ELMONT, N.Y. – With little fanfare, John Parisella retired from training earlier this year. Parisella saddled his last runner April 22 at Aqueduct. He won 1,241 races, including a bevy of graded stakes, in a career that began in 1969. Parisella, 73, is now living in Northern California to be closer to his daughter Gabrielle. Parisella said: “I was speaking with Allen Jerkens a few years ago, and he said, ‘At least we saw the great times in racing. We were definitely blessed.’ ” Parisella, who did his best work claiming horses, said, “The claiming game is shot.” Parisella’s name came up last Friday when Wake Up in Malibu won the Saginaw Stakes at Belmont. Parisella claimed Wake Up in Malibu for $35,000 last summer for longtime clients Max and Saul Kupferberg. Wake Up in Malibu won his second start for his new connections last November before getting time off. Now in the barn of Charlton Baker, Wake Up in Malibu finished second in an open-company allowance race June 11 before winning the Saginaw and earning a 98 Beyer Speed Figure. “Made a great claim, didn’t I?” Parisella said last week. Baker may point Wake Up in Malibu to the Evan Shipman Stakes at Saratoga on Sept. 2. Meanwhile, Baker said he scratched Joking from last Saturday’s Grade 3 Belmont Sprint Championship because he injured a splint bone. Joking gave Baker his first graded stakes win last month in the Grade 2 True North. Baker said Joking has never done well at Saratoga, so he will not race him there this summer and point him for a race at Belmont in the fall, perhaps the Grade 1 Vosburgh. Baker will still have a stakes-caliber sprinter to run at Saratoga, as the 9-year-old Moonlight Song is nearing a return from a yearlong layoff. Moonlight Song hasn’t won since taking the John Morrissey Stakes at Saratoga last July 30. He is pointing to this year’s Morrissey on July 28. Baker said Moonlight Song has had a history of foot issues, which was part of the reason he hasn’t raced in a year.