by Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications

Ken Weingartner

Freehold, NJ — Itrustyou will try to extend his win streak to 13 in a row in Saturday’s (Feb. 18) $74,600 Exit 16W series final at Meadowlands Racetrack, but trainer Ron Burke says it will not be easy.

The 4-year-old gelding pacer will start from post No. 4 with driver Yannick Gingras. Itrustyou, who last month won the $74,000 Complex series final at the Meadowlands, is 5-for-5 this season with $73,000 in purses for the Burke Racing Stable. Burke got the horse in late October.

“This final is wide open,” Burke said. “It really is. I can make cases for a lot of the horses in here. Looking at the draw, it really becomes a wild race because there are so many (horses) from the outside that need to get in the race. This is going to be a good race. This isn’t going to be a straight line-up race. There’s going to be a lot of movement in here.”

Lisa photo

Itrustyou has won 12 straight races, including five in 2012.

Special T Rocks, who has won five of six races this year for trainer/driver Daryl Bier, and Real Flight, who has three wins in six starts, joined Itrustyou in winning second-round divisions of the Exit 16W last week. Special T Rocks drew post seven and Real Flight got No. 10 for driver Tim Tetrick and trainer P.J. Fraley. Fearless Diablo, who was a first-round winner, is in post nine and Burke’s Risk Management is in the eight spot.

Itrustyou is a son of Third Straight-Dynamic Lady and was bred and raced by Dean Collins prior to joining the Burke Stable. He has won 15 of 34 career races and earned $213,775.

Last week, Itrustyou won his Exit 16W division by a half-length over Mickey Hanover in 1:50.3 despite getting steppy in the stretch. He rallied from fifth place at the half-mile point with a third-over trip behind eventual third-place finisher Fearless Diablo.

“Last week I thought was the first time he hadn’t been as good as he’d been in previous weeks,” Burke said. “I didn’t think he had as much pace off that trip as I would’ve expected him to have. Physically, he’s fine. But you try to race all these weeks in a row and it gets hard. It’s hard for them to bounce back.

“Everybody is worried about the stepping around, but that’s not an issue with him,” the trainer added. “That just is what it is for him.”

Following the Exit 16W, Itrustyou is scheduled to head to the Cam Fella series at Woodbine Racetrack in Ontario.

“This horse seems to be very gritty,” Burke said. “Last week, even when he didn’t seem as sharp as in weeks past, he still manages to win.”

Also on Saturday, Burke sends Westwardho Hanover into the $57,600 Aquarius series final. Westwardho Hanover will start from post eight in the nine-horse field with Gingras at the controls. The 4-year-old pacer has won three consecutive starts beginning with the $99,000 Willowdale Pacing Series final at Woodbine prior to the Aquarius.

Last week, Westwardho Hanover won from post nine by a head over Camaes Fellow in 1:51.1. Burke said the horse was distracted by a piece of flapping plastic on the backstretch.

“Going to the half, he almost ran down into the infield and that’s how he ended up getting parked,” Burke said. “Yannick spent most of his time trying to keep him from running into the infield and less of his time trying to get him to go on. I think he’ll be all right, but when you keep drawing these odd positions it makes it a lot harder to control the race.”