By Bloodhorse.com
SARATOGA, N.Y. (Apr. 20, 2015) – California-bred champion Lava man, trainer King Leatherbury, the late jockey Chris Antley and female sprinter Xtra Heat will receive the sport’s highest honor as the 2015 class of the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame.
The electees will be inducted during ceremonies at 10:30 a.m., Friday, Aug. 7 at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Trained by Doug O’Neill, Lava Man won seven grade I races, to date more than any other California-bred in history. With a career record of 17-8-5 from 47 starts with earnings of $5,268,706, among California-bred horses only Hall of Famers Tiznow and Best Pal and 2014 Horse of the Year California Chrome have higher career earnings.
Lava Man won three consecutive editions of the Hollywood Gold Cup (gr. I) from 2005 through 2007, matching a feat Hall of Famer Native Diver accomplished from 1965 through 1967. Lava Man also won back-to-back runnings of the Santa Anita Handicap (gr. I) in 2006 and 2007.
Lava Man (Slew City Slew—L’il Ms. Leonard, by Nostalgia’s Star) was bred in California by Lonnie Arterburn, Eve Kuhlmann, and Kim Kuhlmann. Arterburn trained Lava Man until he was claimed during his 3-year-old season for $50,000 by O’Neill for STD Racing Stable and partner Jason Wood.
Leatherbury, 82, who was born in Baltimore, won his first race at Florida’s Sunshine Park (now Tampa Bay Downs) in 1959 and currently ranks fourth all time with 6,454 wins. He has won 52 training titles at Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park (26 at each track) and four at Delaware Park with career purse earnings of $62,910,371.
Leatherbury led all North American trainers in wins in 1977 and 1978 and won 300 or more races each year from 1975 through 1978. He ranked in the top three in North American wins each year from 1975 through 1980 and has finished in the top 10 nationally in wins 18 times and in earnings four times. Leatherbury has won 23 graded stakes races and 153 overall stakes.
In 1987, Leatherbury won the Hempstead Handicap (gr. I) with Catatonic and in 1994 he won the Philip H. Iselin Handicap (gr. I) with Taking Risks.
Leatherbury also bred, owns and trains Ben’s Cat, a winner of $2.3 million. Ben’s Cat has won 23 stakes (through April 20, 2015), including four graded events. Other top winners trained by Leatherbury include Ah Day (winner of 10 stakes) and Thirty Eight Paces (winner of six stakes).
Antley, who was born in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and grew up in Elloree, S.C., won 3,480 races and had purse earnings of $92,261,894 in a career that spanned from 1983 until his death in 2000 at age 34.
The leading North American rider by wins in 1985 with 469, Antley was a two-time Kentucky Derby (gr. I) winner, taking the Run for the Roses with Strike the Gold in 1991 and Charismatic in 1999. He also won the Preakness Stakes (gr. I) with Charismatic.
Antley ranked in the top 10 nationally in wins each year from 1984 through 1987 and was the leading rider at Monmouth Park in 1984, 1985, and 1986. He led the New York circuit with 234 wins in 1989 and was the leading rider at Saratoga Race Course in 1990.
Antley rode his first winner, Vaya Con Dinero, at Pimlico in November 1983. He won 127 graded stakes races and 293 overall stakes.
The Eclipse Award winner for champion 3-year-old filly in 2001 when she finished second against males and older horses in the Penske Auto Center Breeders’ Cup Sprint (gr. I) at Belmont Park, Xtra Heat compiled a career record of 26-5-2 from 35 starts and earnings of $2,389,635. Xtra Heat won a total of 25 stakes races, 11 of which were graded.
She registered two six-race win streaks and had two victories in each the Barbara Fritchie Handicap (gr. II) and Endine Stakes (gr. III). Xtra Heat’s wins included the Prioress Stakes (gr. I) (setting a stakes record of 1:08.26), as well as the Vagrancy (gr. II) and Genuine Risk (gr. II) handicaps and the Astarita (gr. II) and Stonerside Beaumont (gr. II) stakes.
Xtra Heat (Dixieland Heat—Begin, by Hatchet Man) was bred in Kentucky by Pope McLean’s Crestwood Farm and sold as a 2-year-old for $5,000 at Maryland’s Timonium sale to trainer John Salzman, Sr. and partners Ken Taylor and Harry Deitchman.
The contemporary electees were chosen from a nationwide voting panel of 180 racing writers, broadcasters, industry officials, and historians from a group of 10 finalists selected by the Hall of Fame’s nominating committee. The top four vote-getters among the finalists are elected.
Results of the Hall of Fame’s historic review and Pillars of the Turf committees will be announced in May.