Lava Man still looking game in the Eddie Read (Charles Pravata)

The first thing I thought when Lava Man faded in the stretch was “Was that it? Is that how his career will end?” He was so damn came in the Whittingham and while he looked the part yesterday he just didn’t show up in the stretch.

Was it his time in the Detention Protection Barn? [DRF+] He does like his routine. Was the crowd too tough for him? He held his own last out in roughly the same company.

Retirement is seriously on the table for the wildly successful former claimer and fan favorite. The owners want to give it a week to see how they feel… but what you do think?

They could take the Funny Cide route by trying to find a race with a soft field that he could win and then retire him as a stable pony. They could just try him again at the same level if they thought it was a just an off day, or they can start running him in softer company if they thought he still wanted keep running but wasn’t up for G1 company (thanks Jeff!). Or, they could just turn him out.

Here’s his game effort in the Whittingham:

And his dud in the Eddie Read:

In our last poll about Curlin’s next move, 33 of you, myself included, want him to run on the turf here in the states before deciding on the the Arc, 17 of you thought he should just stick to dirt, 12 of you though he should stay on target for the Arc and 7 of you thought he should point towards the BC Turf.

Remember, the Jess Jackson’s poll is still open… and Turf is the current front runner at 52%.

As always, thanks for participating!

Posted by dana on Jul 21 2008    
Filed Under: Doug O'Neill, Charles Pravata, 2008, Poll, Claimer, YouTube, Turf, Fans, Retirement Watch, Lava Man, Race Replay, Racing

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I was just making the rounds this morning in preparation for looking at the Derby preps (i.e., procrastinating). I still haven’t decided if I’m going to play or just watch.

I made my way back to flickr to find out that the folks who rescued Top Bunk created a great Wiki entry about him as a part of their rescue effort.

Not only can you find out about Top Bunk’s racing career (which was impressive) and see a bit of the process they used to claim to the horse, but you can see what the life of a claimer is like in a little more detail than is available in a past performance. It ain’t pretty and this doesn’t even include any lurid details. I’m glad to know there are folks out there who are actively keeping an eye open for horses in need of help.

Also of note, there’s a link at the bottom of the page to a NY Times article from 2001 that mentions Top Bunk, it’s about a professional horseplayer… something I’ll never be if I keep procrastinating like this!

Posted by dana on Apr 12 2008    
Filed Under: Claimer, 2008, Rescue, Retirement

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Top Bunk at his retirement party (wendyu)

I was just tooling around Flickr and found this nice little story.

Over the weekend a group of folks got together to retire 11 year old gelding Top Bunk, a hard knocking claimer at Hawthorne who was in the money 66% of the time!!! Of his 90 races, he was 21/23/16 with lifetime earnings of $575,000.

No doubt he’s off to get some much needed rest and relaxation, perhaps take up golf and shuffle board.

Best of luck to him and a big “well done” to the folks who retired him!

Posted by dana on Apr 07 2008    
Filed Under: Claimer, 2008, Farewell, Retirement, Racing

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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