Hovdey: Hall of Fame welcomes homebody Lava Man

Among the best of the summertime aromas are jasmine, smoky barbecue, and freshly baked Hall of Famers.

Last month, Cooperstown welcomed Craig Biggio, John Smoltz, Randy Johnson, and Pedro Martinez. On Saturday in Canton, Ohio, the NFL will induct Junior Seau, Ron Wolf, Charles Haley, Mick Tinglehoff, Will Shields, Bill Polian, Jerome Bettis, and Tim Brown.

Friday, however, belongs to the National Museum of Thoroughbred Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where an eclectic quartet of contemporary stars – Chris Antley, King Leatherbury, Xtra Heat, and Lava Man – will be honored along with Vincent Powers and Billy Kelly, a couple of relatively obscure names plucked from the past.

Jump jockeys think flat riders are crazy because they go so fast. Flat riders think jump jocks are nuts because they leave the ground on purpose. Powers, a native New Yorker, was both, an American champion on the flat in 1908 and 1909 and over the jumps in 1917. He also was the champion steeplechase trainer in 1927, so the Hall seems like the right place for him.

Billy Kelly was the barn favorite of Commander J.K.L. Ross’s powerful stable in the years following World War I. Ross, whose job description was “philanthropist,” could afford horses like Billy Kelly because his father was the co-founder of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Billy Kelly won 39 of 69 starts and was the best sprinter of his era, but he is best known as the horse who was supposed to win the 1919 Kentucky Derby but lost to stablemate Sir Barton. And so the Triple Crown began.

Leatherbury’s election is popular, especially in Maryland, while Antley’s is both poignant and appropriate. Xtra Heat was a champion with 26 wins – who can argue with that? – and then there is Lava Man, a throwback Thoroughbred, rugged like Billy Kelly and the other tough geldings who carry the game on their backs while everyone waits around for the next American Pharoah.

Lava Man’s 17 wins from 47 starts over parts of seven seasons included three victories in the Hollywood Gold Cup, two in the Santa Anita Handicap, and one each in the Pacific Classic, Whittingham Memorial, Californian, and Goodwood Handicap.

Those nine headline scores came during Lava Man’s golden age, a two-year span between June 2005 and June 2007 when he won 12 of 14 starts in Southern California and basically sealed his place in history. There was no guarantee, however, that his history would include a plaque on the wall in Saratoga Springs, mostly because Lava Man was the world’s worst traveler, a temperamental Mr. Homebody who preferred his Hollywood Park man cave to any version of a five-star equine hotel.

It usually takes some solid Eastern form for a California-bred gelding to make the Hall of Fame. Best Pal was second in the Derby and won the Oaklawn Handicap. Ancient Title took the Whitney. Native Diver, the only other three-time Hollywood Gold Cup winner, received dispensation after a decent try in Chicago.

Four times during his golden age trainer Doug O’Neill sent Lava Man hunting big game, and four times he refused to be fooled. He knew the difference between Tokyo and Inglewood, between Floral Park and West L.A., between Papa John’s Stadium and the Fabulous Forum. At one point, his people thought it was the dirt surfaces holding Lava Man back when he shipped, so they aimed for a serious grass race on firm ground. In Dubai. After five hours on the plane, with still no destination in sight, Lava Man mumbled something like, “This ain’t happening.” And that was that.

“We tried to travel with Lava because he was Lava, and he deserved to be in those big races,” said Leandro Mora, O’Neill’s right-hand man and the guy who had to answer to Lava Man on the road. “He was a tough horse, but he was a nervous horse.

“With the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs, we did everything possible to make him feel at home,” Mora said. “We played the music from home. We had more horses around him. A couple of ladies gave him massages every day – just like he was home. Then we got to the paddock for the race, and he lost it.

“In Japan, he had an excuse,” Mora added. “We were naïve. The dirt over there is crushed rock, not soft sand like here. After two days of galloping, his feet were bleeding. We tried some liniment on his frogs, but it was too late. When he walked back after the race, you could see blood in his footprints.

“At Belmont for the Jockey Club Gold Cup, that’s when they moved all the horses to a special barn six hours before the race,” Mora grimly continued. “We had just got him used to his stall, and now we move him again? Oh, he was mad. I thought, ‘That’s it. We’re done.’ ”

Down but not out. Lava Man rebounded from his New York-Japan nightmares at the end of 2005 to win his first seven races of 2006. Four months after his 2006 meltdown in Kentucky, he won his second Santa Anita Handicap. Three months after finishing up the track in Dubai, Lava Man won his third Hollywood Gold Cup.

“People will lie to you and tell you horses are all the same,” Mora said. “But every horse has his own way of thinking. You can fight that, or you can think along with them and try to make it easy for everybody.”

All the way to the Hall of Fame.