photo credit: Anne Eberhardt
A 7 year-old grandson of the immortal Seattle Slew (whoo-hoo!) - and son of the great Slew City Slew, Lava Man won mulitple grade 1 races over dirt, grass, and the new synthetic racetracks.
He was widely regarded as 'The King of California Racing' for quite a time, and in fact joined only Native Dancer in winning the Hollywood Gold Cup an amazing three times.
photo credit : Blood Horse
In the last year, Lava Man has pretty much made it evident that he is tired. A string of recent losses, coupled with a tell-tale Xray of his ankles helped to make the decision to retire him an obvious one.
His trainer, Doug O'Neill, hopes to convince Lava Man's owners to allow him to be a pony horse (in layman's terms, a pony horse is one that goes to the track - usually ridden by a trainer - and is there when current runners are on the track prior to a race).
Lava Man will also have the distinction of being the most lucrative claim in racing history. He was claimed (bought) for only $50,000 in 2004 and continued on to make over 5 million dollars profit by racing wins/purses. Not bad, eh?
He retires with $5, 268,706 in earnings and the love of a nation of horseracing fans.
Thanks for the memories!
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