[Riot]

Almost anyway you look at it this will be seen as greedy people trying to squeeze a few more pennies out of a cash cow.

Not by me. But if you feel that way, fine.

A snippet from the good article 'Zig posted:

Trainer Doug O'Neill has some advice for the bloggers and chat-room regulars who have been bashing the Lava Man camp for sending the 8-year-old gelding back into training this week in hopes of a possible comeback.
"I would have them e-mail or talk to the doctor himself and ask him, `OK doc, off the record, if it was different owners and a different trainer, would you advise them to put this horse back in training?' He would say 100 percent yes," O'Neill said.

"People are going to have their own view. I am getting e-mails, people saying I should be ashamed of myself. You just respect their views and hope you're doing the right thing because in your heart you know it's right."

The last time we saw Lava Man, one of the most popular horses in California racing history, he had finished sixth in the Eddie Read Handicap last summer at Del Mar and was retired because of nagging ankles and declining form.

He was scheduled to eventually wind up at the Old Friends retirement facility in Georgetown, Ky.

But enter Dr. Doug Herthel, founder of Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Hospital, a facility in Los Olivos that specializes in stem-cell therapy.

Lava Man was sent to Alamo Pintado for treatment on his ankles or, as co-owner Steve Kenly said, "The plan wasn't to bring him back, it was just to make him more sound in retirement."

But Lava Man responded so well to therapy that, according to Herthel, he looks like a brand new horse.

Herthel told O'Neill when the gelding returned to Hollywood Park, he'd be the soundest horse in the trainer's barn.

"I went up there about a month ago and watched him train (at Magali Farms in Santa Ynez) and saw it with my own two eyes," O'Neill said. "His ankles are tight and cold, he's training like a beast and he looked great.