Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Odds On Racing's

Trainer of the Month
for January 2012

Ron Burke

It was the long and the short of it for 6’5” western PA horseman Ron Burke in recent year-end honors balloting by the U.S. Harness Writers Association. Burke easily won the Glen Garnsey Trainer of the Year Award, with the largest surplus in all of the contests.

Ron Burke

Long a master of the far-flung and successful raceway stable, Ronnie Burke had 797 winners in 2011 and $18,537,603 in seasonal earnings, (more than 2 ½ times his nearest foe),  but this year marked a watershed for Burke after making his stable a major factor in many stakes races in most divisions, and at seemingly every track.

The star of stars for Burke was the freshman pacing colt Sweet Lou (which he co-owns with Weaver Bruscemi, Lawrence Karr, and Phil Collura), whose 1:49 victory in his Breeders Crown final on a cool autumn night at Woodbine was merely the fastest mile in harness history by a two-year-old. Another Burke contender was the ironsided FFA pacer Foiled Again, who bankrolled $1.4M of his career $3.4M cashflow this past campaign – and lowered his mark to 1:48 at age seven.

Ron Burke's Training Statistics Through January 1, 2012
Year     Starts     Wins    2nds   3rds       Earnings             UTRS
2011      3786      797      603      505      $ 18,537,603      0.343
2010      3737      840      639      484      $ 18,053,316      0.363
2009      3166      761      526      394      $ 14,825,066      0.374
2008       364        95        52        46      $ 1,200,017       0.382
2007        27          9          4          2      $ 164,401           0.440