Quietly and without much fanfare, Zeke Parker has been chipping away at the leaders and with five winners on the 11-race card Wednesday, July 25 he has moved ever closer.
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 Strengths Victory ($4.20) in 2:01 and the seventh with Mike Funkes Four Starz Pop Pop ($3.20) in 1:59.1. Parker also won the final two races; the 10th with Terry Kibler, Pamela Wagner and Woogen’s trotter Sin To Win ($6.50) in 1:59.1 and the 11th behind Irwin Kaplan’s Now Thats 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 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 is 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.”
(Monticello Raceway)