Ron Burke is bad for harness racing. I'm not saying he's doing bad, I'm just saying he's bad for the sport.
He's part of the problem in harness racing. One of a few big trainers with deep pockets and big barns that can do whatever they want and put smaller barns and smaller owners out of the game.
His reaction to being told the rules says all you need to know about the guy. He genuinely thinks that the world revolves around him. The truth is that if he left the sport, nobody would really care.
The guy has 300 horses. Of course he's going to have 30 that are really good. You never hear about the other 270....
Disagree
What is "bad for the sport" (and, thanks for calling it a sport and not a "game") is not Burke. It's also not the other barns with deep, good horses.
What is bad for the sport is that it has been allowed to devolve into an industry where the ONLY cohort that thrives is that which benefits from the breeding industry.
Burke has simply attached himself to this better than anyone else.
He is to harness racing what Pletcher was to T-breds 12-15 years ago before guys like Cox and Brown caught up.
The breeding industry in both is highly corrupt.
High end owners and breeders do not care about any interests other than their own.
Why should they?
Are we going to blame Burke for Freehold, Pompano, Michigan and Hawthorne and ....
Don't blame Burke. He's just better than the other guys.
