Tampa Bay Downs trainer Juan Carlos Avila was 17 when he got a racetrack job at La Rinconada Hippodrome in his hometown of Caracas working for prominent Venezuelan trainer Gustavo Lopez.
Avila spent six years observing Lopez’s daily routine and methods before setting out on his own in 1988. He established his own legacy during the next three decades, winning more than 3,000 races and nine titles – seven consecutively – at La Rinconada.
Yet after coming to the United States to train in 2018, he was a relative unknown until March of 2020 when he won a pair of graded stakes on Festival Day at Tampa Bay Downs, including the 40th edition of the (then)-Grade II Tampa Bay Derby with King Guillermo, a 49-1 shot.
King Guillermo was owned by retired major league baseball star Victor Martinez and ridden by Samy Camacho, both also from Venezuela.
To those familiar with Avila’s extensive background, that day’s Tampa Bay Derby and the Grade III Challenger Stakes, won by Avila’s 4-year-old colt Trophy Chaser under his JCA Racing Stable banner, were proof that a good horse trainer is a good horse trainer pretty much the world over, especially when he has a horse up to the task.
Yet even now, with close to 300 U.S. victories including five graded stakes, Avila wonders if his business could have grown faster by mastering one of the most difficult tasks faced by the sport’s large Hispanic contingent: communicating with racing’s English-speaking American base.
As confident as he is in his training abilities, Avila occasionally still struggles with getting his message across to owners and the media. At 62, he keeps working to improve his English, displaying the same determination as when he first arrived in Lopez’s barn to launch his own career.
“The first thing I had to learn was the language, how to communicate with the owners,” Avila said to a reporter whose own study of the Spanish language came to a premature end as a college freshman. “I believed in myself as a trainer, but I am someone who needs to communicate with the horse’s owner at all times.
“I like to explain everything to them about their horse – the jockeys, the horse’s health and what kind of race they should run. I want to bring in more American people as owners, but when I can’t explain things sometimes it is more challenging.”
Avila, who runs a 32-horse stable, said his current roster of about 10 owners is split evenly between American and Venezuelan concerns, including Martinez. One thing appears certain: He is getting his message across to his horses, who have propelled him to recognition as the Martin’s Italian Trainer of the Month via seven victories through the first 10 days of the meet.
Avila’s current stable star is the handsome 5-year-old bay gelding Silver Slugger, who was purchased by Victoria’s Ranch for $90,000 as a yearling at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Sale. The sprinter is 10-for-16 lifetime, including stakes victories earlier this year at Monmouth Park and Delaware Park, and has earned more than $300,000.
Silver Slugger finished second in May in the Grade III John A. Nerud Stakes at Belmont At The Big A to the well-regarded Whatchatalkinabout.
After his 2025-26 Oldsmar debut resulted in an impressive victory in a 6 ½-furlong starter/optional claiming race on Nov. 29 under jockey Sonny Leon in a time of 1:16.81, Avila hopes to target a stakes race for Silver Slugger’s next start.
“He is good right now, but I think he will be better the next time he runs,” Avila said.
Avila is also eager to find a good spot for his 2-year-old colt Tallmar, who won his first career start here on Dec. 6 under Leon in a 6-furlong time of 1:10.49. “I’ll tell you after his next race how good he is,” Avila said of the Kentucky-bred son of Yaupon owned in partnership by Victoria’s Ranch and the R. T Racing Stable of Ramon Tallaj.
First and foremost, Avila is dedicated to his family. He and wife Lindsay Perera – a personal-fitness trainer, nutritionist and competitive bodybuilder – have been married 21 years. Their son Kendrich manages an Airbnb and their daughter Tabitha, a freshman at Florida International University, has a scholarship to study opera.
Avila’s older son Juan Carlos Avila, Jr., who played a few years in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, operates the JC Hitting Performance baseball school in Hialeah. Another daughter, Valeria, lives in Venezuela.
Around the oval. Samy Camacho rode two winners today. He captured the first race on El Orejon, a 2-year-old Florida-bred gelding bred and owned by Amaty Racing Stables and trained by Jose A. Gallegos. Camacho added the fifth race with La Vecchia Signora, a 3-year-old filly owned and trained by Juan Carlos Avila.
Thoroughbred racing continues Saturday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:35 p.m. Tampa Bay Downs currently races on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. With the exception of Thursday, Christmas Day, when the track will be closed in its entirety, Tampa Bay Downs is open every day for simulcast wagering, no-limits action and tournament play in The Silks Poker Room and golf fun and instruction at The Downs Golf Practice Facility.
Next Friday, Dec. 26, is Calendar Day, with the first 5,000 patrons through the gates receiving the 2026 edition free of charge (with paid admission). The theme is the track’s centennial celebration, and a sneak peek reveals the calendar to be an artistic triumph, with pictures from the track’s beginning years blending into more recent yet similar photographs. Gates will open at 11 a.m.
Tampa Bay Downs has tweaked its 2025-26 racing calendar, while maintaining a 90-day schedule.
Sunday racing, originally scheduled to begin this week, will get underway Jan. 4. The “lost” dates (Dec. 21 and 28) will be made up on Thursday, Feb. 5 and Thursday, Feb. 12.
Officials and staff of Tampa Bay Downs invite Thoroughbred lovers and newcomers alike to share in the excitement of the Oldsmar oval’s meet-long centennial celebration, commemorating the track’s opening on Feb. 18, 1926.
