$1,000,000 Sunshine Millions Classic
LAVA MAN

ARCADIA, Calif. (Jan. 28, 2006) – Former claimer Lava Man rebounded from his debacle in Japan with a 2 ¼-length victory in Saturday’s $1 million Sunshine Millions Classic at Santa Anita, capping the best California-bred showing in the four-year history of the $3.6 million Sunshine Millions event.

Lava Man is a 5-year-old gelding by Slew City Slew, out of the Nostalgia’s Star mare Li’l Ms. Leonard and was bred by Lonnie Arterburn, Eve Kuhlmann and Kim Kuhlmann. He was claimed two years ago for $50,000 by owners STD Racing Stable or Wood, was trained by Doug O’Neill and ridden by Corey Nakatani.

“We claimed him because he was a Cal-bred who had his conditions and we hoped for a good allowance-type of horse,” said co-owner Jason Wood. “He’s exceeded all expectations.”

The victory marked a return to Lava Man’s Grade I-winning form of the summer. A hoof problem led to an 11th place finish in the Nov. 26 Japan Cup. Lava Man has eight wins in 27 starts and the $550,000 first-place prize raised his earnings to $1,584,706.

“There’s so many downers in this business, for a race to unfold like that for a million bucks, it’s pretty incredible,” said O’Neill, who credited farrier Jim Jimenez for a shoe adjustment that helped return Lava Man to form. “He’s a blue-collar type of horse. The last three or four weeks he seems to be what he was before Del Mar.”

The connections agreed that Lava Man, who has not placed outside of California, would point for the Santa Anita Handicap and not travel to the Dubai World Cup.

“If it (the $6 million Dubai World Cup) was worth $38 million it wouldn’t be worth putting him on a plane and going that far,” said O’Neill.

Lava Man took the Hollywood Gold Cup with a 120 Beyer Speed Figure, but was vanned off after finishing third in the Aug. 21 Pacific Classic in his next race, then finished 45 lengths back in the Oct. 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park before shipping to Japan. He finished seventh in this race last year at Gulfstream Park.

Lava Man ran the 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.98 and went off the second choice at 5-2. Fellow Cal-bred Texcess, purchased at Barretts earlier in the week for $300,000, finished third and collected $120,000.

California-breds won five of the eight races Saturday.