Flashback: Lava Man dominates on turf in 2006's Whittingham

When folks think back on the Hall of Fame career of Lava Man, they’re apt to remember his exploits on dirt -- his three consecutive wins in the Hollywood Gold Cup (G1), his back-to-back triumphs in the Santa Anita Handicap (G1), his resounding victory in the Pacific Classic (G1).

But versatility was Lava Man’s hallmark, and so long as he stayed within the borders of California, the speedy gelding was capable of performing at a high level over seemingly any distance or racing surface. Never was this more apparent than during the spring of 2006, when Lava Man — fresh off winning his first Santa Anita Handicap — transitioned to turf and dominated a pair of stakes races at Hollywood Park.

Though Lava Man’s first career win had come on grass, the son of Slew City Slew largely abandoned the lawn after being claimed for $50,000 by trainer Doug O’Neill during the summer of 2004. In his first start for his new connections, Lava Man romped by 6 1/4 lengths in the Derby Trial Stakes on dirt at Fairplex Park, earning his first triple-digit Beyer speed figure. From there, Lava Man pretty much stuck to dirt and steadily ascended the class ladder.

But in the spring of 2006, O’Neill was planning a schedule of races to prepare Lava Man for a defense of his Hollywood Gold Cup title, and a grass event at Hollywood Park — the 1 1/8-mile Khaled Stakes on Apr. 30 — seemed like the perfect spot to get started. Restricted to horses bred in California, the Khaled figured to draw a modest field, and O’Neill hoped the race would provide an easy opportunity for Lava Man to kick off the next stage of his campaign.

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“Sometimes you use a grass race as a prep or starting ground for a horse because the fractions are kinder early on the turf,” O’Neill remarked in The Los Angeles Times of Apr. 29, 2006. “They usually go slow early, then sprint home. On the dirt, you have to run hard all the way.”

The race didn’t unfold quite as O’Neill expected, but this made no difference to Lava Man. After pressing quick fractions of :23.24, :46.47, and 1:09.22, Lava Man kicked away with complete authority down the homestretch, sprinting the final three furlongs in :35.04 to win by 5 1/4 lengths. The timer revealed Lava Man had completed the race in a blazing 1:44.26, breaking the course record while missing the American record by just 0.34.

Clearly Lava Man had a greater affinity for grass than anyone realized, and his impressive display of dominance prompted O’Neill to rethink the gelding’s immediate plans. Originally, Lava Man had been slated to use the June 17 Californian Stakes (G2) on dirt as a prep for the Hollywood Gold Cup. But following Lava Man’s his tour-de-force performance in the Khaled, O’Neill shifted gears and took aim at a more prestigious prize, entering Lava Man in the June 10 Charles Whittingham Memorial (G1), running 1 1/4 miles on grass.

“We were pretty shocked, the way he ran in the Khaled,” O’Neill admitted in The Los Angeles Times of June 10. “It was so powerful, the way he did it. …  We wouldn’t be running in the Whittingham if he hadn’t turned in that kind of performance.”

And as Lava Man quickly demonstrated, his performance wasn’t a fluke. In contrast to the Khaled, the Whittingham was a walk in the park, with Lava Man receiving the perfect slow pace setup O’Neill had hoped the gelding would find on grass.

When the gates opened, Lava Man bounded to the front and met with no challenges for early supremacy. Thus, Lava Man seemingly shrugged his shoulders and accepted the gift bestowed to him, waltzing along through uncontested fractions of :24.85, :49.91, and 1:14.77.

A couple of rivals made gallant efforts to chase down Lava Man in the homestretch. King’s Drama made the first move and drew within a length at the quarter pole. Red Fort tried to get going late in the game, gaining ground slightly in the final furlong.

But realistically, they stood no chance of catching the flying front-runner. Lava Man had fried their finishing speed on the far turn, when he’d sprinted the fourth quarter-mile in a blazing :22.62, and he put the race to rest with another fast fraction down the lane. Far from exhausted — indeed, still full of run — Lava Man powered through the final quarter in :22.90 to cross the wire two lengths clear in 2:00.29.

Following the race, jockey Corey Nakatani praised Lava Man’s speed and versatility, noting in The Los Angeles Times of June 11 how “Lave Man has won on turf and dirt. He can do it all. … I think if somebody had tried to run with him early, they would have got beat.”

Nakatani’s opinion of Lava Man’s versatility would prove prophetic. By the time he retired, the eventual 2015 Hall of Fame inductee had won Grade 1 races on dirt, turf, and synthetic tracks, becoming the first horse to achieve this remarkable feat. For all his success on dirt, Lava Man was far from being a one-trick pony, as his rousing success in the Charles Whittingham Memorial demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt.

J. Keeler Johnson is a writer, videographer, handicapper, and all-around horse racing enthusiast. A great fan of racing history, he considers Dr. Fager to be the greatest racehorse ever produced in America, but counts Zenyatta as his all-time favorite. You can follow him on Twitter at @J_Keelerman.