The Legacy of Michael Burns by Hayley Morrison

“The only thing I wanted to do was make Woodbine the envy of the world when it came to racetrack photography. That was my number one goal.”

Capturing over 50,000-win photos over the last 48 years, it goes without saying that Mike Burns Jr. has cemented himself as an ‘institution’ not simply as a photographer at Woodbine.

Constantly armed with his steady eddie Nikon camera, Burns can often been seen tracing the same path back and forth from his office to the finish line on a race day. After a few moments spent corralling the winning connections, the seasoned photographer beelines to the track apron where his office is nestled under the grandstand.

Behind those doors, Burns spends time selecting and editing photos while his sister, Patricia who is also an accomplished racetrack photographer prepares the win photos for either an owner, trainer, or a jockey.

Stepping into Burns’ office can only be described as if Alice is falling into Wonderland. However, this specific version of wonderland is filled to the brim with framed and unframed racing photos, a photo of Burns’ father, Mike Burns Sr. behind his desk, landscape racing shots, a few dog photos, old school cameras, and a plethora of media badges.

“That’s one of my favourite shots,” said Burns, who points to a photo of Big Red Mike. It’s a head on shot of Big Red Mike winning the 2010 Queen’s Plate.

There’s a mad hatter level of horse photos that stare back at me from Burns’ walls as I sit down across from him.

“Would you like a butterscotch mint?”

This gesture catches me off guard because the Burns I know is usually all business. He exudes that ‘time is of the essence’ vibe as a hot horse waits for winning connections to scurry into the post-race win photo. Moreover, Burns never lingers to chat by the apron opting instead to remain zeroed in on the task at hand.

Talking with Burns about his own persona, he had this to say:

“It’s a funny thing. Probably one of the greatest propellers in my career was failure. And failure worked into a positive sign. It could be a 5k claimer or a million-dollar horse race, it was always going to be the same to me, it was always going to be a King’s Plate finish to me. One of the determining factors for me was being totally oblivious to everything in my surroundings other than the minute I leave this room I’m committed, I’m focused, I don’t talk to people, I don’t socialize – that’s not who I am because of failure, because of previous sloppiness, laziness, one thing or another.”

Burns has always leaned into his job rather than taken it lightly. That could be due in part to his persona or simply because he had big shoes to fill walking into this career path. His father, Burns Sr.  not only won multiple awards but was also inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, Canada’s Curling Hall of Fame as well as the Etobicoke Hall of Fame. In Canadian horse racing, he is considered a hall of fame ‘builder’ in the sport.

“One of the biggest things that woke me up of who he actually was as a person and as photographer was when I started going on the road shooting curling and I would end up introducing myself to whoever – the local photographers, the local Canadian press photographers, or Reuters. The reaction was always the same, ‘oh, you are Mike Burns’ son. Knowing they knew him, they didn’t know me from Adam,” Burns admitted.

It’s interesting to hear Burns reference his father, who brought him along to the track and eventually taught him the trade from ground up.

“When I started with my dad little did I realize that of all the forks in the road my most enjoyable fork in the road, not only was learning to be a black and white printer, and a colour printer, (it) was being a digital editor of all the images, of the hard-core racing action pictures. And, editing millions and millions of racing pictures, and understanding light, understanding muscle tone, understanding strides and understanding at certain times of the year what’s going on at this portion of the racetrack as opposed to a different portion of the racetrack, three months earlier and what am I going to get out of it now that I couldn’t get out of it then,” said Burns.

Burns Sr. began his storied horse racing photography career in the 1950s, working for the Ontario Jockey Club. The OJC eventually transitioned into Woodbine Entertainment Group. “As a kid growing up, I had always gone to Fort Erie with him, even as a little as, 7, 8, or 9 years old,” said Burns who also ventured to Mohawk and Greenwood with his father.

It’s important to note that both Burns Sr. and Jr. never limited their lenses to snapping photos of equine athletes.

“I may probably overstate it as my father’s and my Mount Everest as a sport photographer is the Olympics. When he did it, he did for the summer and the winter Olympics for the Canadian government and was also doing all the Pan Am games and Commonwealth games. So, his range of sports be it from shot putting to jumping, to track, to golf, to auto racing was so versatile. Every night he would come home with a different story that he was shooting today which was pretty wild,” said Burns.

Now, covering the Olympics is no easy feat. While Burns Sr. covered the 1968 Olympics in Mexico, Burns himself covered his first Olympics in 2006 in Torino while working for the US Curling Association. Yes, their Olympic coverage would extend past those two games but simply put they were in the upper echelon of the sports photography world.

Burns’ tv in his office corner lights up with the pre-race show as Burns details his father’s legacy.

“My dad had done everything from wrestling, which was huge back in the day. They did wrestling, boxing, varsity football for UoT, they did CFL, auto racing, golf, tennis. So, there’s a whole range of sports that he was involved with prior to working at Woodbine. My father also had another contract with Imperial Tobacco which in the world of sport sponsorship they basically covered most if not all sports coming into Canada. Anything outside of Quebec, we ended up doing all their assignments, being Spruce Meadows, auto racing, golf, tennis – you name it, whatever Imperial Tobacco was involved with,” recalled Burns.

With many accolades and accomplishments to his name, including three Eclipse Awards and five Sovereign awards, Mike Burns Sr. has no doubt left indelibly mark on his son from an early age.

