INGLEWOOD, Calif. (April 25, 2008) - Three-time Hollywood Gold Cup winner Lava Man will have to contend with defending champion Epic Power as he attempts to win his second TVG Khaled Stakes in three years on Sunday's $1.3-million Cal National Gold Rush IX program at Hollywood Park.
Lava Man, on the comeback trail after being turned out in the fall of 2007, will break from the four-post in the six-horse Khaled field as he attempts to regain the form which saw him match legendary Native Diver as a three-time Gold Cup champion.
The Doug O'Neill-trained gelding, one of the most popular California-breds of all-time, enters the one-mile Khaled with 17 wins in 43 starts and earnings of $5,214,706. Claimed by STD Racing and Jason Wood at Del Mar in 2004, he began a streak of three straight Gold Cup victories with a record 8¾-length victory in 2005. He won the last two Gold Cups by a nose and is the richest claiming horse in history.
The 7-year-old son of Slew City Slew is an accomplished runner on the turf course as well as the main track. He won the Khaled in a course record time of 1:44.26 in 2006 and went on to beat a tough field of turf horses in the Grade I Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap before capturing his second Gold Cup.
Lava Man will be ridden by Corey Nakatani, who has been aboard in his last 17 starts, including ten victories.
The Khaled field lines up as follows from the rail out: Celtic Dreamin, with Alex Solis up, carries 124 pounds; Mr. Wolverine, Michael Baze, 118; Epic Power, Martin Garcia, 122; Lava Man, Corey Nakatani, 124; Dawn's Early Sky, Alonso Quinonez, 116, and Top This and That, 116.
Epic Power, also a 7-year-old, beat Running Free by a neck in the 2007 Khaled and won the Korbel Handicap here one start later, but has failed to win in his last eight starts. He enters the race with 12 wins in 56 races and earnings of $657,435.
Celtic Dreamin has won $600,543 with six wins and four seconds in just 11 starts. Winner of the one-mile Crystal Water Handicap in his last start, the 4-year-old captured the British Columbia Derby in 2007 at Hastings Park before finishing second in the Cal Cup Classic and second in the 2008 Sunshine Millions Classic.
Lava Man, third-leading California-bred earner behind Tiznow ($6,427,830) and Best Pal ($5,668,245), is the star performer Sunday on the program featuring California-bred horses, but the richest event of the day is the 15th running of the $250,000 Cal National Snow Chief Stakes.
The wide-open affair drew a field of 13 and runs as the ninth race on the ten-race program which features a Guaranteed $1-million Pick Six and a Pint Glass set giveaway in celebration of Hollywood Park's 70th anniversary meeting.
Garrett Gomez, the country's leading jockey the past two years and the 2007 Eclipse Award winner, will return from Kentucky to fulfill several engagements, including the mount on Dean Pederson-trained Pleasure Grounds in the Snow Chief. The Northern California shipper has three wins and two seconds in six starts for earnings of $86,780. Most recently he finished fourth in the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows.
The Cal National Gold Rush program begins with a special 12:30 p.m. post time. The TVG Khaled Stakes runs as the fourth race. The Pick Six begins with the sixth race.
