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#1
09-23-2009, 10:31 AM
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Lava Man back in training?
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#2
09-23-2009, 10:38 AM
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From the end of that segment:
September 22, 2009 Update: Because this news is now breaking across the internet, I would just like to clarify that the above information was received from a very reliable source. Some fans are questioning whether Lava Man has returned to be a stable pony, rather than a racehorse. Although that would be a worthy career alternative for this gallant horse, we shall see what the official spin from his camp is now...
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#4
09-23-2009, 02:25 PM
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not sure what's so awful about an eight year old going into training. maybe he hated life on the farm as some retired horses do.
now, if he's unsound, lame, doesn't want to race and would have to run vs the lowest of the low level claimers, then i can see a reason for outrage. otherwise, it's a racehorse doing what racehorses do.
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#5
09-23-2009, 02:58 PM
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Guess he never made it to Old Friends, I know they were making a big deal about getting him... I was actually hoping to be able to see him when I was in Kentucky earlier in the summer but his arrival was delayed. Now I see why.
__________________
You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist. - Friedrich Nietzsche on Handicapping
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#6
09-23-2009, 02:59 PM
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Quote:
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#7
09-23-2009, 03:05 PM
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I too thought Lava Man was going to Old Friends.
Offical post on Blood Horse instant Up dates off of my e-mail inbox. Lava Man Back on Work Tab for Doug O'Neill By Tracy Gantz Updated: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 2:49 PM Posted: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 2:30 PM Email Print RSS ShareThis Email A FriendClose Window Lava Man, the former claimer who earned more than $5 million, has returned to training at Doug O’Neill’s Hollywood Park barn. The 8-year-old gelding worked three furlongs in :36 flat Sept. 23 at Hollywood, his first official work. O’Neill, who claimed Lava Man for owners STD Racing Stable and Jason Wood, said Lava Man came into his Hollywood barn shortly after the Del Mar meeting closed Sept. 9. His work on the Hollywood Park Cushion Track was the fastest of 24 at the distance for the morning. “He worked unbelievable and cooled out fantastic,” O’Neill said. Lava Man (Slew City Slew --Li’l Ms. Leonard, by Nostalgia's Star) was retired in late July 2008 after a sixth-place finish in the July 20 Eddie Read Handicap (gr. IT) at Del Mar. “The intent was to retire him because he was off form,” said O’Neill. “He went to Alamo Pintado, where they did a lot of diagnostics on him. They thought they could do some things to help with new technology.” The Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Hospital in Los Olivos, Calif., works extensively in the area of stem-cell therapy. O’Neill said Lava Man underwent treatment, led by Dr. Doug Herthel, Alamo Pintado’s founder. The gelding has been residing at Rich and Gaby Sulpizio’s Magali Farms not far from the hospital. “They did stem cell therapy on Lava Man’s ankles,” O’Neill said. “Dr. Herthel said that he has the ankles of a 3-year-old. His ankles look phenomenal.” Lava Man has been in training at Magali for about the last four months. “They’d been two-minute licking him, and he had a lot of miles on him before he came here,” said O’Neill. “Tom (Magali farm manager Tom Hudson) said that once Lava Man was put back in training, he was so much happier than when he was just hanging out at the farm.” O’Neill said that he will be taking Lava Man’s training one work at a time, with no specific goal as to when the gelding would return to the races. Dr. Herthel will be visiting O’Neill’s barn periodically to follow up on his star patient. “If and when he comes back, it will be a great moment,” said O’Neill. “Rest assured, he’ll have been gone over a zillion times physically, and only then would we bring him back.” O’Neill added that he would donate his usual 10% training commission to the California Retirement Management Account so that retired Thoroughbreds would benefit. Bred by Lonnie Arterburn and Eve and Kim Kuhlmann in California, Lava Man won 17 of 46 races from ages 2 through 7 for earnings of $5,268,706. His stakes victories included three Hollywood Gold Cups (gr. I), two Santa Anita Handicaps (gr. I), and one Pacific Classic (gr. I).
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#9
09-23-2009, 03:47 PM
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As long as he sticks to the Cal Bred program stakes and doesn't get thrown to the wolves in open graded company anymore then maybe he'll do okay
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#11
09-23-2009, 06:21 PM
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He hasn't done enough
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#12
09-23-2009, 07:08 PM
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Quote:
__________________
You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist. - Friedrich Nietzsche on Handicapping
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#14
09-23-2009, 07:54 PM
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It's awesome that he is back in training. If the horse is healthy, and still a willing participant, why do all you do-gooders think the horse is better off being a lawn ornament then a pampered star athlete ? It is also great for the game....star appeal/name recognition is good publicity, and he doesn't have to still win grade 1's to be effective. No one expects him to be as good as he was when he was 5, but still more than competitive. Just like the seniors tour of the PGA. If he can still win for Clm 50000 it's worth having him back.
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#15
09-23-2009, 08:06 PM
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I do not know the owners current financial situation but many wealthy people are no longer wealthy. Winning a few hundred thousand dollars with him might be a lot of money to them right now.
If he were to just be a good stakes horse he might make them a few hundred thousand dollars by just getting in the gate 5 times a year. With the current older horse division being so bad he might even be able to win a grade 1 somewhere which says more about how bad the older horse division is than it does about him.
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#18
09-23-2009, 09:03 PM
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Quote:
"Both Kenly and O'Neill emphasized that Lava Man will return at top class, or not return at all. "Either he competes at the highest level, or nothing," Kenly said." --Dunbar
__________________
Curlin and Hard Spun finish 1,2 in the 2007 BC Classic, demonstrating how competing in all three Triple Crown races ruins a horse for the rest of the year...see avatar photo from REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
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#19
09-23-2009, 10:16 PM
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#20
09-24-2009, 12:44 AM
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Stem cell therapy is pretty cool. I remember there were a few young horses from one consigner at Fasig a couple years ago who came with a card informing the buyer of stored umbilical cord blood from the horses' birth as a embryonic stem cell bank.
An overview: http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/ceh/do...-4-bkm-sec.pdf As an aside, last year I went to the human "stem cell research" clinical ortho at University of Kentucky, but alas, they were not yet in a position to help my torn meniscus. Dara Torres, the Olympic swimmer, had to go overseas to get stem cell treatment on her knee. That result is pending. Go Lava Man! Glad he's back.
__________________
"Have the clean racing people run any ads explaining that giving a horse a Starbucks and a chocolate poppyseed muffin for breakfast would likely result in a ten year suspension for the trainer?" - Dr. Andrew Roberts
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