Lava Man's short-lived comeback

So the great Lava Man's un-retirement becomes a re-retirement after only one race.

The 9-year-old gelding who is the only horse ever to win Grade 1 races on all three surfaces (dirt, turf, synthetic) and became the richest ex-claimer in history with $5,268,706 in earnings finished last of seven recently in the San Gabriel H.-G2. I detailed how the race wasn't a "bad" last in an ambitious spot (9 furlongs on turf in graded company), and how a horse coming off a 17-month layoff surely needed a race or two before being expected to show his best.

Lava Man won't get that second race off the layoff. Nor the third, which many handicappers often figure to be the point a comeback cycle when the horse is finally ready to give his best effort.

I won't criticize the connections -- co-owners Steve, Dave and Tracy Kenly and Jason Wood, and trainer Doug O'Neill -- for the basic decision of finally turning the old warrior out for good. Lava Man has earned every penny of his retirement costs and care several times over.

What I do wonder is, having attempted only one race -- and a strenuous one that Lava Man led, in which he finished beaten only six lengths, and from which he reportedly came out of in perfect health -- what was ever the point in bringing him back?

I still refuse to believe, as some critics have suggested, that greed was the reason. I think it really was about giving the horse a chance to do what he was bred to do, and what he for so long obviously loved doing -- running at top speed; racing to win.

So while retiring a 9-year-old can't be considered a bad or rash or indefensible decision, I do question the thought process of the connections from the outset of Lava Man's comeback, particularly their resolve to fully pursue the comeback in the face of what should have been a very predictable outcry among some (many?) fans that the horse shouldn't be racing anymore.

"He came out of the race sound and he is a strong and sturdy horse, but we don't want to tarnish his reputation," Kenly told The Blood-Horse. "We always said we would only run him if he could compete at the highest level, and I don't think that is in the cards anymore. It was his first race in a year and a half and I'm sure he would improve in his next race, but I think he has lost a step. It was disappointing for all of us because he was training unbelievably.

"If it was any other horse he'd be back running in a couple of weeks. To us, this wasn't a risk from a health standpoint even though we took a lot of criticism. There was no fear in racing him. He is 100 percent healthy. But I just don't think he can compete at the level we want him to anymore. In the end it's always been about the horse and not the money."

You know, I have a hard time believing that horses can read their press clippings. I suspect that Lava Man's "reputation" isn't much of a concern to Lava Man -- except, perhaps, as he walks by other stalls around the barn and sees either fear in the eyes of his potential opponents, or a lack thereof.

Worry about "tarnishing" the horse's reputation is entirely a human concern. And certainly it isn't only Lava Man's reputation the connections are considering. Surely nobody, me included, would enjoy being raked over the coals by the fans every time the horse raced in the future, both pre-race and even worse after the finish anytime Lava Man (again) didn't win.

But what, really, about Lava Man's situation has changed in the days since the San Gabriel?

Kenly says the horse is "sound ... strong (and) sturdy." The connections thought he was "training unbelievably" and Kenly is "sure he would improve in his next race." No particular health concerns have cropped up, and, Kenly said, there is "no fear in racing him. He's 100 percent healthy."

Granted, the connections didn't like what they saw at the finish.

"He may have needed a race, but the fact that he was going so slow at the end and was still trying his eyeballs out told us all we needed to know," said Kenly.

(The Blood-Horse reported that Lava Man finished under wraps when jockey Tyler Baze realized the horse would come home out of the money. And Lava Man was finishing "so slow" in a race won by Proudinsky in 1:46.91, which by my count might make it the fifth-fastest San Gabriel Handicap in the race's lengthy history. ... Baze said Lava Man ran "like a new horse.")

To me, the connections' decision to bring back Lava Man at all looks worse (by their own doing) in a one-race comeback than if they had given him two or three races to see what he had left in him. At least give him a crack at restricted company -- Cal-breds and Florida-breds -- for a $500,000 purse in the Sunshine Millions Classic at Santa Anita on Jan. 30.

Stem-cell treatments on his ankles reportedly improved the horse's condition and soundness considerably. He was training well and by all accounts looked great. Frankly, 9 furlongs among graded turf horses was too much to ask of him in his first race back, but Lava Man didn't embarrass himself and he didn't quit. He should improve his next out and it wouldn't take much improvement to move up onto the board in graded company considering he was beaten only six lengths off a 17-month layoff.

Now Lava Man doesn't get that chance.

Retiring Lava Man is fine with me. And if it wasn't, so what? He ain't my horse.

But shutting down the Lava Man comeback after one race -- a tough one in which he couldn't honestly have been expected to run all that much better than he did -- isn't just frustrating and disappointing for the connections, but for the horse's fans, as well.

