Burke drives winner that pays $169.40 to win

Ron Burke has dominated the training statistics of North American harness racing like no other horseman before him has done. He has broken the 1000-win mark in a season twice, and two years ago his trainees earned over $28 million at not-quite-literally-but-seemingly every track in North America (the exact count was 29 different ovals at which his horses appeared).

 

 

But Ron Burke has a hunger for trying to learn and do more, and in the last race Tuesday night at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, Burke showed the harness public "a new trick": he sent out the Conway Hall sophomore filly Time To Talk for her 2016 bow, and at the mile's end, the filly had a new mark of 1:57.2 – and anyone who backed her to win with $2 had a $169.40 windfall! Downs track announcer Jim Beviglia picked right up on it, noting in the winners circle ceremony, "It's not very often you're going to get 80-1 on a Ron Burke trainee."

 

Time To Talk was thought of enough at two by her connections (Burke Racing, Our Horse Cents Stables, and J&T Silva Stables) that she made her career debut in a New York Sire Stakes event, and did have a third in an New York Excelsior Series race as the highlight of her five-start campaign. Qualifying back evenly in 1:59.1 for her 2016 bow, she drew post nine (but started in PP8 due to a scratch), and certainly was no lock – but still, with Burke … and driver Matt Kakaley, former Pocono dash champion, this year the leading driver at The Downs not named "Napolitano," and fourth in the North American drivers earning derby … 80-1 does seem generous, acknowledging 20-20 hindisght.

 

Time To Talk did have to earn the victory, even though she was aided by three of her seven rivals going offstride. Last among the non-breakers at the 5/8, she was hustled outside by Kakaley and steadily gain made a grinding gain on the leading Broadway Jo Ell. Through the stretch the two battled hard, and Time To Talk was gritty enough in her 2016 debut to hang a nose loss on her pacesetting rival, and return the huge mutuel price …

 

… Which is not, by the way, the biggest price of Pocono's young 18-card 2016 campaign. Majo Just Do It returned $197.00 in winning just eight days previously, and in the interim between these 1-2 big bombers, Squeals Of Delight paid $107.00, as the season to date at Pocono has been either a feast of big prices, or a famine of bombers caused by a 45.5% chalk rate.

 

 

His name was Ron Burke. Maybe last night wasn't such a "new trick" after all.