HARRISBURG PA — Harness racing trainer Ron Burke had a pretty good week (by his standards) on Saturday.
The multi-time North American conditioning champion had 12 winners among the 38 horses he started at eight different tracks across the harness landscape on Saturday.
Four victories came at both The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono and The Meadowlands; Hoosier Park saw two; and the Burke Brigade had single victories at both The Meadows and Freehold.
The barn was perfect in one start at Freehold and two at Hoosier.
On the day, Burke's final tally was 38-12-3-5 for a .404 UTR; the horses bankrolled a total of $107,345.
And never let it be said that Burke and his vast extension of trotters and pacers is not an equal opportunity employer, either.
Of the twelve victories, only one driver was behind two Burke visitors to Victory Lane — Anthony Napolitano at Pocono.
The other ten wins went individually to Joe Bongiorno, Eric Carlson, Corey Callahan, Andrew McCarthy, Ricky Macomber Jr., Jim Marohn Jr., Brett Miller, Jim Morrill Jr., Dave Palone, and Sam Widger.
Ron Burke is on the verge of becoming the first ever horse trainer of either code to start 40,000 times.
Jerry Connors