trainer

Jack Carava, who saddled better than 1,100 winners in a career dating back to 1986, has announced he is trading in his stopwatch in exchange for a condition book, as he will book mounts on behalf of Tyler Baze beginning with the Santa Anita fall meet Sept. 19. Baze is returning to California following an eight-month absence. "The time is right," said Carava, 54, who has operated both a public and private stable in Southern California for the past 33 years. "I've had a lot of success with Tyler over...

David Lanigan has recently joined Four Star Sales as bloodstock advisor, emphasizing on the private purchase of horses in-training and racing management. Lanigan closed his Newmarket training operation this spring to prepare for his family's planned return to Lexington. Training under Sir Henry Cecil for five years before going out on his own 13 years ago, he retired from training with over 200 winners including top stakes horses, Main Sequence, Meeznah, Interception and Worth Waiting. Prior to working for Cecil, he worked with Four Star Sales' Kerry Cauthen at John...

When working on a plan for a new business 12 months ago, few would have set out contingencies for a global pandemic. Fortunately for George Boughey, who this month celebrates his first anniversary as a Newmarket trainer, the shutdown of racing between mid-March and the beginning of June brought only a brief hiatus to the promising start made from when he saddled his first winner on Aug. 13. That footnote in history belongs to Three C's (Ire), a Kodiac (GB) gelding who has won twice in the year before joining...

Akiko Gothard, who trained K One King (Apalachee) to an eighth-place effort in the 1999 GI Kentucky Derby and a victory in the 2000 GI Oaklawn H., passed away July 6 in Lexington, the Blood-Horse reported. She was 89 years old. Born Akiko Ozeki, she was married to Don McVarish, an American soldier, in her native Japan, relocating to the United States in 1956. Gothard served as a liaison in helping Japanese buyers at Keeneland. She became a trainer in the 1990s, saddling 347 winners from 2,008 starters for earnings...

Milton Wolfson, a popular South Florida-based trainer and multiple graded-stakes winning conditioner, passed away Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale. He was 87. A native of Philadelphia, Wolfson was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force who graduated from the University of Illinois in 1959 with a Bachelor in Animal Science and later graduated from Temple University in 1972 with a Master of Education. He also was the founder and owner of Neshaminy Turf Supply in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Florida. Wolfson saddled 548 winners in his career and was a...

One thing that the French trainers seem to have in common at present is their opinion that racing will not resume in mid-April. Claude Beniada spoke to Pascal Bary and he was adamant that the wait for racing action will be a lot longer than that. CB: How have the recent measures affected your daily schedule? PB: "They haven't really. We can continue to train the horses and in that regard not much has changed. The staff is there, no one is missing, the tracks are very well maintained and...

Harness trainer Richard Banca has become the 28th person identified in the horse doping scandal that yielded indictments against some of the biggest names in Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing. Banca's name was not among those listed when indictments were announced Monday by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. He was arrested Monday and released after posting a $200,000 personal recognizance bond. That another name has surfaced fuels speculation that the investigation launched by the FBI and the Department of Justice will yield more names, perhaps...

Woodbine Entertainment and the Canadian horse racing industry are mourning the loss of longtime Thoroughbred trainer Laurie Silvera, who passed away Mar. 2 (click here for obituary). Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Silvera became a licensed Thoroughbred trainer in Canada in 1975. The graded stakes-winning conditioner earned more than 1,000 wins and nearly $26 million in purses throughout his career in North America. "A true gentleman, Laurie was a longtime fixture on the Woodbine backstretch and highly respected among the local racing community for his horsemanship and willingness to help others....

John A. DiMario, who trained Runaway Groom to a memorable upset in the 1982 GI Travers S. at Saratoga, passed away Thursday at the age of 91. Runaway Groom famously defeated the winners of all three Triple Crown races in that year's Midsummer Derby-Gato Del Sol (Kentucky Derby), Aloma's Ruler (Preakness) and Conquistador Cielo (Belmont). That feat had only occured once before when Sun Briar pulled it off back in 1918, per Jonathan Stettin of Past the Wire. Runaway Groom also captured two-thirds of that season's Canadian Triple Crown. "I've...

Bruce Johnstone, who transitioned from a trainer to management at the New York Racing Association, the last 13 years of which he spent as Manager of Racing Operations, died Thursday following a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 76. "Bruce was a true horseman who used the lessons of a lifetime to make all of us better in so many big and small ways," said NYRA CEO and President Dave O'Rourke. "He was a man of impeccable integrity who was a beloved member of the thoroughbred racing community here in...

Tired of all the bad news? So were we. So, in our new series, we focus on the positive, asking people from non-horse racing families two questions: how they get hooked, and how they'll hook someone else on horse racing this year. KIARAN MCLAUGHLIN, TRAINER What was the experience that made you fall in love with horse racing? I was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky, in the horse capital of the world. At that time, everyone knew someone who had something to do with the Thoroughbred industry. For me,...

Fausto Gutierrez is not well known in U.S. racing circles and neither is his owner, St. George Stable. That may be about to change. Mexico's dominant trainer and owner have set up a U.S. division based at the Palm Meadows training center and, after a handful of starts in 2019, are ready for what they hope will be a successful 2020 season. It starts Saturday at Fair Grounds, where the star of the barn, Kukulkan (Mex) (Point Determined) will go in the GIII Louisiana S. and the well-bred first-time starter...