by Rich Fisher, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — After the ownership group of Burke Racing, Weaver Bruscemi LLC and W.W. Haas Jr. purchased Indiana-bred Rose Run Parker as a yearling, trainer/co-owner Ron Burke came up with a possible good news-bad news scenario.

“Training down (last year), when he qualified, we had quite a few trotters,” co-owner Mark Weaver said. “Ronnie said ‘I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but we’ve got Pennsylvania breds, New York breds and New Jersey breds, but our Indiana bred can beat all of them. So either our other horses are really bad or our Indiana bred is really good.’”

Considering part of Burke’s group included Southwind Spirit, a stakes-winner who won $370,295 as a 2-year-old, it became obvious the others weren’t bad.

Linscott Photography

Rose Run Parker has won 21 of his 25 lifetime starts, with earnings of $537,250.

One look at Rose Run Parker’s statistics shows he is good. He has won 12 of 14 races and $306,125 this year, and for his career, he’s won 21 of 25 and $537,250. He most recently won the $220,000 Indiana Sire Stakes championship on Oct. 18 at Hoosier Park.

A son of stallion Jailhouse Jesse out of the mare Centergy, Rose Run Parker races in the second division of the Circle City Stakes on Friday at Hoosier Park.

It has been all home cooking for the 3-year-old trotter, who was purchased for $26,000 at the 2012 Indiana Premier Yearling Sale and has never raced anywhere but Hoosier Park.

“He’s a nice trotter,” Weaver said from his home base in Pittsburgh. “In Indiana they go for enough money out there in their sire stakes program, they don’t need to go anywhere else and don’t have time with the sire stakes spread out over the entire season.”

But soon enough, he will be tested away from home.

“Each year more and more Indiana breds seem to be doing better in other states and in open company,” Weaver said. “We think he has a chance to do that too.”

The group just made a supplemental payment into the Hambletonian Maturity for 4-year-olds to make Rose Run Parker eligible for that race in 2015.

“That may be a little bit of a stretch, but we took a shot,” Weaver said. “He’s nice; when his head’s on straight he can go. People don’t really respect the miles still in Indiana, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he ended up being one of the better 4-year-olds next year.”

Burke liked the horse as soon as he saw him, telling the other owners that “as long as he can stay flat, he’ll be good,” according to Weaver.

The horse is driven by Ricky Macomber Jr., who pretty much lets the horse do his thing.

“He’s doing a good job with him,” Weaver said. “He seems to kind of get him away from the gate and then he doesn’t mind doing the work. You get him into the race and it’s kind of the way you drive a horse when they’re the best. At some point you march him to the front and go on from there.

“I think one time he ended up being sick, but when he’s on his game he’s tough to beat. He has no real style. He ends up on the front most of the time. Most horses like that, you want them racing that way all the time, just get him out of trouble. But I don’t think he’d have any trouble racing from behind or out of the hole.”

Weaver said he actually likes young horses to be taught to race from behind, but admits it’s a tough situation when they’re winning.

“You’re going for a lot of money and when you’re the best it’s hard not to put them on the front and let them do their thing,” he said. “It may not be the best thing for their development, but it gets the money.”

Rose Run Parker is the 6-5 morning line favorite Friday, when he will be starting from post two.

“He’s in against one of the better Ohio breds in Rompaway Galaxy,” Weaver said. “I’m actually pretty interested to see the race. I think that’s a pretty nice trotter and Parker is pretty nice as well. It will be interesting to see his first race against open competition.

“From here on in he’s like any other horse. We’ll probably try him in a couple of other things. He’s an aged trotter, not an Indiana Sire Stakes horse going forward. So we’ll see how he stacks up.”