Lava Man

Inca Stables · Post by **Inca Stables** » 17 years ago

Lava Man was defeated in the Pacific Classic by Student Council

Miryam

Anna Leroux · Post by **Anna Leroux** » 17 years ago

He didn't look like he was running his best today, but I don't know him personally so I can't say for sure.

Alysse Peverell · Post by **Alysse Peverell** » 17 years ago

Looked like he was just straight up beat today. Didn't see any excuses for him. He was clear on the turn and was right up there with every chance to go.

John Bricking · Post by **John Bricking** » 17 years ago

I think a big part was the synthetic track. Thats my excuse for him

Patten Fuqua · Post by **Patten Fuqua** » 17 years ago

He'll bounce back...this hasn't been his best year...(which...with 2 GI's under his belt...is kinda scary)

Jolene Danner · Post by **Jolene Danner** » 17 years ago

Rock' N Fire lost too... In the last jump to his Arch rival Trickyville Dew... BAH! Rock pulls himself up in the last 1/16th w/o anyone to run at. He's so goofy. I LURVE him tons still, but it's SO dissapointing. The Only horse to come from off the pace all day and he has to win in MY race! Big Meanie, I hate Trickyville Dew for being good...

Palm Reader however won the 11th race so I did get a trip to the winner's circle today. Bubba's is very cute and fun and I helped with him the morning before he won his first start. Now's he won the Minnesota Derby and 2 other races.

Ali Weasley · Post by **Ali Weasley** » 17 years ago

I'm not particularly keen on Nakatani's ride. It wasn't bad, per say, but I wish he would have just settled on the rail instead of taking him back, going wide, and sending him up. I'm not sure he would have won it, but he may have had a little left in the tank instead of coming up empty like he did.

Juli Stettler · Post by **Juli Stettler** » 17 years ago

I figured Lava Man wouldn't be a big fan of the polytack considering what a big strapping guy he is, polytrack isn't going to let him skip over the track like conventional dirt tracks would.

John Shirreffs scratched Tiago for this very reason, his colt didn't like the track so he is sending him back to Saratoga to wait for another race.

With that said they really should consider sending Lava Man over here for the BC, Monmouth is a nice hard dirt track, very similar to what they have in Cali. He should like it.

Post by **The Steward** » 17 years ago

I became very concerned when Lava Man did not gallop the day before the race. He simply jogged a mile, and that's not something I want to see for a horse who usually happily bounds for 2 miles the day before a race.

Rebecca Rose Hepburn · Post by **Rebecca Rose Hepburn** » 17 years ago

I think he had several legit reasons for the bad performance. Polytrack was a new surface to him, prehaps he didn't like it. He had issues with an absess just before the race, that could have been a factor. Ian suggested today that he could be affected by Noe's absense, and he's an intelligent enough horse that I can see that being a factor. All in all, i'm not ready to say that he threw this clunker for no apparent reason.

Alysse Peverell · Post by **Alysse Peverell** » 17 years ago

Juli Stettler wrote: I figured Lava Man wouldn't be a big fan of the polytack considering what a big strapping guy he is, polytrack isn't going to let him skip over the track like conventional dirt tracks would.

John Shirreffs scratched Tiago for this very reason, his colt didn't like the track so he is sending him back to Saratoga to wait for another race.

With that said they really should consider sending Lava Man over here for the BC, Monmouth is a nice hard dirt track, very similar to what they have in Cali. He should like it.

Yeah, because Lava Man always fares SO well when he leaves California. However, I do want him to go to the BC simply so I can say "told you so" again.

Juli Stettler · Post by **Juli Stettler** » 17 years ago

Yeah, because Lava Man always fares SO well when he leaves California. However, I do want him to go to the BC simply so I can say "told you so" again.

Well, you never know. According to a lot of people Monmouth's surface is a lot like those over in California. And really for a horse that has only raced 5 times out of state and not done well isn't much. If they took him somewhere and ran him over the track long enough he would acclimate. He's just not one of those horses that you can ship a day out of the race, even a week out.

What I would really like to see is how he would fare over a different turf surface other than California's since turf is all pretty much the same any way you look at it.

Even if he does bomb again it's not like his value is going to go down and no one is going to love him any less.

--

BTW Alysse, I love your photos on final turn, especially considering I love seeing pics of any of the guys I've worked with.

Ian Nicastrin · Post by **Ian Nicastrin** » 17 years ago

I think he better work on winning the Goodwood if he wants to go... and I hope he does, and thinks he should... at some point he needs to break his little curse so the east coasters stop thinking of him as a joke. I think Del Mar really needed Lava to win the Pac Classic to legitimize the polycrap... I do hope they blend some more dirt in over the winter... but they won't.