LM and Preachin' in the Classic
 

Did anyone else notice this during the early stages of the race? It seemed that the Lava Man on the inside of PATB had his head co cked to the right and was eyeballing his rival. I thought he might savage him at one point. Maybe the LM was telling PATB "Don't f with me."

According to his connections, he doesn't like being inside horses...Cory put him there for a specific reason but I suspect Lava Man wasn't happy! The fact that it didn't effect his race is very good news for them...he is very professional!

but if he would turned his head to the right and saw one of those "east coast monsters"....... :D

More like if he'd gone six furlongs without Bute and the aches and pains started up just like the three other races he's ran without it and folded up after six furlongs.

The Bute regulations are the same in KY, NY and CA. The horse can be given bute the day before the race, so it has little or no affect.

yep.. we all cheat in out here in California. Didn't ya know?

You can't use it on race day in NY or KY though. Next time you think you might get a headache try taking an aspirin the day before and see how much it helps you.

Thanks for a good response Somer...The rest of you can go to hell. We have a horse that runs his eyeballs out everytime and all a lot of you want to do is knock him. He is a gelding that has the opportunity to run in G1 million dollar races at home. What would you do? Go east to run in the 400K Suburban instead of the HGC?

funny isn't it that lava man can win at different tracks on different surfaces, yet he takes a hell of a lot more heat than silver train, who only wins at belmont!!

oh, but wait...belmont is in the east. i guess that makes ALL the difference.

I guess after he ran out of the detention barn last year and stopped like a wounded quail we all got pretty suspicious. Silver Train runs out of the detention barn Zieg and does quite well, care to comment on that? I think you are confusing two issues here.

For the Pacific Classic there is even more security than in New York. There is a guard stationed at every horse's stall beginning the day before the race. In New York, the horses are guarded for only about 6 hours. For the Pacific Classic, they are being guarded for practically 24 hours.

Richi, the receiving barn is a tough place for a horse to run out of for the first time, especially a horse who isn't a good shipper. I don't think O Neill would monkey around in a million dollar race at any track, like Dutrow hes received too much scrutiny.
But race day Bute is definitely something aids many horses. Cali has it, Ny doesnt. The analogy of taking aspirin the day before a headache instead of the day of was pretty clever.

In California, we can't give bute on race day. We have the same rule as New York.

Not to mention that bute doesn't exit the system as quickly as aspirin does.

He ran and won out of the detention barn at Hollywood Park in the Gold Cup, and unlike Flower Alley, when things don't go right he still wins, it's called heart.

i don't think i'm confusing anything at all.

by the same token, st liam shipped west and didn't do anything. is that suspicious? or is that the track? or the weather? but lava man, well now that's another story.....

and i think it reeks that lava man, atop the ntra poll btw, gets grief for last years bad races, while flower alley runs twice all year, and yet he gets a pass and no bad press. silver train, the defending bc sprint champ, won't be there to try to repeat, as everyone knows he only likes belmont. connections aren't even willing to try...legit complaints, yet nothing is said...meanwhile, a horse runs at races (6--who else in the top ten has so many starts??) up and down the west coast, and nothing but knocks--for LAST YEAR! no props for what's been accomplished this year, which is quite a bit, just bs about last years lows.

i have to admit, i'm as guilty as anyone about selling westies short. but this is ridiculous.

Then why the heck is there a big giant B for Bute next to the weight in every California race on his record? Why would they make that distinction if the rules were the same?

http://www.drf.com/row/pps/lavaman.pdf

It is hard to get past the fact that the three races he was beaten by the most lengths in his entire career were also the three races he didn't have Bute.

If people were talking about Silver Train for HOY then it would be very different. We expect our HOY to be able to run on a variety of tracks in a variety of jurisdictions. There are regularly divisional champs that only run at a few different tracks.

Can't blame the horse for not wanting to run on concrete. Lava Man can't ship out of CALIFORNIA, Saint Liam ran in FL, KY and NY and did splendid, I think there is a difference there.

Not to mention he only lost by 4 lengths in California, Lava Man has lost all three times he was out of California by at least 14.5 lengths each time.

Saint Liam also had some pretty decent races in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Iowa.