2004 and 2005
In August 2004, O'Neill claimed Lava Man for $50,000 on behalf of STD Racing Stable and Jason Wood. At the age of three, Lava Man won the Derby Trial Stakes at Fairplex and came in second behind Rock Hard Ten in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes.
In 2005, Lava Man lost his first three starts. O'Neill decided to make an equipment change and fitted the horse with blinkers. He responded by winning a $100,000 optional claiming race in May. Then he took the Grade 2 Californian Stakes in June for his first graded stakes victory. In his next race, the $750,000 Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup in July 2005, Lava Man won by a stakes-record margin of over 8 lengths and earned his career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 120 while carrying the highweight. In August, he was third in the Pacific Classic Stakes, coming out of the race so exhausted he had to be vanned off. "He gave us such a scare," said O'Neill. "We thought he broke down. You wanted to hug the horse even more. He gave everything he had. People don't do that and horses don't do that."
Lava Man was sent east for the Jockey Club Gold Cup, where he finished seventh. In late November, he went to Japan for the Japan Cup Dirt where he finished eleventh and was found to have an abscess in his left front foot.
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