Dwane Parker recovering from training mishap

Veteran trainer Dwane Parker, 72, is recuperating at home following a training mishap at The Meadows that left him with multiple transverse process fractures and deep brusing.

 

“The good news is that the injuries are stable,” said Parker's son, Norm, who trains with him at The Meadows. “The doctor fitted him with a brace and gave him medication to ease the inflammation.

 

"But he’ll miss the Lexington sale, which he always enjoys. He tried to talk his doctor into telling him it was OK to go to the sale, but that didn't work," added Norm. "He’ll probably be out until about Christmas. I told him, ‘You picked a tough way to get the winter off.’”

 

Norm said he and his father were training a pair of 2-year-olds on Thursday, Oct. 1, when the elder Parker’s horse stumbled and flipped him from the cart. The impact with the track caused the fractures to the transverse processes, which project from vertebrae and serve to attach muscles and ligaments.

 

Dwane Parker, who works with his son and trains several of his own horses, is the patriarch of a prominent harness racing family that, in addition to Norm, includes: daughter Kathy Parker, editor and general manager of The Horseman And Fair World; daughter Sally Bolon, a Standardbred owner who works closely with her husband, Rodney Bolon, in his The Meadows-based stable, and grandson Kyle Bolon, a trainer/driver at The Meadows. Also, his brother, Rex Parker, is a longtime Standardbred owner. (The Meadows)