Burke Brigade members reflect on a multi-award-winning year
by Debbie Little
When the results of the Dan Patch Awards voting, both human and equine, were recently announced, it was a big win for the Burke Brigade, with a total of nine awards:
• Breeders of the Year — Burke Racing Stable LLC, Weaver Bruscemi LLC
• Owners of the Year — Burke Racing Stable LLC, Weaver Bruscemi LLC
• Trainer of the Year — Ron Burke
• Caretaker of the Year — Joseph “Jo Jo” Tosies
• Pacing Sire of the Year — Sweet Lou
• Pacing Broodmare of the Year — Looksgoodinaromper
• 2-Year-Old Female Pacer — Loua Dipa (Sweet Lou—Looksgoodinaromper)
• 3-Year-Old Male Pacer — Louprint (Sweet Lou—Rockin Racer)
• Older Male Trotter — Lexus Kody (Archangel—Lexus Helios)
Owner Larry Karr has been part of the team since 2002 when he had horses with Brigade patriarch Mickey Burke.
“I mean, this year was epic,” Karr said. “Things unfolded even better than we could have widely anticipated. This was the most memorable year we’ve ever had, between Louprint, Loua Dipa, Lexus Kody… It surpassed all my wildest hopes. There was one month this year where, as the Burke Stable, we did double the best month we ever had.”
Mark Weaver, of Burke Racing Stable LLC (along with Sylvia Burke), and Weaver Bruscemi LLC (with Mike Bruscemi), was particularly happy to see their sire Sweet Lou honored as pacing sire for the third-straight year.
“There’s definitely a lot of pride in that one,” Weaver said. “And I hope he continues to get it, maybe until one of his sons takes it from him, but right now, I’ll enjoy it. And he certainly earned it, and it’s been fun. Winning the award has been fun, but watching the results on the track, making him deserving of winning the award, has been just as fun.”
Phil Collura joined the Burkes in 2007 and is a co-owner of Lexus Kody and co-owner/co-breeder of Louprint.
“I thought [Sweet Lou] would be good, but I didn’t know he would turn out like this,” Collura said. “I don’t think any of us really did. We knew he would be good, though, but not to this point, where he seems like the best one going right now.
“It’s really amazing how he evolved. He was doing double duty, because he was Down Under, too, and I think the first year down there, he wasn’t well received. And I think they said he comes from the Artiscape line and I think Artiscape left a bad taste in the mouths of people Down Under. So, they weren’t really breeding to him in the beginning. And then when they saw how good he was getting, and they saw that we were even breeding horses down there… And now he’s the best thing down there, too. It just took a while.”
Although they love buying yearlings at the sales, over the last bunch of years, the Burke Brigade now has a focus on homebreds, such as Louprint and Loua Dipa. They own about 45 broodmares which support their eight sires.
Looksgoodinaromper’s first foal was Looksgoodinloulou (1:48.3, $684,337) and according to Weaver, their initial expectations were low for her second one.
“We didn’t think Loua Dipa was quite as good as her older sister, but she’s proven to be even better,” Weaver said. “So, we look forward to having them keep coming.
“Breeding is important, and she’s only had two foals [of racing age], Looksgoodinloulou, and Loua Dipa. “One has a mark of [1]:48, the other [1]:48.3. It’s pretty good; she’s got a good thing going there.”
The Burkes also have a connection to Mission Brief, the Dan Patch 2025 Trotting Broodmare of the Year.
“Our style has been that if a horse has tremendous commercial value, similar to Rodeo Drive Deo, who we sold in Harrisburg this year for $650,000, we typically sell them. We don’t breed commercially and we had other partners on Mission Brief.
“Ronnie said all along, it’s the best horse he’s ever trained, and he kind of puts Louprint in that same category. He said he thought she would change the game, and it took a little while. I mean, they’ve been selling for a ton of money, but she’s finally been able to show it on the track.
“And she was great. I mean, we raced her against the boys in the Hambletonian and almost got there. She’s awesome. We don’t typically get trotters of that caliber, and to have her and be able to campaign her was a thrill. But we typically don’t get the really elite-bred trotters to be able to be really competitive in those type of races. It was a fun run. I wish we would have kept her now, but that’s kind of how we do things, and it is what it is.”
According to Collura, the success of Lexus Kody can be directly tied to the Fair Island Farm Caretaker of the Year, Joseph “Jo Jo” Tosies.
