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“When I was 12 years old, my dad had a car dealership. He came home and said he’s selling the car dealership and is going to race horses. We literally thought we were going to starve to death. We literally would win one race a year. One race a year was a good year,” Burke said. “We actually moved, broke up with a longtime partner and moved in with the Snyders, Doug, Dave and Dick Snyder, and decided at that point they were going to race at The Meadows and he was going to learn what they did. It was around the time when me and Mickey went to work at the barn and I was scared to death of the horses when I first went. I found out I really did like it and really liked the horses all because of a horse named Embassy Omega.“Every year we’d build on and build on and build on. And the big thing was, right before Pennsylvania got the slots, we went to The Meadowlands to build a barn and found out we were competitive, so we decided we weren’t going to bring that barn back, we were just going to build another barn at The Meadows with more horses there. Then, basically did that everywhere. When Ohio got good, we sent horses to Ohio. When Indiana was good, we had a barn there. Now that Kentucky is good, we have a barn there. Basically, that is how the barn built. I say all the time, I don’t think anybody else could do what I do right now because I went from 40 to 80 to 120 to 200 to 250 and I kept growing. So, along the way, I learned. I made mistakes and I figured it out and got to know how.“I just don’t know if anybody else wants to do it,” Burke continued on his immense operation. “It’s the last thing I think about when I go to bed and it’s the first thing I think about when I get up in the morning.”The Burke Stable spans across seven barns with over 100 employees.“Every barn has to have at least one person that could do it if I dropped dead tomorrow. They could still run the barn. They understand the way of doing things,” Burke said. “People that are good with horses and good with organization; good with the owners.“Between me, Mark [Weaver] and my mother [Sylvia], we figure it out. Every barn has Murph, Adam Rucker, PJ Fraley, Nick Tiernan; there’s a lieutenant at every barn. Some barns have two. Murph has Keith Kamann, Nick has Jason Moore. Every barn basically runs independently, but also a part of the big picture, especially that they all work together great. That’s the number one thing, if you don’t work together, you won’t be around because number one I want people to enjoy what they do. If this isn’t fun, go do something else. That’s basically how it grew into what it is today.”
No wonder he won’t stop it’s all to easy to steal from children
did he make it through this yr with no positives? or days he had to postpone? congrats if he made it through the yr.
Very few people could do what he does. He's the best.
“Usually where they need me most is where I go. Sometimes, I just stay home. Yesterday I had so many stake races, I didn’t go to any of them because I would have missed too many watching and I try to see every race. Is there another successful trainer who stays home? Stakes races are where top trainers want to make sure everything is right. Sounds like a whole lot of BS...in my opinion.
Thats the only way he could see every race. I think its safe to say he knows what he's doing! Ya have to be an idiot to question anything Burke does....
https://www.drf.com/news/harness-how-run-racing-empire-ron-burke-way
