll be better at three? That's a ridiculous statement in my opinion.
"Ronnie's had great horses and I respect him as a trainer but I do alright...I'll train mine and live with the results how they go."
Interestingly, Gurfein trained the last filly to beat the colts in the Hambletonian, Continentalvictory in 1996.
"It's 20 years, it's about time for another one," said Burke.
The interview with Meadowlands' Justin Horowitz also discusses Burke not winning U.S. trainer of the year in 2014 despite setting a single-season earnings record of more than $28 million, the status of harness racing's richest horse Foiled Again, the 'conventional' way he keeps track of all his horses in-to-go, motivates him most and how he reacts to his detractors.
"Anytime you don't get credit when you feel like you're doing it the right way and you're doing everything you can to run as tight a ship as possible, it's going to bother you a little bit," stated Burke, "I know the people that know me and the people that are involved with me and they believe in me. We're never going to be embarrassed, we're never going to do anything to embarrass the sport or us. I have too much to lose to take chances or do things the wrong way."
The full interview with Burke is available below.
Most fans/bettors(whales)
Most fans/bettors(whales) have limited themselves to betting only Burke trained horses. Nuff Said!!
Not only are his statistics
Not only are his statistics (wins & earnings) impressive, but Ron Burke is an extremely impressive interview.