Johnny Burke, head trainer at Darley's training barn at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky, relies on years of experience to help him provide the expertise needed to, as he puts it, "Get them back full stride, at their best, tanks full. So we can send them onto their trainers and their progression can continue so we can get the boss in the winner's circle."
24 March 2015
Johnny Burke: a rare talent
It takes an individual with rare talent to oversee the care and training of an entire barn of horses of any kind. But when you work for one of the world's premier racing operations, it's even more important to have the right people in the right places.Trainer Johnny Burke has been in the business all his life and at Darley in America for nearly ten years.
Burke was born in Mallow, County Cork, in Ireland in 1960. The son of a steeplechase trainer, when asked how he got involved in the Thoroughbred business, Burke stated, "I was born in it." Burke’s father was a steeplechase jockey and is the last living apprentice of Vincent O’Brien’s for whom he rode in the 1940s when O’Brien was training horses over the jumps. Burke mentioned he has distinct memories of his father riding at the races and really got involved himself when he was 12 years old when his father was a private trainer for the present Earl of Harrington. Burke mentioned that up until he was 12, he was never allowed in the yard. One day his father didn’t send him home and he’s never been far from a training barn ever since. Burke rode out for his father beginning at 13 and recalls the first time he did a fast work on a track was where the present Limerick racecourse stands. He also commented that helmets and vests were not a requirement during that time.
Johnny's first official winner as a trainer was the horse Rare Talent
His father was adamant that Burke finish high school and so he did just that. He was then accepted at a few colleges but decided instead to enroll in the Irish National Stud Course where he excelled and finished with the Silver Medal as second tops in his class. He applied to the course through Dr. Michael Osborne, father of Joe Osborne - the latter currently the Managing Director of Darley’s Kildangan operation in Co. Kildare, Ireland. Burke commented that his experiences with Dr. Osborne have influenced him greatly to this day.
Following the Irish National Stud, Burke was set on going to Australia but instead stayed in Ireland where he worked for Fred Winter, a great jump trainer at that time. He commented that he still remembers Winter’s training routine and incorporates a lot of that into what he does now. “Looking back, we were only 17 or 18 but didn’t know how lucky we were. I had kept in touch with Dr. Osborne while working for Winter and it was he who suggested I come back to National Stud as a foreman for students of that year’s class in 1981”, Burke said. Eoin Harty, James Keogh, Niall Brennan, Jim Fitzgerald, and Murray Johnson were all were members of that crop of Irish National Stud trainees along with Dr. Sam Bradley now a vet at Santa Anita.
Burke’s roommate when he was barn foreman during his second stay at the Irish National Stud was a Shane Colemen, currently a jockey in Australia. It was through Coleman that Burke was able to land a job in Australia at Lindsey Park where he worked for a year and a half beginning in 1981. Burke commented that you could spend 24 hours a day at that facility and work in every aspect of the business. Although he was offered a full-time job at Lindsey Park, he decided to come to the United States.
Past performances of Burke's first winner, Rare Talent, in April of 1992
Burke spent 6 ½ years working for Carl Nafzger galloping horses and oversaw his second string for him the last three or four years. He left Nafzger in 1989 and found employment in Ocala, Florida, through the help of the aforementioned Niall Brennan, where he completed two seasons prepping 2-year-olds for sale. He then travelled to Lexington, Kentucky, where he galloped for trainer Tony Foyt, during Keeneland’s Spring meet. Following his stint with Foyt, he was able to get on at Gainsborough Farm in Versailles, Kentucky, where he continued to gallop horses, including the likes of Shadeed. In September of 1991, he received a horse to train from Frank and Jonathan Sheppherd. Keeneland gave him a stall and Pat Byrnes barn. He trained that horse in the morning and then galloped at Gainsborough in the afternoon. He worked for Gainsborough for a couple of months but was taking on additional horses as well during that time. In November, he moved everything to a training center outside of Lexington and set up shop. His wife gave him a loan for the first stall rent and told he would give it a couple of years but ended up staying 15. He saddled his first winner in April of 1992, a horse called Rare Talent for Pin Oak Farm.
He would continue on with his public stable until early 2006 when he received a call from Jimmy Bell, President of Darley in America, who asked him if he’d be interested in doing some rehab work. Burke helped with rehabiliation and also trained horses for Darley that would eventually be sold in foal. Jimmy then called him in August of 2006 and offered him the job to establish a training center at Keeneland to take care of Darley horses who might need some extra time off or rehabilitative care. He had experienced a couple of bad falls and he and his wife decided it was time for a change. He called Jimmy back and told him he needed a month to disperse his own stable which had included such clients as Pin Oak and Alice Chandler.
Burke started at Darley’s Keeneland barn on the 23rd of October, 2006, on a Monday. By Friday of that week he had 29 horses and four employees and has never looked back. He commented in nine years, there’ve been 500 or 600 horses that have gone through his watchful eye at Keeneland. His training methods are fairly straightforward. He gives a horse a schedule and applies a lot of the training and experience he learned from his public stable. “As long as we get the end product, there’s a 100 ways to pluck a chicken. I adapt to the horse depending on what they need.”
Burke further commented that he’s seen a lot of good ones come through his barn but would have to say that Music Note and Cocoa Beach are two of his favorites.
Burke will celebrate 20 years of marriage to wife Patricia in September of 2015. He has 13-year-old twin sons Levi and Caleb who will enter high school at Henry Clay in Lexington, Kentucky, this fall.
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