Chester, PA — Ron Burke achieved his 16,000th career training victory earlier this week, and based on the action at Harrah’s Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon (Aug. 14), he seems to want to get to 17,000 in the shortest amount of time possible.
Burke sent out four winners on the card — including both divisional Pennsylvania Sire Stakes winners — on a card that offered $237,566 in stakes purses for 2-year-old male pacers.
It may be a slight injustice to say that the Stay Hungry-Francessa colt Frantic Hanover, a three-time PASS winner, was the slower winner, because the fleet freshman was raced off the pace by Tim Tetrick in a race with a :58 clocking to the half. But Frantic Hanover made up the requisite ground late — posting an individual back half of :53.3 — to win by three-quarters of a length over Ain’tplayinnice in 1:52.1 for Burke Racing Stable, Weaver Bruscemi, Knox Services and Brad Grant.
The faster of the two Sire Stakes, 1:51.3, saw the Burke Brigade finish first and second, as the Papi Rob Hanover-Baron Remy colt Al Papi quarter-moved for driver Yannick Gingras then continued on with relentless speed to also post a three-quarter length margin, with stablemate Melillo slow to gain full clearance and flying in the stretch but just having too much ground to make up. Al Papi, who lowered his mark with this victory, is owned by Burke Racing Stable and Weaver Bruscemi along with partners J&T Silva- Purnel & Libby and Lawrence Karr.
Gingras also drove Burke’s two winners in the five-division Stallion Series competition, including another winner who is undefeated in three Pennsylvania stakes starts while the opposition has yet to achieve a double. That one is named Another C Note, a Captaintreacherous-Kate Can’t Wait colt, and he also posted the quickest Stallion Series time, a new mark of 1:52.1, dashing home in :27.3 after being parked three-eighths to get the lead and then holding it for Burke Racing Stable, Weaver Bruscemi, Let It Ride Stables and Scott Dillon to run his win streak to three.
The fourth Burke stakes winner and second in the Stallion Series was Loumelo Ball, a son of Sweet Lou-Fashion Fluzzy, with the gelding breaking his maiden in 1:53.2 for Burke Racing Stable, Weaver Bruscemi, Libby And Purnel, and Lawrence Karr.
As noted, Captaintreacherous sired the fastest Stallion Series winner, Another C Note, and he added two more credits with colts in other Stallion Series events: with Treacherous Lou (dam Sweet Lacy Lou), who lowered his mark to 1:53.3 for driver Eric Goodell and trainer Robert Cleary, and with the $36.20 winner Secret Society (dam Drop The Ball), whom David Miller drove to a new speed badge of 1:54 for trainer Noel Daley.
The final Stallion Series winner was McHungry, an altered son of Stay Hungry-McGibson who broke his maiden in 1:53.3 for trainer Dan Altmeyer and driver Mike Wilder, speeding home in :27.2.
Burke added a fifth winner for the day in an overnight event, and jumped from a joint 12th to a joint sixth in the local trainers’ derby in one card. As for the day’s top driver, Tim Tetrick may have won only one stakes race, but he won the majority of the overnight races on the program, visiting Victory Lane seven times in all on the afternoon.
Racing at Philly will continue on Friday (Aug. 15) at 12:25 p.m. and Sunday (Aug. 17) at 12:40 p.m. Free Philly program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.