Trainer Carava Leads in Stretch Run

Jack Carava hopes to stay right where he is for four days.

With Hollywood Park concluding its spring-summer meet Monday, Carava, 35, wants to hold his position atop the trainer standings.

Entering today’s twilight card, Carava, who was born and still lives in Arcadia, has 21 victories, three more than Bob Baffert, five more than Richard Mandella and six more than defending champion Bobby Frankel.

One of the more consistent trainers on the local circuit--he has averaged 51 victories a year since 1997--Carava is seeking his first training title.

“It would mean a lot to me,” he said. “It’s one of several goals that you set for yourself when you start training.

“It might not be as important to somebody who has done it before, but I’m sure it meant a lot to Baffert, Frankel or Mandella the first time they did it.”

With a barn consisting primarily of claimers, Carava has won at almost a 26% clip at Hollywood Park and his horses have finished 1-2-3 nearly 63% of the time.

The son of a former trainer, Mike Carava, and a former assistant to Joe Griffin and Jerry Fanning, Carava has 35 horses in his stable. Seven of them have won twice at Hollywood Park.

Disguys Dalimit, who gave the trainer his first victory of the meet when he scored on opening night, April 21, won again on May 25, then missed a third victory when nosed out by Sing Because on June 24.

Other repeat winners include Two Four Dancer, Global, who will seek a third victory in the Valkyr Handicap on Saturday; Bettor Royalty, Jazznwithwindy, Flags At Dawn and Flying Jeb.

“When Hollywood Park started, we hoped to have a nice, consistent solid meet,” he said. “But, the reason things have gone so well is because we’ve had so many horses win two races. A lot of horses got good here.”

Around the sport all his life, Carava helped his father, who also assisted John Longden, as a youngster, then went to work for Griffin when he was 18.

After a year, he joined Fanning, who allowed him to train some horses of his own.

“Training is what I always knew I wanted to do,” he said. “I wanted to be at the track more than I wanted to be at school.

“When I worked for Jerry, he always let me keep two or three horses of my own and he wouldn’t train the horses for you. I got to be around a lot of good horses, like Top Corsage and Akinemod, and a lot of different kind of horses. Jerry was definitely a very big influence on me.”

Married and the father of two daughters, Carava has been training on his own since 1993. He recorded his biggest stakes victories with First Intent, who won the Potrero Grande at Santa Anita and the Bing Crosby at Del Mar in 1997, and Sunday Stroll, who won the California Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita in 1998.

“He loves what he does,” said Norm Fritz, a horse owner for about 25 years, one of Carava’s main clients and a man who’s known the trainer since he was a child. “He spends a lot of time with his horses. Besides his work, this is his love.

“I think he’s a really good trainer and a great guy. One of the things I really appreciate is, he’s very ethical and honorable and that’s not true of all of the trainers.”

One of the major contributors to Carava’s success has been jockey Martin Pedroza. Fifth in the rider standings with 34 victories, Pedroza has ridden 18 of Carava’s winners.

“He gets on horses in the morning for us and he knows a lot of the horses already when he gets on them in the races,” Carava said. “Martin’s very helpful and he comes up with a lot of ideas.

“He’s very close to a lot of the people who work for me. He’s a member of the team, not just a rider who gets on our horses in the afternoon.”

The only other jockey who has won for the barn is Garrett Gomez, who was aboard for Heaven Came Down’s victory June 29 and the two victories by Disguys Dalimit.

Whether Carava can retain his lead in the trainers’ race remains to be seen. He has one horse, Simple Play, entered today, two more, Global and Another Star, on Saturday and could run as many as three the final two days. But in his words, he has “nothing really super live.”

Baffert, meanwhile, seems assured of at least one more victory because if Congaree runs his best race, he will win the $500,000 Swaps Stakes on Sunday. This afternoon, America’s leading money-winning trainer will send out Ex Federali, the 4-5 morning line favorite, in the second race, and he has two horses, Pro Forty and Kinky Kinky, entered Saturday.

A winner of 14 training titles since 1995, Baffert is also looking for a first in Inglewood. For all of his success, he has never led Hollywood Park’s spring-summer meet.

No matter how things play out, Carava is looking forward to Del Mar, which opens Wednesday.

He said he’s had an influx of horses from Northern California owned by John and Betty Mabee’s Golden Eagle Farm, and some other new faces.

“I’ll have quite a few ready to run the first few weeks down there,” he said. “I’ve got a good mixture and a lot of different horses.”

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Tamara Princess, a sister to Riboletta, the champion older filly/mare of 2000, made a successful debut Wednesday at Hollywood Park.

Owned by Aaron and Marie Jones and trained by Eduardo Inda, the 3-year-old Brazilian-bred daughter of Roi Normand won by a length over Double Cat, a debuting half-sister of 2000 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner War Chant, in 1:15 1/5 for the 6 1/2 furlongs.

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The Hollywood Oaks has come up exceptionally weak this year.

Only five 3-year-old fillies were entered in Saturday’s Grade II, which is run at 1 1/8 miles on the main track. Collect Call, who won the Santa Ysabel earlier this year at Santa Anita, is the only entrant with a graded stakes win.

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Last Calls

Schedule for closing weekend at Hollywood Park:

* Today: 3:30 p.m. first post

* Saturday: 1 p.m. first post, featuring $150,000 Hollywood Oaks.

* Sunday: 1 p.m. first post, featuring $500,000 Swaps Stakes (ESPN2, 3 p.m.)

* Monday: 1 p.m. first post. Closing day.