“It was so awesome for Jo Jo to get that award,” Collura. “I thought of all the awards we could win, that’s the one I wanted to win for him, just because of how great a job he did with ‘Kody.’ I don’t think Kody would have been as good as he was without him. He really calmed him down and made him relax. And it just made him so different.”
Collura also had something to say in regard to the fact that Canadian-bred Lexus Kody is not eligible for an O’Brien Award.
“I knew you had to have three starts, that was all I knew,” Collura. “And I remember saying to myself, well, I know Kody had four. I knew he had been in the Maple Leaf Trot elim and final, and the Breeders Crown elim and final, and then when they said Kody’s not on the list, I’m like, ‘What?’ My friend texted me and he was like, ‘Phil, they kind of screwed Kody in Canada.’ I told my friend, ‘Awards, they’re nice to win, but it’s not that important to me.’”
The O’Brien rules dictate that the Breeders Crown does not count towards the three required starts in Canada.
“I mean, that’s all the best horses racing in the Breeders Crown, so I thought the O’Brien Awards lost a little bit of their credibility when they came up with that,” Collura said. “And it didn’t just hurt Kody, but it hurt Louprint and Loua Dipa.
“The funny thing is he won the International Trot representing Canada, and the Maple Leaf Trot in a stakes record and track record [1:49.1 also a Canadian record]. I don’t know how he cannot be their Trotter of the Year. They’re really shooting their own country in the foot.”
Ron Burke said knowing that the Breeders Crown races didn’t count towards O’Brien eligibility wouldn’t have changed Lexus Kody’s dance card.
“No, not at all,” Burke said. “I do what’s best for the horse. Let awards take care of themselves.
Collura said he is responsible for choosing the name Louprint.
“I wanted to put something for Sweet Lou in there, so I was trying to think of something that rhymed with Lou and it was blue,” Collura said. “And I was coming up with different things, and when I got the word blueprint, I was like, well, it’d be cool if this horse could be a blueprint of Sweet Lou. And then I’m like, oh, Louprint, that sounds pretty cool.
“2025 will be a year that I’ll never forget. And even with that, and it’s going to sound ridiculous to say this, but it was also somewhat bittersweet with what happened with Louprint, with both the Meadowlands Pace and then how he got injured before the Breeders Crown. I feel like he was the best horse we ever had by far, and he showed he was a great horse, but I think he would be considered an all-time great had he not had those things that happened to him.
“I didn’t think I could get a horse better than Sweet Lou, I thought he was a once in a lifetime horse, and Louprint, that was like lightning struck twice. Because I think he was better than Lou… As a 2-year-old, I wasn’t sure, but as a 3-year-old, I don’t think Sweet Lou could have went the same mile as Louprint in the North America Cup final. I don’t think Sweet Lou would have done that, you know, parked [to the half] and still fought off Madden Oaks like that. I don’t think he could have done that, but that was just awesome.”
Weaver said there will be such a large Burke Brigade presence at the Dan Patch Awards banquet, that he’s even renting a 15-room house to accommodate the 40-plus attendees should they need a place to crash. He also said he’s hoping for a good outcome in the battle for Pacer of the Year between Louprint and Beau Jangles.
“But for a 2-year-old to win, the door has to kind of be opened up and it kind of did… Louprint, it wasn’t his fault, but he didn’t get it done in the Breeders Crown and that kind of opened the door,” Weaver said. “So, whatever happens, happens. Sweet Lou won Pacer of the Year, his 5-year-old year, but he didn’t win Horse of the Year, that went to JK She’salady. Kind of a weird thing. And it hasn’t stopped Sweet Lou, so, if Louprint doesn’t win, I don’t think it’s going to stop him, either. So, you know, whatever happens, happens.”
Weaver said, to him, there should be some sort of criteria considered by voters when choosing Pacer, Trotter, and Horse of the Year.
“I don’t blame the horse [Beau Jangles], it is what it is, there was really no reason for him to come down [to race in the States],” Weaver said. “I typed up a thing with 10 criteria, and it was money earned, winning percentage, [etc.]. That’s what I think hurts Lexus Kody. I mean, he had an unbelievable run, but I think he lost 10 races this year. But one of the criteria, I think, is doing it in different venues. And even though there was no reason for [Beau Jangles to leave Canada], it’s hard to take your show on the road for the elim and then the final… It is what it is. I mean, it’s all fun, and whatever happens, happens.
“I wanted Sweet Lou to be the Sire of the Year and that happened. I thought it’d be cool if we got Breeder of the Year and that happened. And most importantly, I thought Jo Jo should be Groom of the Year and that happened. So, anything else, it is what it is.”
