Parker finds pipeline to better horses

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The only thing hotter than the weather this winter in New York is trainer Joe Parker.

Parker, a career 6 percent-winning trainer, is winning at a 38 percent clip in 2017 after Kate is a Ten won Friday’s fourth race at Aqueduct. Parker, who has now won with six of his last seven starters, has 10 wins from 26 starters in 2017. His previous single-year high was seven wins in 2009. He is 11 for 34 at Aqueduct’s inner-track meet that began Dec. 7, tying for fifth in the trainer standings.

Parker, 65, knows what you’re thinking: He must be cheating. He scoffs at the thought.

“We can’t afford to use something – they would kick us out of the game,” Parker said Friday in his office at Aqueduct’s Barn 1. “You’re going to use stuff now? What do they think? I’m not a good horseman?”

It takes good horses to win races, and Parker believes he has found an owner who can get him good horses. Rohan Ramdat, a native of Guyana, is Parker’s primary owner. Of Parker’s 19 horses, Ramdat owns 11, including Mr Palmer, who has gone 3 for 3 since Ramdat claimed him for $20,000 in December.

Ramdat moved his horses to Parker last fall after he got into a spat with his first trainer, Emron Ibrahim. Things have been rolling for Parker ever since.

“I think I found the right man, but you never know how long these things last,” Parker said.

Parker has been in the horse business for decades. He worked for the Dutrow family and Bruce Levine. In 2001, he began training on his own regularly. His best horse to date was What a Pear, who won the Busher Stakes in 2009 and more famously became the dam of the multiple Grade 1 winner Effinex. Parker also trained Johannesburg Star, who finished second in the Count Fleet Stakes in 2007 before the horse was moved away from Parker.

Ramdat, 46, was around horses in Guyana. When he came to the U.S., he started a construction business. It wasn’t until last year that he began owning horses. Ramdat has slashed his construction business in half to concentrate more on horses. He said he has purchased 2-year-olds who will soon be sent to Parker.

“I love horses so much. To be honest with you, if I could, I would be here 24-7,” Ramdat said.

The biggest success story this winter for Parker has been Mr Palmer, a 7-year-old who had some back class. Parker said the gelding has back issues and Ramdat is willing to pay for the therapy that is needed to address them.

Mr Palmer, who won the More to Tell Stakes here last April, is being pointed to the Stymie Stakes here on March 12.

“This is the opportunity now because I see how this guy spends his money,” Parker said. “He’s a good man. What else could I hope for?”