Not so Favre-lous
Don't call it a comeback. Really, don't.
Word came this week that the all-time great California-bred Lava Man had returned to serious training at Doug O'Neill's Hollywood Park barn with hopes of once again making the starting gate. Owners Jason Wood and STD Racing (Steve, Tracy and Dave Kenly) need to re-think their decision before something goes terribly wrong.
Win a race with Lava Man and put a few smiles on some faces. It's a nice story. Break down the great horse and put the horse racing industry another 10 lengths back in the court of public opinion. Not a single national media outlet will cover Lava Man's comeback race. But rest assured, every single one would cover a disastrous outcome, even if it were to come during morning training hours. Pick your letters: ESPN, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, or, worse yet, PETA.
Is that worth the risk? Really?
Lava Man, on his best day, was damaged goods. With notoriously bad feet, trainer Doug O'Neill struggled and juggled to keep him healthy and best-aimed at a mixture of turf and dirt races. Now, after more than a year in retirement, what good possibly can come from this emotionally charged decision?
The connections can't possibly think it's about money. No one of sound judgment can think that Lava Man will earn much in his second go-'round. The five-time Grade 1 winner, who bagged the connections more than $5.2 million, was nowhere near his best form when retired last summer. Now, age 8, he would have been beyond the sunset of his career even without any interruptions. I have no problem with a healthy horse running to age 8 or beyond; look at the wonderful Better Talk Now, who has been magnificently managed by Graham Motion, or the warrior John's Call, who was handled with such care by Tom Voss.
I applaud trainer O'Neill's pledge to donate his 10 percent commission on Lava Man's earnings to a California retirement foundation for racehorses. But that act of charity won't cleanse the blood on his hands if something were to go awry with Lava Man. After all, he's the guy assigned the duty of making sure the horse is as healthy as a racehorse can be. No one, and I mean no one, will accept any excuse in the event of catastrophe. O'Neill could claim perfect health and unforeseeable injuries, and might even be right. But it won't matter. Perception is reality. And, whether it has one iota to do with anything at all, O'Neill's previous transgressions in the world of race-day medication infractions will blow up the anger to the story 10-fold. He's an extremely likable guy, but his medication rap sheet will do him no favors with the national press.
But this is about the horses.
George Washington's 2007 comeback season culminated in the ultimate tragedy, dieing on the racetrack in front of the Monmouth Park grandstand at the end of the Breeders' Cup Classic. A worldwide TV audience looked on aghast. George Washington wound up 0-for-4 in his second career and disgustingly became a poster child for everything wrong with the game.
I vividly remember being in the grandstand that day in the section roped off for the press. Sitting alongside noted sports writer and racing expert Dick Jerardi, we watched the attending vets scurry to help the fallen George Washington. After several minutes of disbelief, and not a single head turned toward the winner's circle, I recall confiding in my friend and colleague when saying, "As much as I have loved this game my entire life, this is why you have to hate this game sometimes. They just HAD to bring him back, didn't they? And for this?!"
We'd all be better off if we didn't see a second act to that tragedy. I was one of Lava Man's biggest supporters outside of California during his racing career. I don't want to see him dealt a bad fate. He deserves better.
Sure, there are some similarities between Lava Man and Favre, who both rank as great athletes who have come out of retirement after sustaining injuries. But the massive difference is that Lava Man didn't chose to; and if Favre goes out next Sunday for the Vikings and his injured arm falls off, people will say that he went to the well one too many times and gets what he deserves.
But Lava Man didn't write his script; the humans did.
I don't care how many quotes I read about how much happier Lave Man is now than when residing in a paddock somewhere. No doubt a good horseman can read his animal's emotions to some degree; but until Lava Man inks the contract himself and tells us all just exactly what he really wants to do, this is just another case of humans putting themselves before the animals they claim to love.
Obviously the connections of Lava Man will say they'll only run the old guy if they're 100-percent sure he's healthy and capable. And the truth of the matter is they will have no clue. Consult the spirits of Barbaro, Eight Belles, Pine Island, George Washington and Ruffian.
Or, better yet, ask their connections how sure they were their star horses would return back to the barn on those fateful afternoons that stopped time.
Lava Man's comeback, given all his own history and those around him, just is not worth the worst-case risk.
Jeremy Plonk has been an ESPN.com contributor since 2000 and is the managing partner of the handicapping website Horseplayerpro.com. You can E-mail Jeremy about this topic or anything racing-related at Jeremy@Horseplayerpro.com.
