Lava Man to train at Keeneland on Polytrack

Lava Man will get plenty of time to acclimate in Kentucky before the Breeders' Cup Classic (Alex Evers/Horsephotos.com)

Multiple Grade 1 winner LAVA MAN (Slew City Slew) is scheduled to travel to

Kentucky on Tuesday to prepare for the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) on November 4

at Churchill Downs and a possible showdown for Horse of the Year honors against

likely favorite BERNARDINI (A.P. Indy).

"Lava Man ships out Tuesday morning on Tex Sutton," trainer Doug O'Neill

said. "He'll go to Keeneland, then we'll figure out when we'll send him over to

Churchill. The game plan is to train him at Keeneland as long as we can."

Keeneland began its fall meet Friday and unveiled the synthetic surface, Polytrack, on its main track. O'Neill is based at Hollywood Park, which recently

completed installation of a similar synthetic surface, Cushion Track.

Lava Man, undefeated in seven starts this season on both dirt and turf,

including the Pacific Classic (G1), Hollywood Gold Cup (G1), Charles Whittingham

Memorial H. (G1), and Santa Anita H. (G1), had foot problems and shipping

issues, which O'Neill says he has under control. The five-year-old has never won

outside of California.

"I think we definitely do have something to prove," he said about winning

outside the Golden State. "We definitely think we can do it. It's not like we're

being bull-headed and going about the Classic the exact same way we went about

the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) last year. We're going to do things different this

year. He'll be back in Kentucky in ample time and he seems like he's as good as

he's ever been, too, so it seems like a good time to tackle that challenge of

running out of state. We're excited. We think he's got a big, big chance,

obviously."