Return To The Track and Retirement I and Retirement II
Lava Man was again examined at the Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center before returning to Hollywood Park on January 26, 2008. Groom Noe Garcia also returned to the track to resume his duties. Garcia had taken a 6 month break to recuperate from the car accident in which he almost lost his life to a drunk driver. O'Neill ran Lava Man at the April 27, 2008, Khaled Stakes, where he finished a non-threatening third, after previously winning the race in track record time in 2006. Lava Man went on to run competitively in the $300,000 Charles Whittingham Handicap at Hollywood Park on June 7, 2008, placing third, a neck behind the winner. O'Neill deemed the three week timetable between the Whittingham and the Hollywood Gold Cup to be too short of a rest for Lava Man to make an attempt to win the race for the fourth consecutive time. The horse then started in the Grade I Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar Racetrack on July 20, 2008, finishing a sixth. Subsequent x-rays, performed at the Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center, revealed that the gelding's front ankles showed marked changes from x-rays taken earlier in the year. Based on the veterinarian's assessment and the gelding's performance in the Eddie Read, Lava Man was retired on July 30, 2008, after having made 46 starts.
On September 23, 2009, after Lava Man ran an official 3 furlong workout in 36 seconds flat at Hollywood Park (tied for the fastest time of the 24 horses that ran at that distance), O'Neill announced that the gelding was back in training and preparing for a comeback only if he could compete at a Grade 1 level. Lava Man's only comeback start was in the San Gabriel Handicap (Gr. IIT) at Santa Anita Park on December 27, 2009, where he finished last. It was announced on January 5, 2010, that Lava Man was retired for good. In May 2010, O'Neill said that the horse was his stable pony and that he had become accustomed to his new role. On May 5, 2012, Lava Man served as lead pony for three-year-old colt I'll Have Another in the post parade for the Kentucky Derby, a race which I'll Have Another subsequently won. Lava Man led I'll Have Another to the post again at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on May 19, 2012 for the Preakness Stakes. I'll Have Another won the Preakness and put himself in position to contend for the Triple Crown in the Belmont Stakes three weeks later, but suffered a serious (though not life-threatening) injury days before the race and was scratched from the race and retired to stud.
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