Favored Carving, co-owned by Olympic gold medalist skier Bode Miller, made it back-to-back wins for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert in the $100,000 Real Quiet Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park Nov. 10 (VIDEO).
Baffert, who won the Real Quiet a year ago with eventual CashCall Futurity (gr. I) winner Liaison , is the first conditioner to win the eight-year-old event twice. Baffert trained Real Quiet, whose victories included the 1998 Kentucky Derby and Preakness, and 1999 Hollywood Gold Cup (all gr. I).
Owned by Baffert's wife Jill and Miller, Carving outlasted Fury Kapcori by a half-length as the 11-10 favorite. Ridden by Martin Garcia, the 2-year-old son of Any Given Saturday and the Giant's Causeway mare In Seconds completed the 1 1/16 miles over Cushion Track in 1:46.04.
The win was the third in four starts for Carving, who was purchased for $55,000 in May. Bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm, the dark bay has earned $129,900. He paid $4.20, $3 and $2.40.
Second outside pacesetter Avare in the early going, Carving was relegated to third when Fury Kapcori moved along the rail to engage for the lead. Fury Kapcori grabbed a slight lead on the turn before Carving took a narrow edge coming into the stretch with Simon Eyes and Dirty Swagg moving into contention on the outside. Carving drifted out a bit late in the stretch while under urging from Garcia, but had enough left to prevail over a game Fury Kapcori.
Quarter mile fractions were :23.97, :48.37, 1:13.13, and 1:39.10.
Fourth behind stablemate Power Broker in the FrontRunner Stakes (gr. I) Sept. 29 at Santa Anita, Carving has now earned his wins at three different tracks. He won first time out against $80,000 maidens Aug. 23 at Del Mar before taking the C.B. Afflerbaugh Stakes Sept. 12 at Fairplex Park.
Baffert, who has won the CashCall Futurity a record six times, indicated Carving could return Dec. 15 in the grade I test, which has a guaranteed purse of $750,000.
"Hopefully, he will go,'' said Baffert. "I'm going to run as many as I can in that. I'll try to load the gate up. I have a lot of nice ones. (Carving) has been a fun horse because he always runs better than he trains. Everyone in the barn has outworked him. He's been a real surprise to me.''
Bidding for his third win in a row after victories at Golden Gate Fields and Fresno, Fury Kapcori, the 9-2 fourth choice, wound up a half-length in front of 16-1 shot Dirty Swagg. A son of Tiznow owned in part by Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, Fury Kapcori paid $5 and $3. The show price on Dirty Swagg was $5.40.
Simon Eyes, who was ridden by Rafael Bejarano, finished fourth, 1 3/4 lengths behind Dirty Swagg. Bejarano replaced Corey Nakatani, who injured a hamstring pulling up an injured Mavenofwinterset a race earlier
Glenco Kid, Ebony Gold, and Avare, the 7-2 second choice, completed the order of finish.
Carving gets up late to win the Real Quiet Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park Nov. 10.