And to me it's more questionable from a horse-management standpoint than if they'd just sent him to Old Friends months ago as originally planned.

Age, layoffs and Lava Man

It was a predictable outcome -- not the loss by Lava Man in his return to racing a year and a half after we last saw him compete, but the outcry among fans when the horse finished last.

The richest ex-claimer in history -- and one of my favorite horses of all-time -- Lava Man set the pace Sunday in the San Gabriel H.-G2 at Santa Anita, but faded in the stretch and finished last of seven. And fans everywhere from Thoroughbredchampions.com to Facebook are calling for the Slew City Slew gelding to be returned to retirement.

To be sure, it was disappointing to see the former Grade 1 champion overtaken in the stretch of the 9-furlong turf event. Among the downcast were trainer Doug O'Neill and co-owner Jason Wood (along with STD Racing), who indeed are reconsidering whether to keep racing the gelding (soon to be age 9) after groundbreaking stem cell therapy seemed to rejuvenate his ankles.

But let's face facts: The San Gabriel was no small test.

Lava Man had not competed since July 20, 2008, at Del Mar. Simply from a handicapping standpoint, if ever there was a horse who "needed the race," it was Lava Man on Sunday in the San Gabriel.

The race wasn't won by some donkey; it went to Proudinsky, defending champion of the Grade 2 event, who nipped post-time favorite Loup Breton (3/2) by a neck on the wire. And Lava Man was no well-beaten favorite; he went off as the fourth choice of seven (at around 7/1) and despite running out of gas in the closing stages of his first race in more than 17 months, he still finished only some six lengths in arrears.

Wood wonders whether the 9 furlongs might have been too ambitious, and I would say that it was. But both he and O'Neill believe the horse was training so well that he could handle the race. The Blood-Horse reports that Lava Man looked "superb" and "on the muscle" for his comeback. And rider Tyler Baze didn't sound disappointed in the old man's effort at all.

"He just got a little tired," Baze told HRTV. "He feels like a different horse to me, like a new horse. I expect him to run big next time."

That the horse returned with blood on his hind legs -- likely from striking the gate at the start, O'Neill speculates -- indeed fuels fears that something catastrophic could happen to him. And that would be a sad event; a tough way to go out for such a gritty competitor. Yet that's the same risk facing every racehorse, every day, from 2-year-olds to the ancient warriors.

And speaking of which -- ancient warriors, that is -- did anybody who is decrying Lava Man's comeback pay any attention to Calder Race Course on Saturday? There, running on grass in the 12-furlong W.L. McKnight H.-G2, Cloudy's Knight scored a 1 1/4-length victory, capping a 9-year-old season in which he won four of five starts, earned $426,759 and suffered his only defeat by a desperate nose to Man of Iron in the Breeders' Cup Marathon.

"He's taken us from race to race," said trainer Jonathan Sheppard of his charge, Cloudy's Knight. "That will be it for him for awhile as we've already decided to skip Gulfstream.

"You can't dance all the dances, although he wasn't even blowing when he came back today. We hope to bring him back by the spring or summer."

Bring him back at age 10, that is.

Turning 9 on Friday and with a 17-month layoff from which to recover, Lava Man, too, can't be expected to "dance all the dances." And sometimes it's going to be obvious that he's lost a step.

But it isn't even giving the old fella a chance to call for retirement because he didn't hit the board in his first race in forever.

I suspect Lava Man will remain in training, at least so O'Neill, Wood and the other owners can evaluate whether he can improve from his effort in the San Gabriel.

I think there's every reason to believe that he can. And if all Lava Man manages at age 9 is to be "another Cloudy's Knight," I'd say that would be plenty.

Lava Man: Doing what's right by the horse

When I decided to get into the racehorse business, even on a limited scale, I was immediately faced with a values-judgment.

If presented a tough decision -- one where my personal goal of breeding and owning winners or selfish interest of saving or making money was potentially at odds with what was best for the horse -- would I do right by me, or right by the horse?

I chose the latter. And regardless what decisions I might make for my breeding stock, foals or racehorses in the future, and whether those moves work out brilliantly or tragically, I vow that a bad ending will never have been the result of my putting the horse's best interests second.

A lot has been said and written -- by people with a clue and probably a few people without -- in the wake of confirmation this week that the greatest ex-claimer of all-time, Lava Man, is back in the Hollywood Park barn of trainer Doug O'Neill, and working toward a potential comeback at the races.

These comments on a TVG Network message board are typical of those flying around the Internet:

"One would think that earning over $5 million would guarantee a happy retirement. I guess I'm wrong. It smells of greed to me."

"If Lava Man came back on the cheap, it would be the worst racing story I've heard in a long time. Can you imagine the uproar over a horse that earned millions of dollars for his owners coming back so he can be 'rescued' by a group of really well-intended individuals so the current owners can cut their losses on this hard-knocking gelding?"

