Mickey Burke Sr. started with four horses more than 65 years ago and built it into the juggernaut that is the Burke Racing Stable now run by his son Ron. A true family operation, four of Mickey's five children now work at an outfit with approximately 400 horses from broodmares to older racehorses.  The first trainer in history to eclipse $10 million in single-season earnings back in 2007 and one of only three trainers along with Ron Burke and Jimmy Takter to accomplish the feat, Mickey truly broke new ground for what a training operation could look like.  On a relaxing morning in Lexington as he sat in his usual location at the front of the Burke barn on the Red Mile backstretch, Mickey took the time to discuss his long journey in the sport, his family operation and much more. Enjoy! How did you get started in harness racing? I rode jumping horses for a guy that had a bunch of them. I was a contract rider for him. He had two cheap fair horses, he and his son, Bert and Bruce Corfield. They raced around the Pennsylvania and Ohio fairs. He kept bugging me to go up and jog one of the horses and I said, 'I don't want to ride that buggy, that's for old people.' I was 18 years old at the time. One day I did it and within six months I purchased from a barber named Harry "Peanuts" Mc Elwee in Pennsylvania a horse named Hickory Buzz. He was a Phonograph out of Noreen Hanover. I also got a two-horse single axle factory trailer, two jog carts, three race bikes, four trunks of equipment packed to the brim, buckets, feed tubs, wheelbarrows . . . and I paid the princely sum of $600 for everything. It was October 1955. I drove my first race at Warren Fair in Ohio in 1956 when I was 20 years old. What made you decide to become a full-time trainer? I sold my dealership and came home to tell Sylvia [wife]. I hadn't even told her because truly I thought the man was full of crap until he wrote me a check for $150,000 for one-fourth of what I was selling him this little dealership for. She said we outghta sit down with the kids and tell them what we plan to do. I had four $2,500-$3,000 claimers at the time. It was a hobby and Bert Corfield trained them for me. At the time Mickey Jr. was 13, Ronnie was 12, the twins were 8 and Becky was 5. Ronnie said, 'dad, what are we going to do to make a livin?' and I said 'we are going to try to train harness horses.' The first words out of Ronnie's mouth was 'have you lost your mind?' The interesting part was that at the time Ronnie was scared to death of horses. I bought a farm and I had a bunch of jumping horses. I fenced the entire farm in split-rail fence. The problem is that it can dry up and crack or break. Needless to say I ended up with jumping horses running all around the secondary road by my house. Ronnie would run in and call me on the phone -- my dealership was 12 miles away -- and say, 'dad, the horses are running around'. Then he would hang up and crawl under the dining room table [laughing]. This is the guy who is now the leading trainer in the world. I had two very good owners in a short period of time. That was John Howard and George Leon. They would buy me anything I wanted and always paid on time. You broke new ground in 2007, nearly doubling your earnings and becoming the first trainer in history to break the $10 million mark for one year. Was that a surprise or the plan? Honestly, people will still ask Ronnie and I today if we ever thought in our wildest dreams we would reach those numbers. I'd say no because no one in the history of harness racing had ever done it. We did it step by step by step by step. A lot of things happened right and we've been fortunate to have the right people around us. I have people now that have been with us over 20 years. 'Murph' [Shannon Murphy] is over, Kenny Weimer is over, and I can name a herd of them that have been with me a long time.  You got a Class 2 positive for Lidocaine in 2006 which after appeal led to a 123-day suspension in 2009 when you decided to hand over the operation to your son Ron. Why did you decide to just walk away? I had to do 120 days and a $12,000 fine. Howard Taylor handled the whole thing and told me that was the best we were going to get. There really was no reason for me to come back. Ronnie was doing a great job and history proves that it was the right move. When I turned it over to him we had right around 150 horses and we have 400 now with 300 in training. Ronnie and I swore we would never own more than eight broodmares and I think we now have 31.  What kind of car do you drive? A GMC truck. It's a week old and a guy drove up and hit it the other day. It only has 400 miles on it. We have 20 GMC trucks and 18 trailers just to move our horses around.  Favorite dinner meal? Snack? An Italian dish. It used to be steak but I hardly eat any at all now. For snack, ice cream. What is your favorite track to visit? Why? My home track is The Meadows and I've been there since the day it opened in 1963. The interesting part is that when Pennsylvania started racing at Liberty Bell, my first Pennsylvania license was #122. That's how long I've been in it.  How often are horses or racing on your mind? From the time my feet hit the floor in the morning until I go to bed. I watch probably 95% of the horses we have race. I have three televisions and I put six tracks on them. Ronnie probably watches 99% of them. The damndest thing is, and this is part of being 86 years old, I'll watch the horses going behind the gate in the middle of the afternoon at The Meadows and fall asleep before the gate swings open and have to call Ronnie to find out where we finished [laughing].  What is your favorite thing to do outside of harness racing? Really nothing anymore. There was a time when I played a little golf but I'm physically not able anymore. I've had six knee replacements. Basically enjoying my family is what I do. I'm a great family man. All of my kids are successful and independently comfortable and I graduated from a vocational high school. What is your favorite sport to watch? Team? Football as long as the [Pittsburgh] Steelers are winning. I'm a fair weather sportsman. What is one thing about you most fans/bettors don't know? The fact that I've tried to live my life with honor. I had one positive that I'll go to my grave [saying I didn't do]. I spent a lot of money for three years and it just came to the fact that you'll never get a racing commission to admit it is wrong. Other than that I've tried to help everyone out that has needed help, and we have a history of that. I'll just hope that is enough to keep me out of hell and get me into heaven.  