My all time fav shot of Lava Man, winning his 3rd Hollywood Gold Cup (Charles Pravata)

The reports are in, my favorite horse currently racing is official retired. As it turns out he has some issues with his ankles so he won’t get the Funny Cide one last harrah race many of us were hoping for. It’s still unclear if he’ll be Doug O’Neill’s stable pony so keep your fingers crossed!

There weren’t as many of his races up at YouTube as I would have liked, in an ideal world I would post all three Hollywood Gold Cup’s and both Santa Anita Handicaps.

2005 Hollywood Gold Cup:

2006 Hollywood Gold Cup:

You’ll have to go to NTRA video archive to the 2007 Hollywood Gold Cup.

2007 Santa Anita Handicap:

Back to NTRA for the 2006 Santa Anita Handicap.

While not a race, here are his last minutes on the track as a race horse after the Eddie Read:

I’ve written about Lava Man frequently and you can see all of my posts here.

Congratulations to Lava Man’s connections for possibly the best claim ever and many thanks for keeping him around… he’ll be missed. Enjoy your retirement old man!

Posted by dana on Jul 30 2008    
Filed Under: Farewell, Charles Pravata, Geldings, Hollywood Gold Cup, 2008, Doug O'Neill, Santa Anita, YouTube, Retirement, Fans, Lava Man, Race Replay, :(, Hollywood Park, Racing

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Lava Man returns to form in the Charles Whittingham at Hollywood Park (qtfeather2000)

Looking beyond the triple crown for a moment, I was happy to see Lava Man’s performance in the Whittingham… he’s back!

I think the turf suits him and he responded well to his new jock, Tyler Baze as they set an aggressive pace and held on gamely as Artiste Royal and Monzante came on strong to win and place. Now THAT was a race!

Sorry about the quality, this was the only clip on YouTube. You can also watch it here at NTRA. I really like both Artiste Royal and Monzante and it looked to me like Monzante would have liked even more distance than the 1 1/4 mile Whittingham. Well done to all!

News has also surfaced that our old friend and member of the “almost but not quite Triple Crown club”, War Emblem is actually covering mares again!

You may remember that he had basically been refusing to cover mares for several years which fueled (silly) speculation that he might be gay or at least in my estimation bored.

When it became apparent that he has some talent as a sire there was a renewed interest in renewing his interest. Apparently at least part of the problem was that he’s just picky. I’m picky too, but then again it doesn’t impact how I perform my job!

His therapy program, which commenced in early spring, consists of a combination of changes in housing and management to naturally build maturity and breeding confidence, changes in breeding-shed handling techniques to maximize response, and carefully managed hormone supplementation as needed to boost libido to reduce his mare choosiness while his confidence builds.

Hmmmm, Spanish fly perhaps? Dr. Sue McDonnell, a specialist in stallion behavior and breeding management at Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center summed it up perfectly…

I sure don’t know how horses think about these matters, but observations of his behavior indicate that War Emblem appears to be quite enthused about his new direction.

Well then, welcome back to both Lava Man and War Emblem!

Posted by dana on Jun 08 2008    
Filed Under: YouTube, Turf, Where Are They Now?, :), Geldings, War Emblem, Come Back, Hollywood Park, Fans, Breeding, Lava Man, Triple Crown, Race Replay, Racing

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Lava Man and his beloved groom Noe Garcia before the Khaled Stakes at Hollywood Park (Charles Pravata)

Charles Pravata was kind enough to send me this great shot of Lava Man and his groom Noe Garcia prior to the Khaled in the paddock. While he didn’t win, I thought he ran well and was definitely not the checked out Lava Man of his prior 3 6th places.

His connections seem to be eyeing another try at the Gold Cup! And while trainer Doug O’Neil was disappointed he didn’t win, he felt that Lava Man would probably need a race or two to get back into good form. Only fair for 7yo!

I took a look over at YouTube to see if I could find the race. Not only did find it, I found two excellent “extras”!

Here’s a clip of handicapper Rich Perloff discussing Lava Man. While discussing works he also points out the difference between breezing vs. handy between the east & west coast tracks. Someone in the crowd also raises my point about Lava Man’s 3 flops coinciding with his groom’s absence.

Here’s some footage of Lava Man preparing for the race.

And finally, the race itself…

Welcome back old man!

Posted by dana on Apr 28 2008    
Filed Under: Geldings, Charles Pravata, Hollywood Gold Cup, Doug O'Neill, 2008, Corey Nakatani, Workouts, YouTube, Lava Man, Fans, Handicapping, Race Replay, Turf, Hollywood Park, Racing

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Lava Man and Corey Nakatani winning Lava Man’s 3rd consecutive Hollywood Gold Cup (Charles Pravata)

Lava Man just returned to show in the Khaled on the turf at Hollywood Park.

The gamely 7yo gelding returned from his hiatus to press the pace and make a run in the stretch but he couldn’t catch pacesetting Epic Power. As it turned out Mr. Wolverine blew pas both of them. Top This and That looked game for forth.

Jay Hovdey has a nice piece on Lava Man [DRF+] that’s worth a read. It doesn’t surprise me that his 3 consecutive bombs overlap with his groom Noe Garcia’s recovery from his devastating injury. There was piece last year that speculated that he’s a bad shipper in part due to home sickness.

If you’re a Lava Man fan it’s worth picking up The Story of Lava Man DVD (although I would check ebay). It’s been awhile since I’ve watched it (and I’m too lazy to fire it up now) but I seem to remember several indications that Lava Man is very sensitive to his surroundings and bonded to Garcia. Let’s hope the reunion does them both good.

Posted by dana on Apr 27 2008    
Filed Under: Charles Pravata, Geldings, 2008, Turf, Come Back, Lava Man, Hollywood Park, Racing

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Into Mischief and Victor Espinoza (orange cap) win the Cash Call Futurity (Charles Pravata)

Into Mischief ($29.60) gave his connections a much needed payday in the CashCall Futurity [NTRA].

He sat right off the pace throughout and took the lead by a couple of lengths at the top of the stretch. He held off the fast closing Colonel John & Massive Drama to win a by a length… and he looked good doing it to!

Posted by dana on Dec 23 2007    
Filed Under: Charles Pravata, 2yo, Hollywood Park, 2007, Racing

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