Parker started the afternoon out slowly and didn’t hit
paydirt until the fifth race when he guided Dominick Rafanelli’s, I have It All
($13.80)to a 2:01 victory. He then won the next two races; the sixth behind Dr.
Scott Woogen’s trotter, Strength’s Victory ($4.20) in 2:01 and the
seventh with Mike Funke’s Four Starz Pop Pop ($3.20) in 1:59.1.
Parker also won the final two races; the 10th
with Kibler, Wagner & Woogen’s trotter Sin To Win ($6.50) in 1:59.1 and the
11th behind Irwin Kaplan’s Now That’s Art ($2.50) in 1:59.
Mired in the unfamiliar position of fifth on the local
leaderboard, Parker has made up ground after getting a late start this season
because he was recuperating from prostate cancer surgery in early
January.
When he finally continued driving in late-March after a
three month hiatus, the leaders were some 60 wins in front of the 17-time
Mighty M driving champ. Now with 108 winners here this year Parker is closing
in on the leaders but still finds himself 40 or so ,driving victories
from away.
“If I can put together a handful of days like
today I’ll make up a lot of ground on Greg (Merton), Jimmy (Taggart,
Jr.) and Jimmy (Marohn), Jr., Parker said. “Sure I’d like to be at
the top again but it isn’t quite as important to me now as it was when I was
younger.”
Now with 10,729 wins to his credit Parker finds himself
among the elite drivers in the sport. He currently ranks seventh
all-time and closing in on number six; his friend and fellow
Mainer, Walter Case Jr. who has 11,038 driving victories..
“Yeh, but Casey’s still 400 wins ahead of me and
it’ll take a lot of winning to just to get to 11,000,”Parker added.”Really, the
truth be known, after what I went through with my prostate cancer I’m just
happy to be back doing what I love to do…………. drive horses.”
