Lava Man (foaled on March 20, 2001 in California) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse who was once claimed for $50,000 but wound up being inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2015. In a forty-seven race career, despite finishing off the board while losing all 5 of his races outside California, he won seventeen times with his major victories including three Hollywood Gold Cups, two Santa Anita Handicaps and the Pacific Classic Stakes.

Lava Man is dark bay thoroughbred gelding with a white blaze on his forehead. His dam L'il Ms. Leonard was claimed by Lonnie Arterburn for $16,000 and then sent to Kentucky to be bred to Slew City Slew, a son of Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew. Kim and Eve Kuhlman acquired a half interest in L'il Ms. Leonard and kept her at their farm in Kentucky before shipping her back to California. Lava Man was foaled on March 20, 2001 at Poplar Meadows Ranch near Sanger, California. He originally ran as a homebred for Arterburn and the Kuhlmans, and was trained by Arterburn.

Eve Kuhlmann, who competes in triathlons, named the horse Lava Man for a triathlon on the Big Island in Hawaii.

Lava Man is known for both his intelligent and friendly personality and his "tenacity, courage and adaptability" on the track. A jockey who regularly rode Lava Man, Corey Nakatani, has said of him, "This horse has gears, so many gears. What a horse. He's just about unbelievable."

Lava Man first raced as a 2-year-old in a $12,500 maiden claiming race at the San Joaquin County Fair in June 2003, finishing fourth and earning a paltry Beyer Speed Figure of 27. The Fair Circuit is the lowest level of thoroughbred competition in California thoroughbred racing. Arterburn said he was a big, long-striding horse that never got tired. "But he was so laid back he could be a pony. He didn't show anything in the mornings. I took him out to Stockton, California to get him a race, make him eligible for starter allowances and not get him claimed away." In the words of Daily Racing Form columnist Dick Jerardi, "Lava Man did not start his career on the other side of the tracks. He started his career in a place [Stockton] where there are no tracks."

Lava Man lost his next two races before Arterburn tried him on the grass. The horse won for the first time on November 29 at Golden Gate Fields, then followed up with an allowance race win in January 2004. He then lost his next four races, shipping between Santa Anita, Bay Meadows and Hollywood Park, before earning his third win after Arterburn removed his blinkers. Arterburn then entered him in a $62,500 claiming race at Del Mar Racetrack because, as he said, "We had no other place to run him so we took him south. It was the usual Northern California problem." He came in sixth, so in his next race, Arterburn dropped him down a notch in a $50,000 claiming race on August 13. In that race, Lava Man was claimed by Doug O'Neill for owner Steve Kenly, who was looking for a useful California-bred for his STD Stables. "I never should have run him back down there," said Arterburn. "You go down to that claiming pit at Del Mar and you're asking for trouble. They claim crazy down there, and I never should have taken him there. I really liked the horse. He had a great personality; almost a clown. He was like a big kid, always wanting attention. He was a one of a kind character, and we tried to protect him the best we could."

Now racing for O'Neill, Lava Man won the Derby Trial Stakes at Fairplex, then finished third in the Pomono Derby. O'Neill initially kept the horse on turf, but then moved him back to dirt where he finished second in three straight races, including a promising performance behind Rock Hard Ten in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes. Lava Man finished his three-year-old season with three wins and six seconds from thirteen starts.

At the start of his 2005 campaign, Lava Man was badly beaten in his first three starts, finishing seventh, fifth and sixth, with one of these being the Sunshine Millions Classic at Gulfstream Park in Florida. O'Neill re-fitted the horse with blinkers, then entered him in a $100,000 claiming race in May. Lava Man won but was not claimed as Arterburn lacked the funds to do so at the time. Arterburn would later call Lava Man "the best and worst thing that ever happened to me" after the horse started winning major races for O'Neill. However, because California-breds winning open races in the state generate breeders' rewards worth approximately 15 percent of the purse, Arterburn continued to receive a share of some of Lava Man's earnings as his co-breeder.