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‘More Opportunities’ Leading To Career Year For Trainer Luis Carvajal

Despite the absence of a “big” horse, trainer Luis Carvajal, Jr. has still managed to produce a breakout year in a career that began in 2006. The formula for the success has been pretty basic: More starters than ever before helped produced more winners than he has ever had before.

He doesn't intend slow down yet, either, with horses entered in each of the first two nights of the Monmouth-at-Meadowlands meet that gets underway on Friday, Oct. 1. The six-race, all-turf cards during the seven-day meet will have a first race post time of 7 p.m.

Carvajal will send out Fly Fly Away, one of the likely favorites, in Friday's second race at a mile and a sixteenth, and Le Coste in Saturday's fifth race at one mile.

It's all in an effort to add to what has been a banner year for the 49-year-old native of Santiago, Chile.

“The big difference this year is that I have more owners giving me more horses,” said Carvajal. “More horses mean more opportunities to win.

“It's a lot of work having more horses. But I have a great team. It doesn't matter how many horses you have if you have good help. It makes everything so much easier.”

Carvajal has sent out a career-high 192 starters in 2021, resulting in a personal-best of 30 winners. His increased workload is best reflected in the recently-completed Monmouth Park meet, where he sent out 17 winners from 109 starters compared to nine winners from 61 starters a year ago.

“Yes, this definitely has been my best year,” said Carvajal. “It's a lot of fun when you win races.”

That's saying something since Carvajal campaigned multiple Grade 1 winner Imperial Hint until his retirement in 2020. In 2018 alone, Imperial Hint accounted for $767,500 of Carvajal's $1,115,573 in earnings that year. That remains his high water mark in earnings, with his stable of mostly allowance horses, claimers and maidens producing $805,011 in earnings this year.

“I'm looking for my next big horse,” he said. “That always makes things easier.”

Fly Fly Away, meanwhile, enters Friday on a form spree, with two wins and a pair of seconds in his past four starts.

“The horse is doing good. I think he will run a really good race,” said Carvajal. “My only concern is this will be his first time under the lights. But it's the same for a lot of horses. They have never raced under the lights. We'll see how some of them handle it.”

Carvajal's plans are to stay through the Monmouth-at-Meadowlands Meet, which runs until Oct. 30, and then move his stable to Tampa Downs before returning to Monmouth Park next spring.

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‘Life After Imperial Hint’: Carvajal En Route To Tallying Personal Best Number Of Wins In A Season

If Luis Carvajal, Jr., had any doubts about the direction his training career would take following the retirement of multiple Grade 1 winner Imperial Hint they have long disappeared.

With nine horses entered over Monmouth Park's three-day racing weekend – including Prendimi in the featured Irish War Cry Handicap for Jersey-breds on Saturday – the 49-year-old native of Santiago, Chile is well on his way to setting a personal best for victories in a season.

He has 22 wins overall from 135 starts so far, having gone 9-for-52 at the current Monmouth Park meet, after a career-best 24 winners a year ago.

“There's definitely life after Imperial Hint. Definitely,” Carvajal said. “Now we've just got to find the next one.”

Imperial Hint, who retired after racing just once in 2020, finished with 14 wins in 25 starts and $2,209,055 in earnings. He left a void in Carvajal's barn that is almost impossible to fill with just one horse. So Carvajal has compensated with more horses than he has ever had in a career that began in 2006.

The result has been what looks to be the fourth straight year that Carvajal will increase his overall win total.

“That's what happens when you have more horses,” he said. “If you get more horses you have more chances to run in different races and more chances to win. I probably have 10 more horses than I had last year. It makes a difference.”

Just as Imperial Hint made a difference in his career.

“A horse like that can help pull you up as a trainer, because it shows you can win Grade 1 races,” said Carvajal, whose barn is adorned with a Fleur-de-lis, as are some of the hats he wears. 'Once you get your name out there for doing that it helps with everything you do. It keeps your name out there. Definitely, Imperial Hint gave my career a boost.”

These days, Carvajal is relying more on allowance horses, claimers, Jersey-breds and maidens.

He entered Expect to Be Ready in tonight's third race, a maiden special weight sprint on the turf, and Give It a Go in the sixth race, a maiden $25,000 claimer.

He has five entered on Saturday's 13-race card (including one MTO entrant) and two on the 10-race Sunday program.

