HORSE RACING LOS ALAMITOS : Parker Continues Unlikely Success Story

For 19 days in March of 1984, Jack Parker Jr. lay in a coma, the victim of a horrifying multihorse crash at the Meadowlands race track in New Jersey.

Doctors feared that Parker wouldn’t survive. He had been kicked in the head by one horse and trampled by two others. After coming out of the coma, the doctors told him he might be handicapped and probably would not be able to resume his career as a harness driver.

After nearly two months he was released from the hospital. And three days later, he was back in the sulky, training his horses. On Aug. 2 of that year, Parker returned to the races and guided I’m a Wanderer to the winner’s circle in his first race back.

Despite the severity of his injuries, he never thought about giving up racing.

“That was no problem at all with me,� Parker said. “I just thought about getting back to what I like to do, driving horses.�

Since the accident, Parker has won nearly 300 races and earned more than $3,000,000 in purses. And now he’s asserting himself as one of the top catch drivers at the current Los Alamitos meeting.

This is not his first trip to Southern California to race, but the 35-year-old Parker is trying to make it his most successful. A little more than halfway through the 42-day meet, Parker is fourth in the driver standings, behind Joe Anderson, Rick Kuebler and Ross Croghan, despite having only half as many starts.

Business was slow for Parker at first, having brought just two of his own horses from New Jersey, and finding drives was not easy. But with the victories have come increased requests for his services.

“It’s gotten gradually better since I came out here. It wasn’t wham-bam all at once,� the winner of more than 1,100 races and $11,000,000 in purses said. “At first it was two a night, then three and now its four or five.�

Parker enjoyed his most successful day of the meet Tuesday when he scored with three of his four horses, among them trotter Arnold’s World, a 25-1 shot.

“Jack has become the top catch driver on the track,� said current training leader Paul Blumenfeld. “I used to think, years ago, that he was wild. Now he’s more relaxed and he’s much better.�

Parker is one of several drivers from the East Coast at Los Alamitos this season, but so far he has out-performed them all. Donald Dancer, a winner of more than 3,000 races, returned to the East after three very unsuccessful weeks at the track.

“He just had some bad luck, and I’ve had some good luck,� said the soft-spoken Parker.

But it has been his soft hands, especially with trotters, and his ability to put a horse in a position where it can win a race that have endeared him to trainers and fans alike.

On Sept. 14, Parker watched an accident similar to his own from the driver’s room when Lepton, one of the nation’s top 3-year-old fillies, broke stride while leading the race and nearly took down the entire field. But instead of 10 horses there were only six, and Parker’s accident happened at the quarter-pole, not in the stretch.

“Luckily, that one wasn’t as serious, and no one got hurt,� Parker said.

You could say that harness racing is in Parker’s breeding. His grandfather was the late Howard Parker, a member of the Harness Hall of Fame and an outstanding trainer. His father is a trainer at the Meadowlands, and he also has a brother and an uncle who are drivers.

When Parker decided to get into harness racing, it didn’t take him long to establish himself. He started jogging horses at the Liberty Bell track at the tender age of 8, and got his harness driver’s license as soon as he turned 18. Two weeks later he won in just his third start.

After the current Los Alamitos season, Parker will return to New Jersey where his wife, Cathy, has their twin 9-year-old sons, Chet and Jason, in school. He will race at Garden State until the Meadowlands reopens after Christmas and then plans on returning here in time to open the spring season at Los Alamitos.

If he continues driving the way he has, there will probably be a few trainers who will personally invite him back if he can’t make up his mind.