Warrawee Ubeaut is a Sweet Lou half-sister to Warrawee Needy, who earned more than $1.25 million and for several years shared the record of fastest race mile ever, 1:46.4. When trainer Ron Burke saw her walk through the ring at the 2017 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale, he knew he had to have her.
“When we raced ‘Lou,’ Warrawee Needy was his big nemesis,” Burke says. “For us, it just seemed natural that we own her.”
Burke Racing Stable, Phil Collura, J&T Silva-Purnel&Libby and Weaver Bruscemi LLC gave $70,000 for the daughter of Great Memories — and she’s returning the favour. On Saturday (Aug. 18) at The Meadows, Warrawee Ubeaut will try to extend her career unbeaten streak to four in the Meadow Cheer, a $180,122 Pennsylvania Sire Stakes for freshman filly pacers. She’ll leave from post 4 in the first race with Yannick Gingras piloting.
Warrawee Ubeaut has won her three starts, including two PASS splits, in cookie-cutter fashion: grab a good early seat, quarter-pole to the top, coast home in 1:52 and change. Burke knows that as the races get tougher, she won’t always be able to follow that script.
“I’m looking forward to the day she gets in with better horses and can race a different way,” says Burke, who trains last year’s freshman filly champion, Youaremycandygirl. “We all feel she can be better out of a hole.
“She’s eligible to every big stake. I have to start counting starts with her and make sure I don’t over-race her this year. The optimal number would be 10, but she’ll probably end up with more than that because I’m greedy.”
Burke sends four other fillies into the Meadow Cheer, including Sylph Hanover (race three, post 3, Matt Kakaley) a Somebeachsomewhere-Shes A Fan daughter who’s finished in the money in each of her four outings.
“She hit a knee last week; I don’t think that’s a blip on the screen for her. Her talent level is not far behind ‘Ubeaut.’ She’s had a couple tougher trips, but she really is a top, top filly.”
Last Tuesday, Burke collected career training win 9,000, and he took a few minutes from his hectic schedule to reflect on that achievement.
“Unless something goes wrong, 10,000 will be cool. Who could imagine that we would double our annual win total? I can’t say I ever saw that coming.
“The affiliation with Mark Weaver took us to the next level. His whole job is adding horses to the barn. I don’t like to do that, but Mark lives for it. I never want to let any of my staff go, so we need more horses for those guys to have jobs.”
Burke notes that he and Hall of Fame driver David Miller have each surpassed $200 million in career purses.
“I bet him that I would get to $300 million first. Then I said, ‘Who are we kidding? In a few years, we’ll probably be looking at results from some county fair to see which of us got cheques.’”
The “Rockin’ On The Rail” series of live concerts continues Saturday with a performance by Jukebox. Music begins on the apron at the conclusion of the races.
(The Meadows)