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Pacific Classic Field at Del Mar Features Lava Man, The King of California Tracks
By GREG MELIKOV
Lava Man has gone where no horse has gone before on the Left Coast. Last year he became the first thoroughbred to win the Golden State’s Big 3 stakes in the same year.
This year the son of Slew City Slew is attempting to record his own version of Can You Top This – the popular radio show (1940-54) where three funny men attempted to top jokes offered on a variety of subjects from the studio audience.
Lava Man hasn’t tasted defeat on any main track in California since finishing third behind Borrego and Perfect Drift in the ‘05 Pacific Classic at Del Mar Race Course. Since then he has reeled off nine straight victories.
This year he’s trying to duplicate last year’s triumphs in the Santa Anita Handicap, the Hollywood Gold Cup and the Pacific Classic, all at 1 ¼ miles. It’s now two down and the Pacific Classic to go.
The 6-year-old defeated Molengao by three-quarters of a length in the Santa Anita Handicap on regular dirt March 3 and nosed out A. P. Xcellent in the Hollywood Gold Cup on its new synthetic surface June 30.
The 17th Pacific Classic will be run on a synthetic surface for the first time, but its Polytrack, a bit different than Hollywood’s Cushion Track. Both are all-weather surfaces.
Polytrack has the texture of natural dirt, but is lighter in color. It has a high stock absorption rate and low elasticity repulsion rate. It’s a mixture of sand, synthetic fibers and recycled rubber with a microcrystalline wax combined on-site.
The Cushion Track is composed of silica sand mixed with synthetic fibers, elastic fiber and granulated rubber – all coated with a specially formulated blend of wax.
Santa Anita is installing a Cushion Track that should be ready about weeks before the Oak Tree meeting opens Sept. 26.
On Aug. 11, Lava Man worked six furlongs in 1:14 4/5 shortly before the first race at Del Mar.
“I loved it,” trainer Doug O’Neill told Brisnet.com. “He did it nice and easy, which was the idea. And he finished up strong and galloped out strong. It was a typical work for him. I’d call it impressive.”
The seven-time Grade 1 winner will face a large field, maybe as many as a dozen challengers in the meeting’s richest race — $1 million. But it won’t be a slam-dunk.
Top contenders include the four that finished behind him in the Hollywood Gold Cup — A. P. Excellent, Big Booster, Porido and Molengao. Lava Man also will face the top three finishers in Del Mar’s San Diego Handicap — Sun Boat, Salty Humor and Arson Squad.
Other formidable challengers are 3-year-olds Tiago and Albertis Maximus, one-two in Hollywood’s Swaps Breeders’ Cup, and promising sophomore Time Squared, runner-up in Arlington Park’s Round Table Stakes.
Greg Melikov has been handicapping and writing about horses for decades. His articles and columns appear in print and on the Internet around the world. Greg is a retired newspaperman who became a racing fan at 13 when he saw 1948 Triple Crown winner Citation, his favorite horse, whip 20 older horses at old Arlington Park.
Greg Melikov has been handicapping and writing about horses for decades. His articles and columns appear in print and on the Internet around the world. Greg is a retired newspaperman who became a racing fan at 13 when he saw 1948 Triple Crown winner Citation, his favorite horse, whip 20 older horses at old Arlington Park.
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