SLIPPERY ROCK — Do Me Honor is aptly named.

The 5-year-old pacing mare is doing plenty of honor for owner/trainer Bill Bercury, 69, and his wife, Renee, of Slippery Rock.

Do Me Honor has posted six wins, one second and two thirds in nine starts at The Meadows since arriving there in mid-November.

Last Monday, the horse won for the fourth time in five starts this year, earning $46,000. That ranks fifth-best among all harness racing horses in North America and first among females.

Do Me Honor has earned $73,900 in the past four months, competing primarily in the preferred handicap for fillies and mares.

“I remember Do Me Honor’s first start,” Bercury said. “She came out of the eighth gate and was running dead last. She wound up winning.

“She’s a small horse, weighing less than 700 pounds, but she’s all heart. She has the personality of a pet, a very pleasant animal to be around.”

And she has the will to win.

“I take her out for a training run around the track and she goes a good 15 seconds slower than in a race,” Bercury said. “This horse loves to compete.

“You can see it in her eyes. Some horses are like that. When she lines up next to another horse in a race ... She wants to finish ahead of that horse. She takes pride in it.”

Bercury would know. He bought his first horse 35 years ago. The second horse he and his wife bought, they raced. They’e owned roughly 150 horses through the years and own six race-horses right now.

One of those horses — My Drag Queen — was named older female pacer of the year last season by the Meadows Standardbred Owners Association.

The Bercurys own a 10-acre farm in Slippery Rock, where they stable and train four of their horses. They have a quarter-mile track there as well.

“I had loved horses all my life, but never owned one,” Renee Bercury said. “I had ridden horses and was always fond of them.”

The Bercurys’ first date was to the Meadows for dinner.

“It was a place where we could be entertained, yet talk and socialize at the same time,” Bercury said. “It was a great choice. I quickly found out that the way to her heart was through horses.”

His wife recalls the couple buying their first horse “on a lark.”

“We had no idea what we were in for,” she said. “But we were renting a house with a barn in Butler at the time and just decided to go for it.

“Since then, our moves have been horse-driven. That’s why we bought the farm in Slippery Rock, to have a place to keep them. We’ve been living there since 1981.”

Bercury became a horse owner, trainer and driver fairly quickly. He stopped driving his own horses 10 years ago and now drives only a couple of times a year.

“People in the horse business are very free with information,” he said. “I learned quickly.”

Aaron Merriman has driven Do Me Honor in all of her races at the Meadows.

“We’ve developed a great relationship with him,” Bercury said. “Even if I’d drive a horse 20 times a year, you’re out there against guys who race horses 10 or 12 times a day.

“A lot of these races are won by a nose or a head ... The experience of the driver weighs heavily there. It wasn’t worth it for me to do it.”

Bercury-owned horses have totaled more than $500,000 in winnings during the couple’s lifetime together.

The Bercurys spend four or five nights a week at the Meadows. He is involved in home construction and owns a used car dealership as well.

“The devil finds work for idle hands,” Bercury said, laughing.

Do Me Honor has plenty of work ahead as well. The Bercurys plan to race her at Pocono Downs in Wilkes-Barre, Scioto Downs in Columbus, Ohio, and other tracks in the region in addition to the Meadows.

“Anywhere we can get there and back in a night, we’ll go,” Bercury said.

“This is the best horse we’ve owned,” his wife said. “She had been racing in Canada and was successful there, so we knew she’d be able to compete. But she has far exceeded our expectations.”

And the winning never gets old.

“Always a thrill. Always,” Bercury said. “I can’t describe the feeling ... just very, very exciting.”