Casino Drive may run at Santa Anita

NEW YORK – Casino Drive, scratched from the Belmont Stakes on Saturday morning because of a hoof injury, is likely to end up running in the Breeders’ Cup Classic during the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita on Oct. 25.

And to prep for the Classic, Casino Drive might return to the U.S. from Japan and run in the Goodwood Stakes on Sept. 27 during the opening weekend of Oak Tree.

“We’d love to have him,” said Ron Charles, the Santa Anita president who was at Belmont Park on Saturday.

Casino Drive, winner of his only two starts – one in Japan on Feb. 23 and the Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont on May 10 – will be shipped back to Japan on Tuesday.

The Classic appeared to be shaping up to be a true classic, featuring Big Brown, 2007 horse of the year Curlin and Casino Drive.

But that changed with Big Brown’s ninth-place finish in the Belmont. Before the race, Big Brown’s owners and trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. said their plan was to run their horse in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga in upstate New York on Sept. 23 and then the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Now those plans are up in the air.

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Even-money favorite Indian Blessing, last year’s 2-year-old champion and winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies last October, was upset by 3-1 shot Zaftig in the $250,000 Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park.

Indian Blessing, given time off by trainer Bob Baffert after the Breeders’ Cup, only began training again April 9, working on the synthetic track at Santa Anita.

“It’s been a while since she ran,” jockey Garrett Gomez said of Indian Blessing.

Said Baffert: “You hate to lose, but she ran her race.”

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It had been smooth sailing for Big Brown up until Saturday, but for Michael Iavarone, the horse’s most visible owner, the ride got a little bumpy last week.

Bloomberg News, the New York Times and Newsday reported last week that Iavarone, 37, a former Wall Street stockbroker, in 1999 was fined $7,500, censured and suspended for 10 days by securities regulators for selling $22,000 worth of stock without the permission of his clients.

In addition, a brokerage firm Iavarone had worked for from 1993 to ‘96 pleaded guilty to enterprise corruption in 1997, although no criminal charges were filed against Iavarone.

It was also reported that Iavarone had to pay a $544,000 judgment in 2003 because he did not pay for five horses he bought at a Keeneland auction, and that in 2004 the IRS obtained a $130,000 lien against him for unpaid 2002 income taxes.

“We’ve all done things in our past that come back to bite us when you leave it exposed, and I did,” Iavarone told the Associated Press.

Iavarone is co-president of International Equine Acquisitions Holdings (IEAH), the company that owns 75% of Big Brown.

 larry.stewart@latimes.com