Juan Carlos Avila says he has no illusions about winning the Monmouth Park training title, despite being within shouting distance of current leader Chad Brown with three weekends of live racing left.

With 28 horses, he doesn’t believe he has title-caliber depth in his stable.

So he will continue with the same approach he has had during a successful summer at the Jersey Shore track with 14 wins (and eight seconds and eight thirds) from 51 starters – looking to add to that with eight horses entered over the three-day racing weekend that runs from Saturday through Monday.

That includes Silver Slugger in Sunday’s $100,000 Rumson Stakes at five furlongs on the dirt for 3 year olds and up and longshot Victoria’s Dance in Saturday’s $100,000 Violet Stakes at a mile and a sixteenth on the turf for fillies and mares 3 and up.

Overall, there are four stakes races spanning the holiday weekend at Monmouth Park: The $100,000 Sapling for 2 year olds at a mile on the dirt and the Violet Stakes on Saturday; the Rumson Stakes on Sunday and the $100,000 Red Bank Stakes at a mile on the turf for 3 year olds and up on Monday.

“No, no I don’t think we can do it,” Avila said of any title aspirations. “We don’t have enough horses and there are not enough races left. But I am very happy with the way the meet has gone.

“We’ll just keep doing what we have been doing and see what happens.”

Entering the weekend, and with seven racing days remaining, Brown tops the trainer standings with 18 winners, followed by Jorge Delgado with 15 and Avila and Peter Synnefias with 14 each. Of those four Avila has started the fewest horses at the meet.

There is a chance to make up ground this weekend since Avila has eight horses entered over the three days compared to one for Brown, five for Delgado and four for Synnefias.

But his focus for now is on Silver Slugger, named for owner Victor Martinez (Victorias Ranch), who won two Silver Slugger Awards and was a five-time all-star during a major league baseball career from 2002 to 2018.

A 5-year-old son of Cairo Prince, Silver Slugger has been a win machine since Avila nursed him back to health and back to the races in 2024. After being injured in his debut in 2022, the Kentucky-bred gelding missed all of 2023 and then was 2-for-2 in 2024.

Over the past two years he has seven wins and two seconds from 12 starts. He comes in off a near-miss second in a six-furlong allowance race at Colonial Downs on Aug. 21.

“He ran just a week ago and I don’t usually do this,” said Avila, a native of Venezuela who won nine training titles there. “But he is sharp and we are going to try this. He’s ready so I am going to try with him.

“This should be a good spot for him. He’s doing good. He didn’t race at 3 and only raced once at 2 so almost all of his starts have been the past two years.”

Though a proven sprinter, Silver Slugger will be trying five furlongs for the first time. On March 23 at Tampa Bay Downs he came within a fifth of a second of the track record for 6½ furlongs.

Two months after that, he finished second, beaten a head, in the Grade 3 John A. Nerud Stakes during the Belmont at Aqueduct meet on May 25.

“He deserves this chance,” said Avila, who started training in the United States full-time in 2018 and has been stabled during the summer at Monmouth Park since 2022. “I don’t know about five furlongs. It might be too fast and too quick for him. I am not sure he can race from behind so he will probably be near the lead.”

In Saturday’s Violet Stakes, Avila is just looking for Victoria’s Dancer – also owned by Martinez’s Victorias Ranch – to break through this year after an 0-for-6 start.

The holiday racing schedule will be complemented by the BBQ and Craft Beer Festival featuring more than 50 craft beers, 14 food vendors and live music over all three days.