Racing needs to go with the flow

A sport that struggles mightily these days to find reasons for us to pay attention found a great one at Hollywood Park on Saturday.

His name is Lava Man, and the 17th victory of his career, in the 68th running of the Grade I Hollywood Gold Cup, made history. It was Lava Man’s third straight victory in this legendary race. The only other horse to win this three times in a row -- or three times at all, for that matter -- is buried in the paddock and memorialized there with an arch-shaped mural of his three wins in 1965-67.

“They should have a statue for Lava Man,” said Corey Nakatani, Lava Man’s jockey. “Should have had one last year.”

Native Diver, his Gold Cup three-peat record now matched, was hugely popular when his sport was the same. Lava Man’s burden is tougher, his sport much less en vogue these days.

That the dark bay of trainer Doug O’Neill and owners STD Racing Stable and Jason Wood danced on Native Diver’s grave in the paddock before the race and stomped on his record minutes later on Hollywood Park’s new Cushion Track is significant because racing now has an undeniable star.

Yes, it has Triple Crown heroes Street Sense, Curlin and Rags To Riches. But they will depart quickly to the breeding barn, as the economics of racing dictates that it figuratively eat its young.

With good health, the gelded Lava Man is only going to the races. He is 6 and, like gelded predecessor John Henry, has as many as three productive racing years left, maybe more.

And if Saturday was any indication, Lava Man could gather quite a following before the end of his run.

The crowd was only 9,276, but the paddock, where the horses are walked and saddled before a race, was bustling with people wanting to see Lava Man, take his picture, just be close to him. They hadn’t seen a packed paddock like this in some time at Hollywood Park.

Another measure was the amount of money bet on the Gold Cup card at Hollywood Park and from satellites around the country, a record $22,058,795.

The best measure was the race itself. Lava Man, carrying a tough 124 pounds, four more than second betting choice Molengao, stayed within striking distance of speed horse A.P. Xcellent all the way to the final turn, while carrying nine more pounds. Nakatani put Lava Man in contact with A.P. Xcellent for the stretch run and A.P. Xcellent and Mike Smith did not back off on the rail.

Like the Preakness and the Belmont in this year of dramatic stretch runs, Lava Man and A.P. Xcellent went at it, with Lava Man getting the final bob and the win by a nose for the second straight year.

“I put him in a place where he can win,” Nakatani said, “and if it is close, his big heart will get him there.”

In the owners’ box, Steve, Dave and Tracy Kenly and Wood celebrated, even while a photo finish sign was put up.

“We knew,” Wood said. “We all knew.”

While the celebration headed for the victory circle, and the scoreboard took down the photo finish sign, public-address announcer Vic Stauffer intoned the proper perspective to a crowd that seemed to know this was big, but not quite how big.

“We have been truly blessed to see this kind of greatness today,” Stauffer told the crowd. “We have just witnessed one of the great horses to ever step foot on the Hollywood Park track.”

In the winner’s circle, Steve Kenly and Wood, both in their 40s and newcomers to this sort of public notoriety, accommodated one reporter after another, whooping it up between sentences.

“It is unbelievable the way he won, the way he performed,” Wood said. “He has done so much, and then he does more. It’s just a wow.”

Kenly, whose father, Dave, has been in racing since the days when Native Diver was the star, grabbed the STD riding cloth, bright fuchsia with the No. 8, and said, “I’m not letting go of this one. This is mine.”

The entire ownership group, now $450,000 richer from the $750,000 purse, agreed that they would love this horse, even if it wasn’t theirs.

“Did you see all those people in the paddock?” Wood asked. “If he wasn’t ours, we’d be there with everybody else, appreciating him.”

The group also said there was no way for them to come to grips with what has happened in the three years since they claimed Lava Man for $50,000 at a race in Del Mar, achieving what is now clearly the most successful claim in the history of the sport.

“This is just crazy,” Wood said.

Crazier is what lies ahead. Lava Man won the jewel of the Del Mar meeting last year, the Pacific Classic, and almost certainly will try again next month. And with success there could come another shot at the Breeders’ Cup Classic and its $5-million purse. That’s in October at Monmouth Park in New Jersey, making it a tough decision, because the one flaw on Lava Man’s resume is that all 17 of his wins have come in California.

Still, that portion of the public that is on the fence about racing had to take note Saturday.

In a sport desperate to hand out the cigars, a star was re-born.

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