Lava Man... The Last Big California Horse

[SentToStud]

Enjoy him while you can. Notwithstanding whether or not he wins HOY, I figure this is the last horse of any consequence that California racing will produce.

Between a lack of horses overall, the inability to fill n1x races going 2-turns -- a basic staple of quality racing, a collective head-up-their a ss steward mindset, the soon-to-be demise of Hollywood Park and finally the move to running races on plastic in peraps the worlds most perfect climate all adds up to the end of Cali racing as we once knew it.

Within two years, California will be known as a nice place to develop young horses and that will be it. You are going to see (actually continue to see, as it is already happening) a mass exodus of quality 3 year olds early in their sophomore years as well as a continued thinning of the older divisions.

Enjoy Lava Man as he is the last California-based horse that will ever have a shot to be Horse of the Year.