In basketball terms, Gary Joe Burgos This Sunday he won the chicharry in Camarero.

Imported filly Ethical strike he won this Sunday by a neck, after a push in the stretch in the second race of Camarero, giving Burgos his first win as a horse trainer.

Burgos, who played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association, celebrated winning the sport he revived during the pandemic and thanked everyone who helped him, including his father, former baseball player, athletic director and stable owner Joe Burgos.

“First of all, I am very grateful to the people who helped me, for example coach Juan Ojeda, who was a mentor. I spent two years studying his unit. And also thanks to Joe Bruno (race announcer) who guided me,” Burgos said.

Ethic Strike made it to the finish with Omix Adorno to overtake Feisty Sara at the finish. He ran third in a row, two lengths behind Feisty Sarah and Convidada in the 1400m race.

Burgos hopes to compete again at Ethic Strike in March at the Defensora Classic.

It was Burgos’ fifth appearance as a manager, three of them Ethic Strikes for the Benvenutti stable.

Burgos said he returned to racing during the COVID-19 pandemic, when almost all basketball activity was shut down. His most recent basketball job was in 2019 as an assistant to David Rosario with the San German Athletics. Along with Rosario, he also worked in basketball in Panama.

He would have liked to come back earlier, but his father told him to wait.

“I always had that in mind. There was little availability in basketball during the pandemic; The only thing there was was the BSN bubble and the only thing you could do consistently was horse racing,” he recalled.

Burgos enrolled at the Equestrian School for trainer courses and received her license for the 2023 season. Her first presentation was on January 1 with Ethic Strike on the classic Jetset Jet. The filly took second place.

Burgos clarifies that he returned to horse riding during the pandemic because he previously knew the industry from his father, who took him to horse races as a child and in his youth.

Now the son and father are working together again, as when the father was the athletic director at Sacred Heart University and the son was the manager of the basketball team.

In Camarero, the father is the leader of his copies.

“Dad is part of the work team; shakes my hand; He is a supervisor, he helps me with the horses. It has made him active and we are building a team,” he said.