Lava Man (foaled on March 20, 2001) is an American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse who was once claimed for $50,000 but wound up being inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2015. In a forty-seven race career, despite finishing off the board while losing all 5 of his races outside California, he won seventeen times with his major victories including three Hollywood Gold Cups, two Santa Anita Handicaps, and the Pacific Classic Stakes.
Background Lava Man is dark bay thoroughbred gelding with a white blaze on his forehead. His dam L'il Ms. Leonard was claimed by Lonnie Arterburn for $16,000 and then sent to Kentucky to be bred to Slew City Slew, a son of Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew. Kim and Eve Kuhlman acquired a half interest in L'il Ms. Leonard and kept her at their farm in Kentucky before shipping her back to California. Lava Man was foaled on March 20, 2001, at Poplar Meadows Ranch near Sanger, California. He originally ran as a homebred for Arterburn and the Kuhlmans, and was trained by Arterburn.
Eve Kuhlmann, who competes in triathlons, named the horse Lava Man for a triathlon on the Big Island in Hawaii.
Lava Man is known for both his intelligent and friendly personality and his "tenacity, courage and adaptability" on the track. A jockey who regularly rode Lava Man, Corey Nakatani, has said of him, "This horse has gears, so many gears. What a horse. He's just about unbelievable."
Racing career
Early career
Lava Man first raced as a 2-year-old in a $12,500 maiden claiming race at the San Joaquin County Fair in June 2003, finishing fourth and earning a paltry Beyer Speed Figure of 27. The Fair Circuit is the lowest level of thoroughbred competition in California thoroughbred racing. Arterburn said he was a big, long-striding horse that never got tired. "But he was so laid back he could be a pony. He didn't show anything in the mornings. I took him out to Stockton, California to get him a race, make him eligible for starter allowances and not get him claimed away." In the words of Daily Racing Form columnist Dick Jerardi, "Lava Man did not start his career on the other side of the tracks. He started his career in a place [Stockton] where there are no tracks."
Lava Man lost his next two races before Arterburn tried him on the grass. The horse won for the first time on November 29, 2003 at Golden Gate Fields, then followed up with an allowance race win in January 2004. He then lost his next four races, shipping between Santa Anita, Bay Meadows and Hollywood Park, before earning his third win after Arterburn removed his blinkers. Arterburn then entered him in a $62,500 claiming race at Del Mar Racetrack because, as he said, "We had no other place to run him so we took him south. It was the usual Northern California problem." He came in sixth, so in his next race, Arterburn dropped him down a notch in a $50,000 claiming race on August 13. In that race, Lava Man was claimed by Doug O'Neill for owner Steve Kenly, who was looking for a useful California-bred for his STD Stables. "I never should have run him back down there," said Arterburn. "You go down to that claiming pit at Del Mar and you're asking for trouble. They claim crazy down there, and I never should have taken him there. I really liked the horse. He had a great personality; almost a clown. He was like a big kid, always wanting attention. He was a one of a kind character, and we tried to protect him the best we could."
Now racing for O'Neill, Lava Man won the Derby Trial Stakes at Fairplex, then finished third in the Pomono Derby. O'Neill initially kept the horse on turf, but then moved him back to dirt where he finished second in three straight races, including a promising performance behind Rock Hard Ten in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes. Lava Man finished his three-year-old season with three wins and six seconds from thirteen starts.
2005
At the start of his 2005 campaign, Lava Man was badly beaten in his first three starts, finishing seventh, fifth and sixth, with one of these being the Sunshine Millions Classic at Gulfstream Park in Florida. O'Neill re-fitted the horse with blinkers, then entered him in a $100,000 claiming race in May. Lava Man won but was not claimed as Arterburn lacked the funds to do so at the time. Arterburn would later call Lava Man "the best and worst thing that ever happened to me" after the horse started winning major races for O'Neill. However, because California-breds winning open races in the state generate breeders' rewards worth approximately 15 percent of the purse, Arterburn continued to receive a share of some of Lava Man's earnings as his co-breeder.
On June 18, Lava Man won the Californian Stakes for his first graded stakes victory. In his next race, the $750,000 Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup in July, Lava Man won by a stakes-record margin of over 8 lengths and earned his career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 120 while carrying the highweight. Kenly later said, "The first Gold Cup, that was the biggest race we'd ever run in, and that was the most special because it was our first."
In August, Lava Man entered the Pacific Classic in which he led for most of the race but was caught near the wire and finished third. Despite the loss, O'Neill considered the race one of his finest efforts. "He just laid his body down – what a huge race," said O'Neill. "He was just rubber-legged, like a boxer, just no legs. He was okay. We got him back to the barn, got him drinking, got a hose on him right away, and he finally came to. But you don't see many horses run that hard to where they're rubber-legged. They usually stop miles before that happens." Lava Man was so exhausted he had to be vanned off the racetrack. "He gave us such a scare," said O'Neill. "We thought he broke down. You wanted to hug the horse even more. He gave everything he had. People don't do that and horses don't do that."
