Editor’s note: To watch the HarnessRacing.com Show, previewing Saturday’s Delvin Miller Adios and featuring an in-depth interview with trainer Ron Burke, click here.
Hightstown, NJ – The Burke Brigade is set for a busy Saturday (July 25) at Hollywood Casino at The Meadows, where trainer Ron Burke will send out 31 horses during the 16-race Adios Day card at his home track.
“That’s the most we’ve ever raced at one track in a day,” Burke told the USTA’s Wendy Ross on Thursday’s HarnessRacing.com Show previewing the 60th edition of the $420,500 Delvin Miller Adios Pace for the Orchids, presented by 1/ST BET. “So, it’ll be exciting; it’ll be fun. But, you know what, I’ve got a lot of them that are swimming upstream on Saturday, so we’re going to have to really do good to do good.”
Burke will send out five of his horses in the Grade 1 Adios, including 5-2 morning-line favorite Al Papi, as he looks to add to his family’s three victories in the event for 3-year-old pacers. Burke won the race with Dorsoduro Hanover in 2018 and Bythemissal in 2022 while his father, Mickey, captured it with May June Character in 2007.
“This is home for us,” Burke said. “It’s a great race. It’s one of the races, especially with (racing partner) Mark Weaver, that we circle on the calendar, and we try to get it done.”
Al Papi won his Adios elimination last week in 1:47.2, defeating stablemate Melillo by 2 lengths, as he just missed equaling the world record for a 3-year-old pacer on a five-eighths-mile track (1:47.1 set by his sire, Papi Rob Hanover, at The Meadows in 2020). He will leave from post 4 on Saturday with Yannick Gingras in the sulky.
Odds On Mr Mamba won the other elimination in 1:49.3, beating Burke-trained Frantic Hanover by a neck. He will start from post 3 with James MacDonald driving for trainer Melanie Wrenn and is 3-1 on the morning line.
“That’s where I think the (Odds On Mr Mamba elim) actually has an advantage, that they didn’t get raced like that,” Burke said, referring to the 1:47.2 mile in Al Papi’s elim, which featured a :25.3 opening quarter and :53.1 back half.
He added, “Is that a perfect prep for (Al Papi)? No, but you’ve got to win the race you’re in. Yeah, he went (1):47, but would I have rather gone (1):49? Yeah. Did I think it hurt him? No. Did it help him? Definitely not.”
Melillo, who is the 5-1 third choice on the morning line despite drawing the outside post 9, in his elimination lost ground behind a tiring horse heading to the last turn but kicked home fastest of all (:26.1) to make up ground in the stretch.
“Melillo, as good as Papi was, might have been the sharpest horse last week,” Burke said. “Usually when you get stuck behind a stopper and have to back out, you can’t make up ground in a (1):47 mile – and he was making up ground and doing it easily.”
Joining Al Papi, Melillo and Frantic Hanover in the final from the Burke barn are Loua Dipa and Another C Note. Loua Dipa, who finished fourth in the elim won by Odds On Mr Mamba, is the first filly to face the boys in the Adios since 1969.
“It’s the first time I really wasn’t happy with her,” Burke said about the Dan Patch Award-winning filly, who has hit the board in 17 of 19 career races, winning 13 and earning $1.12 million. “I believe that at her best she’s better than my colts. Right now, I don’t think she’s at her best, and it’s just the wrong time.”
Although he has five horses in the Adios, Burke is focused on each one individually.
“We treat them as five different entities, so it really doesn’t give us any advantage or disadvantage,” he said. “Each horse is raced to do the best it can do. You’ve seen my drivers before – half the time it’s my horse running my own horse down. But I want those guys to go out and race each other and do what they think is best for the horse.”
The Adios will serve as the centerpiece of three hours of live race-day coverage. The day will begin with two hours of content across Primetime Racing’s social media platforms (2-4 p.m. EDT) before transitioning at 5 p.m. to a live one-hour national cable telecast on CBS Sports Network.
Racing begins at 11:30 a.m. (EDT) Saturday at The Meadows. For free past performances, click here.