FORT WASHINGTON, MD - For Ron Burke, North America’s leading trainer in victories and earnings, Sunday’s $100,000 Potomac Pace at Rosecroft Raceway is just another pari-mutuel mission. For trainer Buddy Bright, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime and it comes less than a week before his 71st birthday. Burke will be represented by Filibuster Hanover, the probable favorite, and stablemate Rockin Ron. Bright, a regular at Rosecroft for years, sends out longshot Rock N Roll Jet, a

FORT WASHINGTON, MD - Ron Burke is a numbers guy. You would expect as much from a trainer juggling a 250-horse stable of trotters and pacers and has been the best in the harness business for a decade. Burke, based in Washington, Pa. at The Meadows as well as a nearby farm, never misses one of his pupil’s starts, be it in person or via a computer or television screen. He will have his eye on the mobile starting gate Sunday when he sends out both Filibuster Hanover and Rockin R

Though the draw isn’t until Nov. 29, the $100,000 Potomac Pace looks like it will have a competitive group of eight horses, among them Dealt A Winner, who competed in the first two editions of the race with a third last year and a fifth in 2016. Pete Hanley, the racing secretary at Rosecroft, said other horses expected for the Potomac are Indiana standout Endeavor; Filibuster Hanover, who won last year’s Little Brown Jug; Rock N’ Roll Jet, who has won four consecutive Open I

John Wagner became the latest driver of the meet to have a five-win night when he did so Thanksgiving Eve. That gives him 21 wins heading into the 22nd program of the fall meet, good for fourth in the standings. Just a reminder the $100,000 Potomac Pace, an open event, is coming up next Sunday, Dec. 2, along with an expected visit from Foiled Again, the 14-year-old winner of more than $7 million who will compete in his final race Dec. 31 at The Meadows Racetrack & Casino in w

The driver standings for the fall meet tightened up a bit Nov. 18 when Jonathan Roberts registered a five-bagger to run his total to 24 with seven live racing programs remaining for the season. Russell Foster remains the leader after Sunday’s races with 36 wins, four more than Frank Milby in second. Jason Thompson is fourth with 19, followed by John Wagner with 16. Next in line are Allan Davis and Roger Plante Jr., each with 15 victories. Among drivers with at least 100 start

Just a reminder there are 13 races on the Thanksgiving Eve program Nov. 21, including the return of the “winners over” pace for fillies and mares. Here’s a look at several events on the Sunday, Nov. 18, card: Race 1 Hickory Aloha left from post 7 in last week’s Open I pace and had to take a tuck in fourth through a wicked :26 opening quarter-mile. There was plenty of movement and he got the shuffle last and came home OK from an impossible spot in a race won by Rock N’ Roll Je

Rock N’ Roll Jet, owned by Dawn Webb and trainer Buddy Bright of Milford, Del., became the leading non-Maryland Sire Stakes horse by earnings at the fall meet with a last-to-first sweep (final quarter-mile in :27 1/5) in the Open I pace Nov. 11. It was his third win in the top class in his last four starts and the final time of 1:50 4/5 on a cold night was just a fifth of a second slower than his lifetime mark, which was taken Oct. 14 at Rosecroft. Rock N’ Roll Jet, in seven

For the first three programs of November, 18 drivers found the winner’s circle at least once, and the trainer standings were even more spread out. Allan Davis, a Sunday night regular, led the way with four wins, followed by Russell Foster with three. Nine drivers each had two victories, and eight—including Sofia Zingale, who won the Racing Under Saddle event—each had one win. Of the drivers with at least two wins, three had a return-on-investment more than 100%: John Mackinno

In the Open I handicap for pacers Nov. 4, Joe Offutt’s Hickory Aloha, a mainstay at Rosecroft, was in front until all but the final yards where he was collared by Rock N’ Roll Jet, who won by a neck. It was yet another strong effort by the classy 6-year-old gelding who is having a fine meet—without a victory. A winner of more than $230,000 who has been first, second or third 56.5% of the time in 152 starts, Hickory Aloha now has five second-place finishes during the fall meet

The bottom-level condition races at Rosecroft are usually interesting to explore for value, and Race 8 on the Sunday, Nov. 4, program is even more so given a blanket computerized morning line. The predicted favorite—B Fast Eddie, the only one of nine in the race that isn’t dropping one condition level—is listed at 4-1, and the longest shot on the line is listed at 10-1. Seven horses are between 9-2 and 7-1. It’s not impossible for a final odds board to have most horses in clo