The Meadows: Burke breaks Adios drought with Dorsoduro Hanover

Trainer Ron Burke has won a copious number of races in recent years, but the Delvin Miller Adios had escaped him until today when his Dorsoduro Hanover, driven by Matt Kakaley, front-stepped his way to a 1:50 1/5 victory in the $400,000 stake for 3-year-old pacing colts at The Meadows.

Dorsoduro Hanover was away well from post five, but he had to work a bit to clear Hitman Hill (Brett Miller) at the 26 3/5 opening quarter. The key to Dorsoduro Hanover's eventual win occurred in the second quarter, though, as the cover flow was slow to develop, allowing Kakaley to steal his charge a half in just 55 1/5.

Things picked up past the half as American History (Yannick Gingras) was out first-up from fourth, and he was able to get to within a length of Dorsoduro Hanover at the 1:22 3/5 three-quarters, but with that big breather, Dorsoduro Hanover had plenty left to meet the challenge. Coming off the last turn, Kakaley called on Dorsoduro Hanover, and he would sprint home in 27 3/5 to fend off American History by a length and a quarter. Hitman Hill was third from the pocket, with Thinkbig Dreambig (Jordan Stratton) up from third-over for fourth. GD Western Joe (Dave Palone) sat on the cones in the three-hole and came in fifth.

"I was just going to play it out of there. It worked out perfect, that's for sure," Kakaley said about the winning trip. "They showed respect to the horse. He's been racing great, and I got a good breather, for sure. As soon as I got the breather in the second quarter, I was pretty confident. If he got beat off that half, something was wrong. It's huge. A few months ago I didn't know if I was going to race again after a bad accident. It's good to be back."

A gelded son of Somebeachsomewhere, Dorsoduro Hanover is trained by Burke for owners Burke Racing Stable LLC., Silva, Purnel & Libby, Weaver Bruscemi LLC., and Wingfield Five LLC. This was Dorsoduro Hanover's seventh career victory, and he has now earned $575,603. The 6-5 favorite, he paid $4.40 to win.

This might have been Burke's first victory in his hometown race, but it provided just as much excitement as when his father Mickey won the 2007 edition with May June Character.

"As a family we did the first one, and as a family we did the second one, so we're all in this together," Burke remarked. "We've probably spent like $10 million chasing this race, so it was finally time we got one. This was our core group of owners, which makes it nice. We did it together, and this is why we do it. We're very happy.

"I think you've seen today that Matt's making the next step to be an elite driver. He can drive with anybody, and he's finally getting the chance to drive the better horses of ours. I think you'll see him win more races like this.