The big one that got away

Lonnie Arterburn doesn’t like being known as the trainer who lost Lava Man.

“I’ve had a lot of successes. This one hurts bad,” he said.

When Arterburn risked Lava Man for $50,000 in a 2004 claiming race at Del Mar, the 3-year-old gelding had won only three of 12 races.

Now Lava Man is the highest-earning former claimer in history, with $3,804,706 going into the $5-million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday.

“He’s made millions, and the horse isn’t done running,” Arterburn said by phone from Ocala, Fla.

Arterburn liked Lava Man but couldn’t have foreseen that the gelding would become the first horse to sweep the Santa Anita Handicap, the Hollywood Gold Cup and the Pacific Classic in the same year, or that he would win seven consecutive races going into the Breeders’ Cup Classic, where he is the third choice at 6-1 on the morning line.

“No way. Nobody expected that. He wasn’t bred royally,” said Arterburn, a former Northern California trainer who was part owner and co-breeder of the son of Slew City Slew out of Li’l Ms. Leonard. “But he’s a sound horse, and he’s bred to get better with age.

“We liked the horse a lot. We were not trying to lose him. We wanted to get him back, but we didn’t.”

Trainer Doug O’Neill, who claimed Lava Man from Arterburn for owners Steve and Dave Kenly and their partner Jason Wood on Steve Kenly’s recommendation, later risked Lava Man for $100,000, then breathed a sigh of relief when he wasn’t taken by Arterburn or anyone else.

“Unfortunately, I’m not the sheik of anything,” said Arterburn, now trying to make a go of it with a small breeding operation in Florida. “That’s what I do. I buy and sell horses.”

It’s small solace to Arterburn that as co-breeder of Lava Man, along with Eve and Kim Kuhlmann, he has shared more than $340,000 earned under the California Thoroughbred Breeders Assn.’s breeder incentive program, which matches approximately 15% of the purse money for California-breds that finish in the top three of certain races.

A win, place or show Saturday could put another chunk of change in their pockets, but not as much as it might seem, because of a $165,000 cap on the purse amount considered for the match for races outside of California.

Arterburn isn’t sure he’ll even have his television on.

“It’s pretty painful to watch,” he said.

robyn.norwood@latimes.com