tha lava man thread....

Originally Posted by Kasept

Lava Man is a notorious stallrunner.. When he leaves home, he'll pace and run the stall endlessly. It's just his make up. He's not comfortable in unfamiliar surroundings and frets at the upheaval. No way to cure that in the midst of a racing career, and no way to get one to perform his best if he has that composition.. The horse handlers here can better expand on this...

As it was told to me, he settled in pretty well at Keeneland from the minute he got there. And, truth be told, he's shipped all over the Southern California area (won at three different tracks) so he's conquered his stall running before. I've only stood outside his stall a half-dozen times or so and he was sleeping every time, once pretty soon after he shipped in to Santa Anita. So maybe the stallrunning is just who he is and not really a symptom of the whole shipping thing.

And the only person I truly trust in judging horseflesh who I know watched him a lot over his whole tenure with Doug O'Neill said he saw two completely different animals between the one training at Keeneland and the one who was at Churchill. He saw him the day he left for Louisville and again the following Thursday and said he thought to himself, "uh oh..."