“It's been busy for us,” he said. “Like I said, when you have more horses to run you can be busy. It's going to be a busy weekend for us. We like that. You can't make money if you don't race.”

In Saturday's $85,000 Irish War Cry he will be trying Prendimi on the turf for just the second time. The gelded son of Dance With Ravens is Carvajal's second all-time money-earner behind Imperial Hint with $360,480 banked so far,

That race is at a mile on the grass.

“Prendimi is my big boy now,” said Carvajal. “We tried him once on the grass before this. He was not horrible. He was coming off a layoff and was too close to the pace and they were really rolling. So I'm going to throw out that race and I'm hoping he runs a good race on the grass.”

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Argentinian Jockey Maria Scaldaferri ‘Chasing The American Dream’ At Monmouth

Trainer Luis Carvajal has a simple explanation for giving so many unproven – and often inexperienced – jockeys a chance with his horses.

“When you do good things for people it eventually comes back to you,” he said.

Maria Scaldaferri, a native of Argentina who has yet to win in the United States, is the latest aspiring rider to get an opportunity from Carvajal, getting the mount aboard Malibu Life in Friday night's fifth race at Monmouth Park.

It will mark the Monmouth Park debut for the 30-year-old native of Pergamino, Argentina.

“I was looking for an exercise rider and (trainer) Rafael Schistl recommended her to me,” Carvajal said. “So I put her on some horses in the morning and she started working for me. She has done a good job. She wants to ride. She was a jockey in Argentina and she wants to ride in the United States.

“She works hard. She looks good on a horse. The most important thing to me is that she has that edge, that inner drive, to succeed. I'm giving her a chance and we'll see how she does.”

Carvajal has a history of rewarding hard work for jockeys needing a break.

On the June 4 program at Monmouth Park, he gave apprentice Derbe Glass a leg up on Free Flayme.

Two years ago, he put Maria Maysonett on Malekith at Monmouth, resulting in her first career win. Last year he gave Sean Gilpin his first professional mount aboard Now I'm Broke, also at Monmouth Park.

“I like to help people who like to work,” said Carvajal, who has 16 winners overall from 96 starters this year after posting a career-best 24 victories a year ago. “If I see them motivated and working hard I feel like they deserve a chance.

“I always try to put myself in their shoes, thinking that if I worked hard enough someone would give me a chance. So I do what I can to help. It's not like I am putting them on (retired multiple Grade 1 winner) Imperial Hint. But they deserve a shot.”

Scaldaferri, who also rode in Brazil and Peru from 2011 through 2018, is 0-for-21 in the United States, having ridden just once last year.

“Of course I'm excited,” she said. “This is my first time riding at Monmouth Park and everyone has been very helpful. I am chasing the American dream. I know in this country that if you work hard enough people will give you a chance, whether you are a woman or a man.”

Scaldaferri is also working horses for Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer in the mornings.

“As long as I keep working hard I think people will give me a chance,” said, Scaldaferri, who does not have an agent. “I just want to be a jockey and win races.”

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‘More Than A Client’: Imperial Hint Owner Raymond Mamone Passes At Age 88

Trainer Luis Carvajal, Jr. announced via Twitter on Tuesday that his longtime owner and friend Raymond Mamone had passed away at the age of 88. According to bloodhorse.com, Mamone died after complications of COVID-19 on May 3, in his hometown of Somerville, N.J.

Mamone and Carvajal teamed up to win multiple Grade 1 races with their “Little Rocket,” Imperial Hint. The small-of-stature horse had an enormous heart and incredible speed, setting a track record for six furlongs at Saratoga when he won the G1 Vanderbilt in 2019 in a final time of 1:07.92.

Imperial Hint would have been a fourth generation homebred for Mamone, but that he gave the colt's dam, Royal Hint, to the facility that houses his breeding stock, Shade Tree Thoroughbreds, when she failed to produce much in her first several years. He later saw Imperial Hint as a 2-year-old at the farm, and paid $17,500 for the eye-catching youngster.

Imperial Hint would go on to compete on the international stage and in two editions of the Breeders' Cup, retiring with a record of 14 wins from 25 starts and earnings of $2.2 million. Mamone sold him privately to stand at stud in Louisiana.

“My heart is breaking,” Carvajal told bloodhorse.com. “To me, he was much more than a client. He was a friend, an uncle, and a dad. Mr. Mamone was a very special man. He gave me opportunities I'd never had before, and he gave me the horse of a lifetime.”