Lava Man Is Back on Familiar Turf

Nearing the halfway point of 2006, there are two leading candidates for horse of the year.

One is Barbaro.

The 3-year-old Dyanformer colt won all six of his starts, including a tour de force in the Kentucky Derby, before having his career cut short because of a serious injury suffered in the opening yards of the Preakness.

The other is Lava Man.

In his first three races of the year, the 5-year-old Slew City Slew gelding and former claimer has won two $1-million races and set a course record for 1 1/8 miles at Hollywood Park when reintroduced to the turf in the Khaled Stakes on April 30.

The California-bred, owned by Steve, Tracy and Dave Kenly’s STD Racing Stable and Jason Wood, and trained by Doug O’Neill, is back on the Inglewood grass today in the $300,000 Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap.

A disappointment in his final two starts of 2005, Lava Man rebounded in a big way, winning the Sunshine Millions Classic and Santa Anita Handicap in succession before his 1:44.26 smasher against fellow California-breds in the Khaled, one of the races on Hollywood Park’s annual Gold Rush Day card.

The Whittingham, a Grade I at 1 1/4 miles, is serving as Lava Man’s steppingstone to a defense of his title in the $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup on July 8.

He won the track’s signature race by 8 3/4 lengths last summer.

If he is going to win for the 11th time in 31 starts, he will have to beat a field that includes T.H. Approval, the San Juan Capistrano winner; King’s Drama, a multiple stakes winner; and Sweet Return, the defending Whittingham champion.

“He’s doing awesome, really, really well,” O’Neill said of Lava Man. “We’re very excited. He’s facing much steeper company than he did the last time he ran on the grass, but we’re pretty confident he will run equally as well. We were pretty shocked, the way he ran in the Khaled. It was so powerful, the way he did it. The course is so tight, we had a pretty good idea he would like it and we wouldn’t be running in the Whittingham if he hadn’t turned in that kind of performance.”

O’Neill was also thrilled with the debut of Cobalt Blue, a 2-year-old son of Golden Missile who won on Thursday.

The chestnut, bought earlier this year for $325,000 by Merv Griffin, brings to mind Stevie Wonderboy, who won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile for Griffin and O’Neill last year before being knocked off the Triple Crown trail in February because of an injury.

“It’s unbelievable, the similarities between Cobalt Blue and Stevie,” O’Neill said. “They both have a long stride and both act very professional. To give them a few lengths’ head start going five-eighths of a mile after breaking from the nine hole and being able to mow them down the way this colt did on Thursday is as exciting as it gets.”