Burns started shooting horse racing in the late 70s, at both Mohawk and Greenwood. In the 80s he began working at Woodbine.

“You never really think that you can climb to that level of your father who really was a pioneer in a lot of sports photography. All you can do, is whatever he taught you is to master it and be consistent at it and be absolutely relentless as far as delivery of it. Consistency is the biggest for me.”

What does consistency look like?

For one thing, you can see consistency living proudly on the shedrow walls or within trainer’s offices on Woodbine’s backstretch where Burns photos are quietly hanging in reverence to past and present-day winners. Consistency is also the acknowledgement of a job well done, which in this case looks like eight Sovereign Awards for outstanding photographs over the last five decades.

While consistency is key, the real heart of this conversation is about Burns’ legacy. Now, whether you open a physical dictionary or you simply ask AI, more likely than not you will find words like ‘impact, substance, and value’ associated with legacy.

Not faltering when asked, Burns defines his legacy as such:

“It’s not only did you make a significant contribution to your sport? – it’s your duty to leave the game in better shape than you found it. To do as much as you possibly can to maintain that highest level of standards. That’s the most important thing for me right now,” said Burns who also feels privileged to record historical archives for the Rexdale-oval.

Whatever track or breed they are shooting, both Mike and Patricia continually aim for the highest standards. In 2021, when life took me to Fort Erie to work as the communications manager, I vividly remember Patricia boldly standing out there at the finish line, corralling people to stand by their winning horse. In a similar mode to her brother, she never lingered for long and would scurry back to her office to prepare photos before the next winning shot needed to be taken. No doubt, the Burns family legacy is one that falls on the shoulders of both Patricia and Mike.

Burns is keenly aware of the pivotal role Patricia continues to play in their legacy as well.

“She handles a lot of the business side and internal work, be it mounting, matting, framing, the deliveries and pick-ups plus handling the shooting at Fort Erie and now Woodbine. So, she’s constantly geared in a different direction than I am. I’m more into doing the racing here at Woodbine and Mohawk. We are almost in two different places in the same place,” said Burns.

Burns is more than just a recognizable face to Canadian horsemen. He meets people at their peaks. Whether it be a trainer capturing their first victory or their 100^th win, he is there to record a career highlight that inevitably ends up as either a phone screensaver, a framed photo in the family home or in a trainer’s office. Talking about his persona, trainer Kevin Attard had this to say about Burns:

“Just a genuine, sincere, and actually funny person that’s a pleasure to talk with and deal with. He loves the sport, and he tries to make life easier for everyone.”

Attard hangs win photos Burns has taken in his office. Well, under one condition specifically. “I’m superstitious and I do not hang pictures of horses that are racing. They don’t go on the wall until they are retired, because then it kind of signifies that their career is done.”

A few barns down from Attard, trainer Katerina Vassilieva is not short for words on the track photographer:

“Mike Burns has been a pillar of Woodbine racing for all of my time at the track. He is enigmatic, passionate about his work, and a big fan of horse racing.

Vassilieva continued:

“Mike Burns has captured many of my own personal incredible racing moments, such as my first career win as trainer, and my first graded stakes win. These are memories I have posted in the office at the track, and will always cherish.”

Inducted into the Etobicoke Hall of Fame back in 2022, Burns will be inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in August, joining a fray of noteworthy communicators, including Frank Salive, Dan Loiselle, Rob Landry – to name a few.

Capturing so many races over his lengthy career, it’s important to ask the very obvious question of which equine athletes stood out within the collages of collected memories.

“Of course, Secretariat. Now, my father brought us all to Kentucky in 1973 and that was the first time I had shot remote, was at the Kentucky Derby. I think I was 9 or 10-years old. A lot closer to home, horses like Overskate, Steady Growth, Dance Smartly, Wando.”

With that said, Burns makes a poignant point about his equine subjects: “I’ve often said this, whether it be a thoroughbred or a standardbred it doesn’t matter. When those horses are coming around that turn for home those athletes don’t know whether they are running for $4,500, $5,000 or a million. They just know one thing – to give it everything they’ve got. That’s all they know.”

Giving his everything with his Nikon camera, Burns has taken photos with manual and automatic focus while covering the sport. While Woodbine remains his turf, a slew of photographers also come out on race days, with cameras and iPhones in hand.

How does Burns feel about this digital era where people pull out their smart phones to snap pics?

“It’s all about promotion of the game so no matter how you bring it, it doesn’t really matter. As long as you are promoting the game, you are fair, and you play by the rules.”

Burns adds:

“Back in the day, there was only hockey, football and horse racing in Toronto. There certainly wasn’t any soccer, any cricket and a lot of other sports. So basically, we had everything going our way. Now that we have much more competition its far more important to have as many people come out and promote the game. And isn’t social (media) the greatest thing to ever happen as far as getting your message out there. It’s like having your own wire service.”

The sun greets me as I walk out of Burns office and onto the track apron. Horses are walking over from the backstretch for the first race on the card. Very shortly one of those horses will hit the wire first and Burns will be at the wire to record their victory. He will then add yet another win photo to his vault of horse racing memories.

Documenting a sport is one thing, while leaving a legacy is another.

Safe to say, the latter is following Burns back to his office where he subtly hits the save button on that next win photo.

Hayley Morrison, for Woodbine