SANTA ANITA : Brocco Is Placed on Restricted List; Injury Is Denied

Brocco, the winner of Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby and the co-favorite with Holy Bull for the Kentucky Derby, was placed on the state veterinarian’s restricted list Sunday, although trainer Randy Winick says that there is nothing wrong with the colt.

Horses on the restricted list are not allowed to work out for five days and after that they can race only if they show they have recovered. To satisfy that condition, Winick has tentatively scheduled a workout for Brocco next Saturday at Santa Anita, which would result in a different training schedule for the horse leading up to the Kentucky Derby on May 7.

B. William Bell, the state veterinarian at Santa Anita, noticed that Brocco was favoring one of his front legs Saturday after the colt had finished his post-race urine test in the receiving barn.

“He was very, very slightly off in one of his front legs,” Bell said. “On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the worst, I would rate this as a one. It’s something that a horse might get from a stone bruise. It wasn’t serious, but I was obligated to put him on the list.”

Winick was not at the receiving barn when Bell noticed Brocco’s right foreleg, but the trainer was represented by Mike Steppe, who is the colt’s veterinarian.

“There’s nothing wrong at all with the horse,” Winick said. “We respectfully disagree with his being put on the list.”

To be eligible to race again, Brocco must have a five-furlong workout in a time of 1:03 or faster. Bell said that because Brocco was scheduled to be sent to Kentucky next weekend, Winick may work the colt at Santa Anita or Churchill Downs, where Brocco would be observed by a Kentucky state veterinarian.

“I’d just as soon get this behind us before we ship,” Winick said. “My guess is that (the workout) will be Saturday. He walked (under the barn’s shedrow) for 45 minutes Sunday, which is normal, and there were no problems. I’m planning to walk him some more for two days, then get him back to the track to gallop on Wednesday.”

Winick had planned to ship the colt to Kentucky without any more workouts at Santa Anita. Brocco will still be flown to Kentucky next weekend, which doesn’t differ from the original shipping plans.

“This horse has no history of lameness,” Winick said. “We’ve never treated him for anything. All I can think of is that this relates to the body soreness and the tying up that he did earlier this season, before he started racing.”

At the barn early Sunday morning, Winick had said that Brocco came out of Saturday’s race sound.

“I didn’t mention the vet’s list then, because I didn’t find out about it until afterward,” Winick said Sunday afternoon.

In all six of his races, Brocco has been treated with phenylbutazone, a legal painkiller that was also given to the other five Santa Anita Derby starters. Brocco has also raced with Lasix, a diuretic that is routinely given to horses that experience pulmonary bleeding.

The Santa Anita Derby was Brocco’s fourth victory in six starts and his first since the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita in November. After the Breeders’ Cup, Brocco ran second to Valiant Nature in the Hollywood Futurity and in his only start this year was second to Soul Of The Matter in the San Felipe Stakes.

Neither of those rivals ran Saturday, Valiant Nature being held for the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland next Saturday and Soul Of The Matter being scratched because of a blister on his lower left foreleg.

“We’ve been putting salve on the blister and hosing it, and it’s getting better every day,” said Richard Mandella, who trains Soul Of The Matter. “If the race had been (Sunday), he would have been able to run, but I wanted to take the conservative approach. Now I’m leaning toward running in the Lexington (at Keeneland on April 24), with an outside chance that we’d go in the Blue Grass. I’ll have to make my decision by Tuesday, when a plane takes some California horses to Kentucky.”

Brocco was three-quarters of a length better than Tabasco Cat, with trainer Charlie Whittingham’s pair, Strodes Creek and Numerous, taking the next two positions. Strodes Creek was beaten by 1 3/4 lengths and Numerous, who threw a shoe in the race, was almost seven lengths behind Brocco.