Burley Elijah Parke (March 21, 1905 – October 4, 1977) was an American jockey and a Hall of Fame trainer in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing.
After losing his battle with weight gain, Burley Parke worked for a time as an assistant to Hall of Fame trainer, Preston M. Burch.
Parke used his skill and patience to teach Noor to use his speed; he became one of the great horses of American racing, defeating Citation four times.
Steve Wolfson, son of Louis, wrote in an April 24, 2004 article in Thoroughbred Times that: "It took Dad's strong persuasion and a huge $100,000-guaranteed salary to coax the master horseman out of retirement to take over the reins of Harbor View Farm in 1959.
The sum was especially significant when realizing the standard trainer's fee, 10%, would only have been $8,000 based on the fledgling stable's first full year of operation in 1959, when its horses earned a total of $80,161."
[3] Wolfson put Parke in charge of his Harbor View Farm horses stabled at Belmont, Saratoga and Hialeah, with strings also racing in Chicago and New Orleans.
With Harbor View Farm stable Parke trained many notable horses, including, Roving Minstrel, Wolfram, Raise a Native (a noted sire and the 1963 American Co-Champion Two-Year-Old Colt), whom he called the fastest two-year he ever trained, and Roman Brother (American Champion Older Male Horse and co-Horse of the Year in 1965).
He later divorced Marion and married Dorothy Anderson Bosley, a single mother of five whom he met on a visit home to Declo.
Having made his contribution to American thoroughbred racing he retired in 1967 and moved with his family to Phoenix, Arizona, spending summers in his beloved Idaho.