What kind of car do you drive? Lexus RX350. Favorite dinner meal? Snack? Chilean Seabass or lobster. I've recently found a new snack. It is called Coco Lace Multigrain Pop Cake. I just ordered four cases from Amazon. What is your favorite track to visit? I have a few favorites. Meadowlands is important and it is close to me. I love Mohawk and the Red Mile because of the stakes races and obviously the sale in Lexington. What is your favorite event in racing? Hambletonian, because I've won four of them and the industry really makes a big deal out of the event. How often is racing on your mind? 24/7. What is your favorite thing to do outside of racing? Making deals to make money so I can pay for the horses. What do you do for a living? I'm a healthcare consultant that puts people together to buy nursing homes, assisted living or any other healthcare venture that pops up. What is your favorite sport to watch? Team? Football – NY Giants. What is one thing about you most fans/bettors don't know? I jot down thoughts to enhance my business acumen at all hours of the day and night. Also, I don’t use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any social media. I remember when a pencil and paper were important and I still keep them handy. What is one word that describes harness racing for you? Needs help. How did you get started in the sport? A writer for the New York Post named Len Cohen who lived at 149 West Chester in Long Beach Long Island, because I remember everyone’s address, he was a customer of mine in the 1960s at a Pharmacy called Long Beach Chemists. He mentioned to me about Roosevelt Raceway and said he thought I’d enjoy going there. So I went in like 1960 or 1961. I liked to go to the Cloud Casino (restaurant at the track) and the maitre d' would always hold my favorite table D7. I sat with the Baldwin, Morty Finder, and lots of different people that started the industry in those days. I got recommended to Vernon Dancer and we went to Indiana and I got my first horse. The horse was Linda David and we changed the name to Dr. Donald because my first wife Barbara, who passed away at a very young age, used to talk like Donald Duck. He was a good horse. Have you been involved in the sport consecutively since the early 1960s? No, I went from 1962 to 1976 and from 1992 to now. Back in 1992 I went to Ron Gurfein as a trainer and Phil Tully helped me buy my first horse coming back, which was Imperfection. What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten about harness racing? It is a great sport and a great business and you can really enjoy the comradery of the people and the horses. I’m in it for two reasons, to win and get the picture in the winner’s circle with the partners I have, and to get the trophy. I don't really pay attention to the money, even though you have to, cause that is not the reason I’m in the sport. It is a known fact that you like collecting racing trophies. How many do you have? You'd have to come to my house some time and count them. I have trophies back to the 1960s, like at the Battle of Saratoga where they gave you a beautiful cannon. The trophies they used to give you are much better than now. Then we have a problem because in the Burke Brigade we have five owners and everybody wants a trophy. But I'm the oldest one so I usually get the trophy. We don’t usually have any arguments, but worse comes to worst, I order another trophy from LV Harkness. We actually build a second room to fit all of the trophies because we grew out of the first room. I'm in the house so much now that I have plenty of time to reminisce about all of the races from the past. What was your favorite moment in harness racing? Winning the Hambletonian with Muscle Hill (2009) because he was dominant. Whenever you are favored there is plenty of trepidation. The most trepidation came when Brian Sears went to Canada to race and (Greg) Peck (trainer) had to call someone in to Du Quoin to drive (Luke McCarthy), but he won. Which is the best horse you’ve ever owned? Ernie Martinez gave me a trophy for my birthday and it had all my good horses. It says, "Below are 36 horses each earning over $1 million that we owned with our partners. 