What is one word that describes harness racing for you? Money. That's my job, I'm the money counter.  You are just the second person in the last five years to say money and the other was Ron Pierce. Do you two think alike? I'm going to tell you something about Ron Pierce. As far as I'm concerned he is one of the most talented drivers that I have seen in my life but if you talked to him you wouldn't think he could walk and chew gum. While you started the train on the tracks, your son Ron Burke has really taken things to a new level. You must be very proud of what he has accomplished as well as his election to the Hall Of Fame? The whole family is involved. We have four out of five in it full-time. Mickey, Ronnie, Michelle and now my youngest daughter [Rebecca] who has a Master's in Occupational Therapy and worked for another company for 22 years, we finally talked her into coming on board. We also own a couple of other businesses. We have two Burger Fi's which we will probably end up selling before too long. I was telling Ronnie the other day we should sell them and go back to doing what we do best, race horses.  My other daughter who does not work in the business, though she owns six to 10 horses, Melissa, Michelle's twin, she is Chief Anesthetist of Cleveland Clinic. She does nothing but heart surgeries.  ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter Some have mentioned your name as a Hall of Fame candidate. Do you see yourself in that light? Yes, I think I should be in it to be honest. There are two people that have worked their lives off to get me in, Janet Terhune and Chris Tully. I'm very grateful to both of them. I don't want to mention names, but there have been a couple of people who have made it and I've made more money than them and I won a lot more races. If you look at my record, I've got $35 million made and over 3,000 races won. If you add that to what Ronnie has, because it has been one stable since the beginning -- it used to operate under Mickey Burke Stables and I just felt that when we switched it was time to go to Burke Racing Stables because everyone in the family is involved in it. I took four horses and turned it into the biggest stable in the history of the sport. What is the best advice you've ever gotten or can give about harness racing? I haven't bet on a horse in over 40 years. I'm a firm believer that if you are going to be in this business, and I decided when I went into it, you can either own them or bet them, and I decided I knew more rich owners than rich gamblers. Look around, it has clearly been pretty successful.  What was your best moment in harness racing? This may shock you, and believe me I'm thrilled to death with Foiled Again, but he is not the greatest horse I ever had. The first greatest horse I ever had was Maltese Artist. We bought him at Harrisburg for $146,000. He is the only horse, if he had not shattered his leg in the Molson final in Canada, that would've had a shot at getting close to Foiled Again [in earnings]. Actually I take that back, another horse that had a legitimate shot if he stayed sound would've been Wiggle It Jiggleit. When Maltese Artist shattered his leg Ronnie called me and asked what we should do with him. I said that he isn't going to be buried on a hillside in Canada. I had a vet pick him up and have him cremated and packed into a casket and brought him back to my house. He is buried in my front yard under a tree.   So Maltese Artist was the best horse you ever owned? Let's put it this way, he means the most to me. The best horse we ever had is Foiled Again - $7,635,588, but who's counting.  Is there a race in the sport that you are still hoping to see a Burke trainee win? I don't pay that much attention to it but the one we won and they took away from us is the Hambletonian. Other than that we've gotten most of them. At 86, you still help out with training. What do you do on a daily basis? When we are in Florida I train all of the babies with Kenny Weimer. If we have two sets I lead one and he leads the other.  How do you view the future of harness racing? I think Ronnie probably described that perfectly just recently when he said 'dad, they talk about the good ole days, but we are in the good ole days. This is the best money we've ever raced for in our lives.' What was your most disappointing moment in the sport? When they took the Hambletonian away from us.  Does the loss still sting? No, it is just an honor that we worked that hard and won. It never should've been taken away from us. Time for the stretch drive.  Best Horse you ever saw: The most shocking horse of course is Bulldog Hanover and the most shocking thing is that he's by Shadow Play.  Is Bulldog Hanover the best pacer of all-time? He's the fastest pacer on record but he will be beat and it will happen this year.  Who will beat Bulldog Hanover? Bythemissal. He is the fastest horse we've ever had.  [Editor's Note: This question was asked before Allywag Hanover beat Bulldog Hanover at The Red Mile on October 9.] Best Driver: Yannick [Gingras] is one of the best. Ron Pierce is one of the best. The one who has really shocked everyone since he's been here has been Dexter Dunn. He can get things out of horses. Lasix -- Yes or No?: Yes, definitely.  Favorite TV Show?: Strangely enough it is Mountain Men. Trotters or Pacers?: Ronnie and I have debated this and I've always said one good trotter will make you more money than three good pacers but he totally disagrees with me on that, and really facts prove him out to be right. I like trotters. The first horse I ever owned was a trotter and he taught me more than anyone else because he taught me how to stay out of trouble. He could leave the gate like a rocket. They used to tease me at the fairs that he could bite onto the gate and wouldn't let go until the quarter pole.