Carava hits 1,000-win mark as trainer

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Trainer Jack Carava won the 1,000th race of his career Saturday in the first race with Perfect Set. Typically modest, Carava deflected praise for his accomplishment.

“It’s good for me, and it’s good for the help. A lot of the people working for me have been with me a long time,” said Carava, 48. “They have as much to do with it as anyone.”

Carava was a longtime assistant to Jerry Fanning and first started training a handful of horses on his own while still in Fanning’s employ in 1986. He went out on his own in 1993.

Carava primarily has trained claiming horses throughout his career. He was the leading trainer at Hollywood Park’s spring-summer meet in 2001 and at Oak Tree at Santa Anita in 2002. His biggest wins have come in the Bing Crosby at Del Mar, which he has won twice, with First Intent in 1997 and Pure as Gold in 2006.

◗ Mike Luzzi was announced last month as the winner of the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, and now Santa Anita and Luzzi have found a date for him to receive the award. It will be presented April 12 during a ceremony between races. Luzzi has not ridden since breaking a leg and fracturing his pelvis in a paddock accident at Aqueduct on Nov. 2.

◗ Trainer Paul Aguirre was fined $500 by Santa Anita’s stewards because of a scratch owing to a runner of his being given Acepromazine after entry time.