Ron Burke excited to be at Cumberland Run for Sunday opener

The winningest horse trainer in North American history will be at Cumberland Run on Sunday to watch his four horses race.

No, trainer Steve Asmussen hasn’t branched out from Thoroughbred racing. Rather it’s Ron Burke, who with 14,269 victories heading into Thursday is harness racing’s all-time win leader. He’s also his sport’s winningest money-earner, with his horses making more than $317 million in a career that started in the 1990s.

Burke’s 300 horses are spread amongst Pennsylvania (his main hub and residence), Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey and Florida. But he said in a phone interview that he’ll be at Cumberland Run for Sunday’s opening day and is looking forward to being at a new track and its 12-day meet as harness racing comes to southeastern Kentucky for the first time.

Asked what he knows about Cumberland Run, Burke said, “I don’t. It’s exciting; that’s what I mean. We’ll all figure out the track together. I’m even bringing my dog. We’re both punching our tickets for another track we’ve been to.”

To put Burke’s numbers in perspective, the 2022 harness racing Hall of Fame inductee has won about 4,400 more races than Asmussen’s 10,271 Thoroughbred victories. Asmussen does have the edge in purse earnings, exceeding $425 million (second to Todd Pletcher’s $472 million).

Burke has lapped the Standardbred competition, topping 1,000 wins in a year four times (he’s at 925 so far in 2023) and already at $21.8 million this season exceeding $20 million in purses for the 10th time. According to the U.S. Trotting Association, no other harness trainer has won more than 663 races or $13.4 million in purses in a year.

Second in career wins for a harness trainer is Virgil Morgan Jr. with 7,370. The retired Jimmy Takter is second in purse earnings at $130 million.

“I own every record in the sport, and it’s not even close,” Burke said matter of factly, adding when asked if being the all-time leader had been a long-time goal, “I didn’t realize it. But once I started piling up the numbers, then, yeah, I wanted to be the first one to reach 1,000 wins in a year, $100 million and things. The one year I led both harness and Thoroughbreds in money, that was cool. Because they never thought there would be a day when a harness trainer would be close.”

That was 2014, when Burke’s stable accrued $28.4 million — $6 million more than Thoroughbred leader Pletcher.

There are a lot of similarities between Burke and Asmussen, Hall of Famers in their respective breeds. They are close in age: Burke will turn 54 on Monday; Asmussen is 57. Both were born into racing families and have several hundred horses spread among multiple divisions. And they possess a single-minded focus on winning — whatever the division or class of horse.

While Burke has never met Asmussen, he said a mutual acquaintance told him, “You two guys should meet. You remind me so much of each other.”

Of course, there is one big difference: Burke’s Standardbreds will race weekly for stretches at a time while today’s Thoroughbreds rarely run closer than three, four or five weeks apart. As a measure, Burke has had 66,571 career starters through Wednesday, compared with Asmussen’s record 50,669 starts in Thoroughbred racing.

“When I pass you,” Burke said, “it’s hard for you to pass me back until I slow down.” He doesn’t plan on that being any time soon, saying, “We’re going to keep rolling.”

Told about Burke, Asmussen quipped, “Then I better get back to work.”

Told Burke’s age, Asmussen’s response: “Dude! Then I’ve got no shot against him. If he’s 54, he’s just getting in his prime.”

(As an aside, Asmussen noted that his wife, Julie, owned a few Standardbreds that raced at Saratoga Harness during the Saratoga Thoroughbred season a couple of summers back. She had one winner, but “it was fun as heck,” her husband said.)

Burke says he doesn’t get tired of keeping up with 300 horses.

“No, when it’s the only thing you do and you enjoy it …,” he said. “Even if I do go on a vacation, by the third day I want to go home. I’ll do it for a few more years like this, and then I’ll re-evaluate. At some point Father Time has defeated all of us; we become not good enough. Before somebody has to tell me I’m not good enough, I’d rather tell myself.”

Burke’s father led the nation in wins and earnings before his son took over the entire family stable in 2008. Ron said it started out as a hobby for his dad.

“We went from having two or three horses to 200-300 horses,” he said. “My dad still jogs and trains with us. He’s 87 years old and works for us every morning.”

Burke’s quartet racing Sunday on the Cumberland Run opener include three in a trio of $30,000 legs of the Kentucky Sires Stakes and one in a $20,000 open pace. The record-smashing trainer is among the harness horsemen who have handicapped the Kentucky circuit and are rating it a “buy.”

With the historical Red Mile in Lexington bookended by western Kentucky’s Oak Grove in the spring and now Cumberland Run’s fall meet, Standardbred horsemen believe Kentucky is becoming the place to base. If the Kentucky meets are comparatively short on dates, Kentucky is centrally located to also race throughout the Midwest. As has happened in Thoroughbred racing, they see harness purses only going up, thanks to the Kentucky General Assembly passing legislation to protect historical horse racing (electronic gaming that is pari-mutuel in design).

“I’m excited. Cumberland Run gives Kentucky a third track for the harness people,” Burke said. “I’m looking to try to find a farm. Now, with more race dates, I’m trying to set up permanently there. I bought a condo in Lexington this year. We’re definitely going to be there more often.”

Burke’s four horses Sunday will be driven by David Miller, a 2014 inductee into harness racing’s Hall of Fame.

“It’s a legit stop now for the horse world,” Burke said of Cumberland Run. “Give it another year and you’ll see it even more…. Everywhere in Kentucky just keeps getting better and stronger.”