18 Breeders Crown winners and 4 Hambletonians." So where do I start on the best one? There was Art Major, Cantab Hall, Continentalvictory was fantastic, I loved her. Dewycheatumnhowe, Fred And Ginger, Hannelore Hanover, Mel Mara, Mission Brief, Muscle Hill, One More Laugh, Rocklamation, Self Possessed. Of course Snow White, who probably could’ve been the best horse in the history of the sport but unfortunately passed away at a young age. There was also Southwind Frank, Southwind Tempo, Strong Yankee, and this year Warrawee Ubeaut. I also had the only horse to get disqualified in the Hambletonian, What The Hill. What made you decide to buy pieces of horses rather than sole ownership? The industry changed. In 1962 there were no partners, everybody owned their own horses and they were less expensive than today. You can spend as much as a million for a yearling now. When I came back in 1992 the partnerships started. I had David Scharf, Lou Domiano, George Segal and many others as partners. It was a better way of doing it. Instead of just talking to your trainer every day, you are able to share the highs and lows with your partners. And it also costs you less to own the horses. I own an average 15 percent on every horse that I have. How has your relationship with trainer Ron Burke changed your involvement in the sport? It caused me to decide that the only horses I want to have are with Ron Burke. I have one other horse with (trainer) Nancy Takter . . . that is the only 2-year-old that I don’t have with Ronnie out of 47 total. In an interview that Burke did, he mentioned that he wasn’t sure if he was going to like you but now you are one of his favorite owners. Thoughts? I appreciate what Ron does. It is a tremendous responsibility to train over 300 horses. As far as me, my wife always says, I am what I am. Which horse or horses are you most looking forward to seeing from your stable in 2020? Warrawee Ubeaut, who won a Dan Patch award in 2019, but it will be very difficult for her outside of the 4-year-old races. I'm very much looking for Elver Hanover (9-for-9 in 2019) to return. We didn’t really have a great year in 2019. We formed Elite Trotting, which turned out to be a disaster. They weren’t very elite. The best one is Sister Sledge, she’s a good horse. The 3-year-olds aren’t at the top of my list right now. I’m looking for some of the 47 2-year-olds to jump up and be champions like Elver Hanover did last year. I go to The Meadows a lot now to be with Mickey (Burke), Sylvia (Burke), Ronnie and Mark Weaver. It is an easy trip to get there. I also like to go to Indiana. They treat us nicely there too. Most tracks treat me well. What I really miss is Du Quoin. The state fair and the racing with the top horses was great. If you could have a mulligan from your time in the sport, what would it be? I wish I didn't leave the sport in 1976. I missed a lot of good races in the 1980s. How has COVID-19 affected you personally? Terribly. It has stopped my whole life. I'm not a house person. I like to visit people, talk to people. I've been home for 15 days so far and I don't like it. It is boring. I make telephone calls and catch up with people. I can't wait to get out of here and back on the road. Do you think stakes payments should have been delayed? 100 percent, or they should take the stake payments and not deposit the checks until the races are about to start. They can take the money (checks) and don’t use it so the people who need the money now can have the cash flow. If you had the power to change one thing in the sport, what would it be? I think the sport has very little chance to survive in today’s world because of the lack of young people. I don't know what makes people excited about something I was excited about 60 years ago, so I don’t really have a good answer. Perhaps marketing or TV Exposure? People don't even think about Harness Racing anymore. I don’t see it as a business that will grow and I’m not smart enough to tell you how it will survive. How do you view the future of harness racing? The future has problems because as I said, it needs young people involved. We should make some sort of program for new owners that are between the ages of 20 and 35, perhaps supplement their involvement or get people down from colleges and give them a percentage of earnings from a winning horse. I used to have a partner that would give away percentages of his horses when he won. We have to get the young people involved and we are not doing it, or if we are, we aren't doing it to the extent that it is meaningful. We are not important to anybody except us. There are too many distractions nowadays. I have three grandkids. They have no interest in the sport whatsoever. I took them to The Meadowlands when I felt like we were going to win a race and they were in the winner’s circle with Hannelore Hanover taking pictures. They never said, 'Can we go back tomorrow? Can we go back on Saturday?' If you had one wish in life, what would you wish for? Health and living to a ripe old age. Time for the stretch drive: Best Horse Ever: Muscle Hill Best Driver Ever: Yannick Gingras Lasix – Yes or No?:  Yes Best race you ever saw?: Mission Brief winning by 16 lengths at Red Mile. I like to win easy so I can start making my way to the winner’s circle at the top of the stretch.  Favorite TV Show?:  Shark Tank