Lava Man in the Eddie Reade (Charles Pravata)
Lava Man will lead the parade to the post for today’s Cal Cup Classic at Santa Anita.
Post time is 4:30 PST if you have access to view Oak Tree and would like to get one last look at Lava Man on the track!
Posted by dana on Oct 05 2008
Filed Under: Charles Pravata, Geldings, 2008, Santa Anita, Lava Man, Fans, Retirement, Racing
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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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Georgie Boy & Rafael Bejarano winning the San Vicente (Charles Pravata)
Well, wasn’t today an interesting on the Derby Trail? All three Derby preps won by state breds, two of the three with failing less than even money honest favorites and one with a Lady Trainer!
I’m really curious to see if War Pass is injured, every one has a bad day but that was a serious clunker. He was never in it.
As for Sierra Sunset, it seems as though Oaklawn has breathed some life into him. I’m interested to see what his next move is. Z Fortune and Anak Nakal were nowhere to be found… I suppose not so surprising given Anak Nakal’s last out but a somewhat surprising for Z Fortune.
And then there’s Georgie Boy and his trainer Kathy Walsh. She’s taken a bit of an unconventional approach with him, foregoing temptation at several turns to, in her words, “do what you know is best.”
There was a nice feature on her and Georgie Boy from DRF published on NBC sports this week:
“You’ve got to realize that these horses can’t dance every dance,” Walsh said. “Horses are bred different from years ago. Their pedigrees are different. The tracks are different. That helps make it so tough. Fortunately, I have an owner that respects me and trusts me. We made a pact that if Georgie Boy ran in the Del Mar Futurity, we’d give him time afterwards. He was all for it.”
Walsh was born into a business, working for her father trainer Jim Walsh.
Walsh has been training stakes winners for more than 30 years, since the days of Auguste in the 1974 Governor’s Handicap at Longacres. She came into the sport both privileged, as the daughter of a trainer, and persecuted, for being a woman in a sport whose latent chauvinism exists today, let alone three decades ago.
Best of luck to her and her very talented Georgie Boy! I hadn’t payed him much attention to him until now but I’m going to start. He’s scheduled to start next in the Santa Anita Derby April 5th, but I wish he was running on conventional dirt just once before the Derby!
Posted by dana on Mar 15 2008
Filed Under: War Pass, 2008, Charles Pravata, Santa Anita, Derby Trail, Racing
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Rafael Bejarano after winning the Distaff at this year’s Breeder’s Cup (Charles Pravata)
Rafael Bejarano was thrown from a horse at Santa Anita today. The horse, Parisian Art, apparently had a heart attack in the stretch and died.
From the Bloodhorse article:
Track officials reported that he was talking and moving his arms and legs, but was in a great deal of pain in his neck and shoulders.
RIP Parisian Art and best of luck to Rafael for a speedy recovery.
Update: he suffered some minor cracks and should be back in a month… full update here. [DRF]
Posted by dana on Mar 13 2008
Filed Under: Get Well Soon, 2008, Charles Pravata, Santa Anita, Rafael Bejarano, Racing
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Nashoba’s Key in the Santa Margarita at Santa Anita (Charles Pravata)
Nashoba’s Key didn’t get a chance to throw down with the undefeated Zenyatta, but she looked pretty good putting away the field in the Santa Margarita!
Next time darling, next time.
Posted by dana on Mar 10 2008
Filed Under: 2008, Charles Pravata, Santa Anita, Racing
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