Or over at Pedigreequery.com:

"I guess $5 million isn't enough."

"What a shame. What about the horse's welfare?"

"Highlighting the industry's greed and an owner's seeming lack of concern for a horse that brought him millions of dollars -- fan favorite at that."

O.K., not everybody's against the comeback. Some people are at least hopeful that the horse can compete and will stay safe.

And one person cracked a good joke: "I heard they tried to change his name to Favre."

But what about those critics? The ones who allege greed and hard-heartedness without knowing much or anything about either the horse or the men around him?

If I were Doug O'Neill or among the ownership group of STD Racing and Jason Wood, it would take every ounce of restraint I could muster not to inform them all of the departure time for the next bus to hell.

O'Neill has been far more diplomatic.

He has tried to address the allegations of greed by saying that, if and when Lava Man runs, all the trainer's earnings will be donated to the California Retirement Management Account, which helps rehabilitate, retrain and "rehome" ex-racers.

But aside from that pledge, ask yourself what O'Neill stands to gain by racing Lava Man against what he stands to lose -- which is every ounce of goodwill among the racing fan base that his long and successful career, particularly his handling of such a popular horse, has ever earned him.

What cash value would you place on being known as a heartless bastard for the rest of your life?

So maybe Lava Man's comeback doesn't have jack squat to do with whatever money the horse can earn by racing.

Maybe it has everything to do with what's right by the horse.

Many human athletes have a terrible time letting go at the end of their careers; hence the "Favre" reference. Some of them are washed up, but still won't "hang 'em up," and the only thing that spares them further embarrassment is the fact that nobody will sign them to a contract anymore. And some of them are 39 years old and 2-0 anyway after a pair of season-opening road wins, with three TD passes and no interceptions.

Anyone who has been around racehorses, or who knows anyone who's really been around racehorses, knows that some of these old campaigners are the same way. Ever since they were sent off to be broken, breezed and gate-trained, their life revolved around the daily routine of racing. Take that away from an 8-year-old gelding who has known no other life since he was a long yearling and, for some of them, it's like you've robbed them of the very air they breathe.

Lava Man was initially retired not because he became disinterested in trying, but because his ankles were showing signs of trouble.

"I'm happy that he didn't get hurt, just aches and pains of old age," said one of his owners, Steve Kenly, at the time. "I think we did the right thing of looking at all the options and making sure this was the right thing to do."

So do you really think that these men just up and changed their minds? Or is it more likely that Lava Man changed their minds?

Since finishing sixth in July 2008 in the Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar, Lava Man underwent surgery to remove bone chips from his ankles at Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center in Los Olivos, Calif. He has been stabled at nearby Magali Farms in Santa Ynez, to facilitate his rehabilitation. And veterinarians say Lava Man has benefited from pioneering stem cell treatments that drew thriving cells from the horse's own sternum and injected them into his ankles.

O'Neill says Lava Man seems to have "the ankles of a 3-year-old" again.

"The doctor said that he is and will be the strongest horse in my barn," O'Neill said. "I couldn't put into words how good he looks and how happy he seems to be back in training."

Why can't we be satisfied with those nine words as an explanation for Lava Man's comeback? "How happy he seems to be back in training."

Though Lava Man fired a 36-second bullet drill, best of 24 at the 3-furlong distance, in his return to O'Neill's work tab, he truly might never race. O'Neill has said he's "a little nervous" because he is "very conscious of my responsibility ... as (Lava Man's) caretaker." And the trainer said he only intends to run Lava Man against Grade 1 competition, if and when the horse proves himself ready.

"I'm going to make sure we do right by the horse, first and foremost," O'Neill said.

That's a very high standard to set. And who knows, maybe Lava Man would just as soon race-on even if it isn't under the brightest spotlight. Perhaps he'd be content to follow in the hoofprints of a horse like Proven Cure, who was still winning and placing in modest overnight stakes races at tracks like Lone Star, Sam Houston and Remington Park when he was 11 and 12 years old. A horse doesn't continue to try like that unless he just flat-out loves the game.

I'm confident, especially after reading his comments, that O'Neill is looking for any little sign that Lava Man can't do the job, and will stop him short rather than push him too far. And if Lava Man decides he doesn't want to race anymore, he'll tell O'Neill, in no uncertain terms.

But if the horse wants to race, let him race.

Yes, bad things happen in this game even to very good horses in very good condition. And, yes, it will be a crying shame if Lava Man, un-retired, suffers a catastrophic breakdown, be it in a work or in a race.

But if he had lived every day of his life back at the track just as happy as a pig in slop, would Doug O'Neill, STD Racing and Jason Wood really have done wrong by the horse?