Hunka Burning Love Among Five With Eight Wins in 2020

In a year in which COVID-19 suspended racing at many tracks and disrupted schedules, five horses made the most of reduced opportunities to tie as North America's winningest horses of 2020 with eight victories apiece.

Hunka Burning Love, Galerio, Frost Or Frippery, Combination, and Greeleys Charm finished the year a combined 40-for-60. Hunka Burning Love competed in the Midwest, Galerio in the Mid-Atlantic, Frost Or Frippery primarily in Kentucky and Indiana, Combination in Florida, and Greeleys Charm in Puerto Rico.

Typical of horses that lead the nation by wins, all five are blue-collar types—claimers or former claimers.

Hunka Burning Love eventually excelled in stakes races, resulting in him leading the eight-win quintet in earnings in 2020 with a $264,181 bankroll to push his career earnings to $517,329. He captured four black-type races from five attempts in 2020, taking the Lone Star Mile Stakes, the Governor's Cup Stakes, the Delta Mile Stakes, and the Jeffrey A. Hawk Memorial Stakes most recently Dec. 18 for owner/trainer Karl Broberg. The veteran campaigner raced at Oaklawn Park, Will Rogers Downs, Lone Star Park, Remington Park, and Delta Downs.

Video: Jeffrey A. Hawk Memorial S. (BT)

Broberg, who previously trained the gelding for one start in Kentucky in 2019 before losing him via a claim, reclaimed him in April for $32,000 at Oaklawn Park, and his charge has compiled an 8-for-10 record while carrying Broberg's End Zone Athletics colors. Over his career, the speedy runner has 16 wins from 46 starts.

"Oh, fun claim," Broberg said. "Even as we were enjoying the ride, he just continued to surprise me every time. The only time he lost was when I entered him bad. I tried him sprinting, which I knew was a dumb idea, and I tried him on the turf. Those were the only two times he lost while we ran him."

Broberg is not the only horseman to collect winner's circle photographs courtesy of Hunka Burning Love. He won five races for his initial connections of owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey and trainer Mike Maker, placing in the WEBN Stakes as a 3-year-old in 2017, and he later added victories for two other barns before joining Broberg.

Bred in Kentucky by Morris B. Floyd and Chuck Givens, Hunka Burning Love is one of two winners out of the Thunder Gulch mare Touch of Fire. He was a $75,000 purchase by the Ramseys from the Bluewater Sales consignment at the 2015 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

Hunka Burning Love is connected to others atop 2020 leaderboards. He is by leading sire Into Mischief , who set a single-season earnings record in 2020, and End Zone Athletics easily leads all owners by victories. 

For Broberg, Hunka Burning Love was a bright spot to an otherwise challenging 2020 for his vast stable, most of whom are low- or mid-tier runners on a class scale. Although the trainer had 327 winners heading into racing on New Year's Eve, for the first time since 2013 he will not top North America by wins, well behind Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen. Broberg was the winningest trainer in North America from 2014-19, capturing over 500 races in both 2018 and 2019.

"We had a horrible year by the numbers we judge ourselves on," he said of his 140-horse roster, currently split among five racetracks. "Unfortunately, I own 50% of my stable, and when there were no racing opportunities, and when the bulk of the horses I own myself are on the bottom, it was brutal having to take care of them and not be able to run. Then you sat on them so long that you try to protect some when generally I would have tried to enter more aggressively.

"It's been a very rough year. I will be very glad to turn the page."

Rough is a relative term for Broberg, a 50-year-old Arlington, Texas, resident whose wife Samantha was declared lost at sea in 2016 after falling overboard from a cruise ship when traveling with girlfriends. 

Perhaps reflecting reduced opportunities, the 2020 season-leading tally of eight wins is off the pace of the winningest horses of other recent years. During much of the past decade, horses led with 10 wins or more, though 2019 resulted in a seven-way tie with nine victories.

Believing that Hunka Burning Love does not care for the racing surface at Oaklawn Park, Broberg anticipates giving his four-time stakes some time off to begin 2021, though he has not ruled out trying the gelding, who will turn 7 on Jan. 1, in the Louisiana Stakes (G3) at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots Jan. 16.

"But I have a feeling I'm just going to freshen him up a little bit and see if we can make another run next year. So he might be getting a little downtime," he said. "I hate stopping on one when they are doing good, but I think that's probably going to be the route that I go. I'll try to do some damage with him at Lone Star and Prairie."

Greeleys Charm is wasting no time getting 2021 started. He is entered in an allowance in the day's first race at Puerto Rico's Camarero Race Track on New Year's Day, his first race since being claimed Dec. 5 for $20,000 by trainer Edwin Diaz Jr. for owner EDJR Stable PR. 

He raced throughout 2020 for owner E.R.V. Enterprises and trainer Eric Betancourt, going 8-for-10. He is 14-for-16 since arriving in Puerto Rico from Kentucky in the summer of 2019.

Also claimed from his last start was Galerio, who won eight of 12 races for owner Robert Bone and trainer Claudio Gonzalez in 2020. SAB Stable and trainer Dale Bennett submitted a $35,000 claim for him Nov. 21 at Laurel Park when the Jump Start gelding won an allowance optional claiming race. He has not raced or recorded a published breeze since.

Frost Or Frippery and Combination raced in early December at Gulfstream Park in separate Claiming Crown races. Frost Or Frippery took the Claiming Crown Iron Horse Stakes by a nose for owner Steve Landers Racing and trainer Brad Cox, and Combination finished third in the Claiming Crown Express Stakes for owner Frank Calabrese and trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.