My all time fav shot of Lava Man, winning his 3rd Hollywood Gold Cup (Charles Pravata)

The reports are in, my favorite horse currently racing is official retired. As it turns out he has some issues with his ankles so he won’t get the Funny Cide one last harrah race many of us were hoping for. It’s still unclear if he’ll be Doug O’Neill’s stable pony so keep your fingers crossed!

There weren’t as many of his races up at YouTube as I would have liked, in an ideal world I would post all three Hollywood Gold Cup’s and both Santa Anita Handicaps.

2005 Hollywood Gold Cup:

2006 Hollywood Gold Cup:

You’ll have to go to NTRA video archive to the 2007 Hollywood Gold Cup.

2007 Santa Anita Handicap:

Back to NTRA for the 2006 Santa Anita Handicap.

While not a race, here are his last minutes on the track as a race horse after the Eddie Read:

I’ve written about Lava Man frequently and you can see all of my posts here.

Congratulations to Lava Man’s connections for possibly the best claim ever and many thanks for keeping him around… he’ll be missed. Enjoy your retirement old man!