Lava Man was sent east for the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park in New York, where he finished over 45 lengths behind in seventh place, hampered by a sore left front hoof. In late November, he went to Japan for the Japan Cup Dirt where he finished eleventh, running without Lasix for the first time. At the start of the race, Lava Man stumbled and tore the sole of his hoof. "He bled for 1 miles. We thought it was the end of him, that he was done racing," said Leandro Mora, O'Neill's assistant trainer. He finished the year with three wins from nine starts and was named the California-bred Horse of the Year and Champion Older Horse.
2006 Lava Man's first race of 2006 was the $1,000,000 Sunshine Millions Classic at Santa Anita Park in California on January 28, restricted to California- and Florida-bred horses. Fitted with a special shoe to help with his sore feet, he returned to form with a length win. O'Neill was relieved. "If I wasn't connected to this horse, I would have said [he] had lost it," the trainer said. "But he finally ran like he had been training."
In his next race, the $1,000,000 Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap, Lava Man faced favorite High Limit, 2005 Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo, and 2004 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Champion Wilko. He scored a "spectacular" length victory over Magnum, who was getting 7 pounds. Because of his earlier turf form, O'Neill next entered him in the restricted Khaled Stakes at Hollywood Park Racetrack. Lava Man won easily and set a new track record of 1:44.26 for 1 miles. Keeping him on the turf, O'Neill followed up by entering the horse in the Grade 1 Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap at Hollywood Park Racetrack. Lava Man won the mile race easily after getting an unchallenged early lead. This victory made him the first horse since Eclipse Award winner Vanlandingham in 1985 to win a Grade 1 Turf and Dirt race in the same year.
Next up for Lava Man was an attempt to repeat in the Hollywood Gold Cup on July 8. Only California-bred Hall of Famer Native Diver had ever repeated in the Gold Cup, in 1965–1967. Lava Man raced out of a detention barn because O'Neil had been penalized after another horse had an excess of total carbon dioxide in a post race drug test in May. Lava Man stumbled badly at the start of the race and settled farther off the pace than he generally preferred. Nevertheless, he took the lead in mid-stretch and won by a short nose over longshot Ace Blue, who was carrying 10 pounds fewer than Lava Man. Lava Man had now won the Gold Cup by both the biggest (in 2005) and smallest (in 2006) margins in the race history.
Lava Man became the first horse since Triple Crown Winner Affirmed in 1979 to win the Santa Anita Handicap and Hollywood Gold Cup in the same year. He also became the first horse to win the Whittingham and the Gold Cup in the same year since Exceller in 1978. Lava Man earned his third straight Beyer Speed Figure of 108 in the race. Daily Racing Form columnist Dick Jerardi wrote, "[N]early 27 months after his first visit to Hollywood Park Racetrack [finishing last at 57-1 in the Snow Chief Stakes], Lava Man was 3-5 in the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup. This is about as close to Seabiscuit as this sport has seen since Seabiscuit."
On August 20, Lava Man won the Grade 1 Pacific Classic Stakes over a strong field of equal-weighted thoroughbreds including Giacomo, Perfect Drift, Good Reward, Super Frolic, and Magnum. By virtue of this win, he became the first horse ever to take the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap, the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup, and the Grade 1 Pacific Classic Stakes in the same calendar year. The feat has since been matched by Game On Dude in 2013 and Accelerate in 2018. "It's incredible when you think about all the great horsemen and great horses that have run in this state", said O'Neil. In October, Lava Man won his seventh straight race, the $500,000 Goodwood Breeders' Cup Handicap, while carrying 126 lbs., 10 more lbs. than runner-up Brother Derek.
He was touted by many racing observers as a possible 2006 Horse of the Year candidate if he could beat favored Bernardini outside California in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs in Kentucky on November 4. However, he was never a factor in the Classic, finishing seventh after a troubled trip, well behind Bernardini and the winner, Invasor, who came from Argentina by way of Uruguay and Dubai. "I'm a little disappointed with the result, but I'm proud of how he ran and how he tried," said O'Neill.
Despite his Breeders' Cup Classic loss, Lava Man's likeness was inserted into a snowglobe given to paid admissions at Hollywood Park Racetrack in December 2006.
With seven wins (four of them Grade I) in eight starts, Lava Man was named the 2006 California-bred Horse of the Year, Champion older horse and Champion turf horse. He earned a 127 rating in the 2006 World Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings.
2007 Lava Man's first start of 2007 was the $500,000 Sunshine Millions Turf at Santa Anita Park on January 27. Racing wide most of the way, he pulled away in the stretch to win by two lengths. On March 3, Lava Man earned back-to-back victories in the Santa Anita Handicap, a feat previously only accomplished by John Henry and Milwaukee Brew. In this race, he carried the topweight of 124 pounds and beat Molengao, Boboman, and 2007 Sunshine Millions Classic winner McCann's Mojave in front of 43,024 fans. He became the only horse to win two Santa Anita Handicaps and two Hollywood Gold Cups. "These are the moments we all live and work for," said O'Neill. "He's truly a champion."