When the best isn’t saved for last

DEL MAR -- Turns out, Lava Man was a great story who finished sixth.

In Sunday’s $1 million Pacific Classic, he was only seven lengths shy of needing to get ready for his close-up. A victory by the big, dark-brown horse from the barn of trainer Doug O’Neill would have marked the greatest triple-double in sports since Magic Johnson.

He had swept California’s own triple crown -- the Santa Anita Handicap at Santa Anita, the Hollywood Gold Cup at Hollywood Park and the Pacific Classic at Del Mar -- in 2006. And he had won the first two legs this year. One more Pacific Classic and they’d be booking him on Leno.

Even without recent events, Lava Man was a good story, one that had become fairly familiar.

He was claimed in 2004 by the STD Racing Stable of Steve, Tracy and Dave Kenly and Jason Wood and sent to O’Neill with the expectation of winning some $50,000 races. He won three times before he was claimed and has won 14 times since, including enough big races to make his lifetime earnings $5.2 million.

On June 7, his story took on legendary proportions when he won his third straight Hollywood Gold Cup, matching the mark of the revered horse, Native Diver, for whom they have a monument in the Hollywood Park paddock, where Native Diver is buried.

Like successful older horses who race on past normal stud-farm retirement time, usually because they are gelded, Lava Man had acquired a following. Sunday, the third-largest Pacific Classic crowd, 35,320, showed up on a day warmer and muggier than you’d expect at a place where the turf meets the surf. A fair conclusion is that Lava Man put many of them in the seats, and lots of their cash through the betting windows. Sunday’s on-track handle was a track-record $24,642,601.

Recently, the saga of Lava Man went from chapter to book.

The least of it occurred Wednesday, when his jockey, Corey Nakatani, got dumped off a horse in the paddock and into the bushes, bruising his shoulder and hurting his hand. Nothing was broken, and Nakatani got back in shape quickly by working out on one of the machines in O’Neill’s barn usually used only for the horses. Still, the mishap occurring so close to Lava Man’s big race had the O’Neill camp unnerved for a day or so.

And that certainly was understandable, since they had been jolted July 23 by the auto accident that had torn off the left arm of Lava Man’s groom, Noe Garcia. Garcia spent more time with the horse than any other human and so the comfort level and karma of Camp O’Neill was scrambled. The concern was for the man first. Any disruption of the horse and his routine was secondary, but it was there.

Then came the story of the man who had applied a tourniquet to Garcia’s arm on the scene and saved his life by keeping just enough blood, a little over one liter, in his body to keep him alive until paramedics arrived. The man’s name is Juan (Johnny) Arredondo-Ponce, a navy aircraft mechanic who was quickly invited into the O’Neill camp as family. Thursday night, in a fundraiser run by O’Neill’s brother and business partner, Dennis, about $125,000 was raised for Garcia, and Garcia and Arredondo were reunited to a standing ovation.

Against this backdrop, at about 4:30, the Lava Man parade to the paddock began. Right in step with the O’Neill brothers and assistant trainer Leandro Mora was Garcia, one of his sons holding his right hand, and Arredondo. Garcia wore a tan jacket with the left arm hanging loose. Arredondo, nine years younger at 30, stayed with him at all times. Almost always on his left side, still protecting.

They chatted quietly in Spanish and were interrupted repeatedly by well-wishers who now knew the story and wanted to see, up close, the two people who had gone through this incredible trauma together. Cameras were everywhere. For a while, as a restless Lava Man walked the paddock circle, Garcia and Arredondo stood alone, together, next to the saddling stall reserved for horse No. 1, Lava Man’s post position. Photographers, amateur and professional alike, clicked away at the symbolic moment.

Garcia, until now a man whose life could hardly have been more anonymous, looked dazed, Arredondo amazed.

Later, Arredondo, fluent in both English and Spanish, said that, when the ambulance arrived the night of the accident, Garcia, who had been in and out of consciousness, had grabbed his arm and thanked him.

“It is a special memory,” Arredondo said.

Shortly, it was time for Doug O’Neill to give Nakatani a leg up for the parade to the track and eventually the starting gate. Just before he mounted Lava Man, Nakatani pointed across the paddock track to where Garcia and Arredondo stood, wagged his index finger and said, just loud enough for those nearby to hear, “This one’s for you, Noe.”

Then it became a surge of humanity toward the track, with a production executive from ESPN hurrying Garcia through the crowd to a pre-race interview spot trackside.

“Live TV, Noe. We’re on now. Gotta keep moving,” she said.

A dazed Garcia moved on as best he could, presumably as squeamish about getting bumped in the crowd as some watching. Arredondo stayed with him, still mostly on his left side.

Garcia, his two sons and Arredondo watched the race from the rail, directly across from the finish line. When it was over, when Lava Man clearly tired in the stretch, as older living things often do in the heat, Doug O’Neill hugged Garcia. So did Steve Kenly. Soon, lots of other people.

Turns out, the better story than a great horse finishing sixth in a big race was a shy man with one arm and no comprehension for the spotlight getting to watch it with his new best friend.

Bill Dwyre can be reached at bill.dwyre@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Dwyre, go to latimes.com/dwyre.