Lava Man - Prep at Keeneland

[Scav]

This is huge for this horse, if they shipped in before the race I would be tossing him, but now, a must use, will have a full month to get acclimated. O'Neil, a very smart man...

http://bc.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=35723

I should be at Keeneland friday. I'll try to take some pics of him.

[Seattleallstar]

lets see how he will do no a real racetrack, with some real horses

[SniperSB23]

Great move, he still won't beat Bernardini but I like his chances for second a lot more.

[jpops757]

Oneil gave a lot of the credit for Lava Mans sharpness,because of the training on the Hollywood track. Looks like he wants to keep him on the polly for training.

Originally Posted by Seattleallstar

lets see how he will do no a real racetrack, with some real horses

Has he been running on fake racetracks against fake horses?

[King Glorious]

I think it's a bad move. What is training at Keeneland going to do to help him for Churchill? They are two entirely different tracks. Might as well have stayed home and kept him at Hollywood. At least he already knows he likes that Hollywood junk. This is worthless in my opinion. I hate all this talk about letting horses get acclimated to a surface. Either they will like it or they won't. If u don't like broccoli, is your mother making u eat more of it going to make u like it? No. If a horse doesn't like a certain track (say it's too hard and stings his feet or something), he's going to run worse on it the more he trains on it because he will have had time to develop a memory of how it hurts. And this is even worse because he's not training on the track he's running on. Now watch the weather cause O'Neill to lose some days of training. Just watch. While it's beautiful here in Southern Cal.

[alysheba4]

well he knows more about the horse than all of us combined......... he prob. dosent ship that well so the extra time between shipping and the race will do him good.

[Antitrust32]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

I think it's a bad move. What is training at Keeneland going to do to help him for Churchill? They are two entirely different tracks. Might as well have stayed home and kept him at Hollywood. At least he already knows he likes that Hollywood junk. This is worthless in my opinion. I hate all this talk about letting horses get acclimated to a surface. Either they will like it or they won't. If u don't like broccoli, is your mother making u eat more of it going to make u like it? No. If a horse doesn't like a certain track (say it's too hard and stings his feet or something), he's going to run worse on it the more he trains on it because he will have had time to develop a memory of how it hurts. And this is even worse because he's not training on the track he's running on. Now watch the weather cause O'Neill to lose some days of training. Just watch. While it's beautiful here in Southern Cal.

It is a great move actually. Horses seem to thrive when training on the poly and then running over the dirt. Example: Lava Man has already been doing this. Also, now he wont have to travel the week of the race and will get used to the climate and surroundings. I don't understand how you could think this is a negative.

Originally Posted by King Glorious

I think it's a bad move. What is training at Keeneland going to do to help him for Churchill? They are two entirely different tracks. Might as well have stayed home and kept him at Hollywood. At least he already knows he likes that Hollywood junk. This is worthless in my opinion. I hate all this talk about letting horses get acclimated to a surface. Either they will like it or they won't. If u don't like broccoli, is your mother making u eat more of it going to make u like it? No. If a horse doesn't like a certain track (say it's too hard and stings his feet or something), he's going to run worse on it the more he trains on it because he will have had time to develop a memory of how it hurts. And this is even worse because he's not training on the track he's running on. Now watch the weather cause O'Neill to lose some days of training. Just watch. While it's beautiful here in Southern Cal.

King,

As a sort-of student of the sport ... you're aware that in decades past ... the trainers of the top horses would always try to get in a race over the track before the big G1 event ... in order to familiarize his creature-of-habit with the racing surface... and to see how the horse reacts ... and to make strategic adjustments to equipment and racing tactics.

The only mistake O'Neill is making ... is not giving Lava Man a race over the Churchill track before the BC Classic. Or will he? Such a race would greatly improve Lava Man's chances of getting the place money.

Oh, for the days when trainers understood the value of prep races!