They're aiming a bit high lol. I'm not against him being back but....asking an 8 year old for the "highest level or nothing" is a bit much.

Lava Man would be lucky to be competitive in G3s at this stage of his career

Next years Cal Cup Classic would be an honorable goal

older horses than him have taken down graded stakes. it's rare since most horses retire far sooner. but eight isn't exactly over the hill.

I think they just want to take on Zenyatta.

???

For those unconcerned about the situation as presented by STD Racing, Wood and O'Neill, recall this: Itty Bitty Pretty

There has to be a race at Turf Paradise he can win.

I mean, he is after all a mediocre to poor synthetic horse who couldn't travel.

NT

While I too think Stem Cell treatment is awesome it is still a frightening thought to run this horse, one of my best friends had stem cell therapy on her reining horse at Alamo Pintado 2 years ago, he had 4 bad suspensories and could hardly walk, today he is serviceably sound.... for a trail horse, and his ankles never looked near as bad as Lava Mans have, and he is a 4 year old.

From this article, it looks like Itty Bitty Pretty (owned by STD/Wood and trained by O'Neill) was laid up from May 2006 - May 2007, when she suffered an injury during a (comeback) workout at HOL and had to be euthanized.

Does anyone know why she was laid up -- was it due to injuries or? Any similarity to Lava Man's lay up, besides the length of time?

http://www.drf.com/news/article/85104.html

Think it was a fracture, and the connections said they were going to retire and breed her...

Then she turned up on the worktab...

Then she turned up dead.

Come on Steve. This is bad. This is as bad as Shirreffs referencing Eight Belles in defensing his not running Zenyatta against the boys.

The EXACT SAME SET OF CONNECTIONS had an injured stakes-winning filly who they said they were retiring. That proved to be a lie. In other words, there is a previously established behavior pattern at work here. In this case, they lied to Michael Blowen at Old Friends, and the public, repeatedly about when they were sending the retired Lava Man to Kentucky.

The fact that Itty Bitty Pretty was put down on the racetrack after breaking down catastrophically after being brought back is incidental to the behavior pattern.

Let it go Steve..Lava Man is a gelding he hasn't done enough and there is no reason to believe that O'Neil, who is NOT doing this for money, would F with Lava Man. I hope the SOB runs his AeSS off. Go Lava Man

Thata boy Byk, call them OUT!!

I agree O'Neill wouldn't intentionally endanger Lava Man. But I also thought that about his handling of Itty Bitty Pretty. And then she was dead on the racetrack... O'Neill, who already has a checkered resume, is opening himself up for a ton of criticism by agreeing to train him back. That's his decision and I believe it reflects poorly on him. But this set of connections has lied to the public once and shown poor judgment in a similar scenario. That is established and irrefutable. And the racing-interested public should be reminded of it broadly.

I just hope he does not get hurt. He is one of my all time favorite horse.

Carlsbad started at Turf Paradise, not a bad filly.

Itty Bitty Pretty fractured a splint bone coming out of the Oaks (not an uncommon young horse injury) and the bad injury after coming back from the fractured splint removal layoff was a tibia. Those are not connected.

Lying to Old Friends about getting Lava Man, or not keeping Old Friends informed when the connections changed their mind about retirement, is pretty low, indeed, if that happened.

But I don't care if some owner-trainer combo initially says a horse is being retired right after an injury, but then is brought back after the injury is reassessed, healed, and goes through rehab. I wish more horses would be rehabbed and brought back to racing whenever possible for them.

I think predicting disaster for Lava Man because some other horse somewhere had a different injury and didn't come back 100% doesn't make any sense; and predicting disaster for Lava Man because a previous horse owned by the connections had a career ending injury doesn't make sense, either.

I'm glad to see Lava Man back, and I hope he does well and we get to see him run.

I agree. Making that connection between the two cases in that way insinuates that Lava Man will suffer the same fate. That's as ridiculous to me as Shirreffs bringing up Eight Belles and insinuating that Zenyatta can break down if she faces boys simply because Eight Belles did.

I don't know Steve, someone comes to you tells you they want to make your horse feel better. You spend a ton of money getting him to feel better with some new treatment and you see the horse improve 500%. It's not so unbelieveable that the horse loves to race and train. He is a racehorse he always seems to run hard willingly on the track right. So you start him back doing what the horse enjoys you see him thrive. What's the biggie giving him a shot to be what he was? Clearly the horse isn't going into claimers so in all candor what is the big figgin deal if Brett Farve doesn't want to retire yet? I would venture to say that horse is way better off mentally being in training then just getting old in some paddock.

As for if this will somehow excelerate is demise or death. Come on, nobody is looking to kill Lava Man and working 4 f's and breaking a leg is a likely as tripping in the paddock after a truck blows his diesel horn andf spooks him.
Who wouldn't be thrilled to see him race well again? You don't think the horse would rather be running his heart out instead of growing fat and old in some field?

I also don't believe for a minute that this is just about the horse..There isn't any doubt the owners would like to earn from the horse regaining his form but I don't have issue with that either. Wouldn't it be a win,win,win scenario if he would be the old Lava Man...Public, Owners, Horse?

It doesn't insinuate Lava Man is a fatality candidate. It doesn't insinuate anything. It relates that the same set of connections have proven to be liars and shown to posses poor judgment when making a prior similar decision.

And as an aside, Riot failed to mention that after injuries in one place, horses regularly favor or overcompensate which can produce stress and injury elsewhere.