LOS ALAMITOS : Jack Parker Jr. Still Knows How to Win

Jack Parker, Jr. sat third on the rail behind Le Bon Lobell in the ninth race Saturday night at Los Alamitos Race Course. Another racer came up on the outside down the backstretch, but Parker refused to panic.

He coolly held his ground around the far turn, and the outside horse faded as the field straightened into the stretch. Now clear, Parker made one decisive move and won a five-horse blanket finish by a nose with the 22-1 longshot.

Earlier in the evening, Parker made an instinctive move with Lynn’s Chef to take the lead approaching the half-mile and guided the horse to victory in a career-best time of 1:55 4/5.

Parker, who was nearly killed in a spill in 1984, is obviously alive and well again at Los Alamitos. He entered the week in fourth place in the driver standings with 17 victories in only 83 starts, his best meeting in several years.

Although Parker, 35, is happy to be winning his share of photo finishes again, none compares with the one he survived six years ago. “It was March 1984 at the Meadowlands (in New Jersey),” he said the other night between races. “My horse was on top and made a break. The guy behind me hit me and knocked me out of the bike. The first horse kicked my helmet off. I got run over by two other horses.

“I was in a coma for 19 days and had two brain operations.”

Many feared for his life. Others thought that even if he lived, Parker would never drive again.

He returned to the Meadowlands in four months and won with his first starter, I’m A Wanderer.

Parker has driving in his blood. His grandfather, Howard Parker, is a member of Saratoga’s Harness Hall of Fame. His father, Jack, and uncle, Gay, are respected horsemen. His younger brother, Howard, has also enjoyed success in racing on both coasts.

Parker has won such important races as the 1980 Fox Stakes and Sheppard Pace with Slapstick, the 1981 Gaines Memorial with Computer, and the 1982 Battle of Saratoga with Elitist. He also was the regular driver of Vereen, star of the 1983 Hollywood Park meeting.

“I was dizzy every once in a while and my balance was way off,” Parker said of his recovery. “I will see double when I glance to the right without turning my head. Both of my hands are still numb. I’m numb from the middle of my left shoulder all the way down my hand.”

The experience has not dulled his desire to drive. “The next year, I was in a spill, and I was just in a spill in May where I got a little bruised up,” Parker said matter-of-factly. “I’m not gun-shy. You just jump on and go.” Parker, in his first California meeting since 1984, has seldom driven better.

T K’s Skipper carved his niche in the record book but nearly lost the race in the $150,000 final of the American Pacing Classic Saturday night.

The 5-year-old pacer, who drew the rail, led all the way with Joe Anderson and stopped the clock in 1:51 2/5, chopping a full second off the world mark he had previously shared with two other horses for aged pacers on a five-eighths-mile track.

The long-striding horse cut fractions of 27 2/5, 55 4/5 and 1:23 3/5 but was all out to hold off Dare You To by a neck. Third-place J.A. Bedford was another seven lengths back.

Dare You To, third for most of the way, rallied in the stretch with Peter Wrenn and finished powerfully along the rail.

Anderson said: “I could hear Peter coming at me. He’s one of the best drivers around and will get every ounce out of a horse. But I thought we could have gone around again.”

T K’s Skipper paid $2.10 across the board and created a minus show pool of $12,355. Attendance and handle figures were the best of the season--8,585 and $1,340,123 total, and 6,681 and $987,532 on-track alone.

The world-record time for aged pacers was also the second-fastest time ever in North America for a pacer of any age on a five-eights-mile track. Matt’s Scooter earned that distinction as a 4-year-old with a 1:51 clocking at Mohawk Raceway in Canada, in 1989.

Harness Racing Notes

Mary Madland, the leading female driver in California during the 1980s, has left harness racing. “I’m going to manage a forklift agency for my dad in Lancaster,” Madland said. “I’ll still own half of a horse with Rick Plano.” Madland, 31, won 120 races since 1980. She missed most of 1989 with chronic fatigue syndrome but attempted a comeback this summer at Sacramento, winning one race in 13 starts.

Lepton atoned for her only loss of the year with a 1:55 victory in a $32,400 Breeders Championship race Friday, setting a track record for 3-year-old filly pacers. Lepton broke stride in the stretch with the lead in her previous outing, her only loss in 12 starts this year. “I was careful with her,” driver Ross Croghan said. “If she hadn’t broken last week, I would have opened up. I know she can go faster than the colts, 1:54 2/5. She will race once more here next week, get a rest, then go to the Meadowlands next year with Brett Pelling.” Croghan, who owns the filly in partnership with Michael Schwartz, will be shooting for the 3-year-old track record of 1:54 1/5 he set in 1987 with Best of Dani for Schwartz.

Joe Lighthill is a great fan of Cape Canaveral. Lighthill, 62, won a $24,743 Breeders Championship 2-year-old trot Thursday with Precious Cargo, a son of Cape Canaveral. Lighthill also has won four of seven starts this year in California-bred stakes competition with Capricious Stephi, a 2-year-old filly trotter by Cape Canaveral. Both were bred and are owned by June Jeffries of Shafter, Calif. Lighthill’s only regret is that Cape Canaveral was sold and moved to New Jersey last year.

Mickey DiFranco can do no wrong in California-bred stakes for 3-year-olds. He climbed in the bike for the first time behind Positron Saturday and won a $33,200 pace with the colt in 1:54 4/5, more than three seconds faster than his previous best. “He’s got one big brush,” DiFranco said. “If you can save him for the end, this one can fly.” Two weeks ago DiFranco won stakes with sophomores Roan Spirit, a pacer, a U Bu Go, a trotter, both in career-best times.