Derby Turns Into ‘Bay Watch

Trainer Jeff Mullins’ winter of discontent had a happy ending, but then again, why wouldn’t it? He always saddles the winner of the Santa Anita Derby, doesn’t he?

Breaking a record he had shared with the iconic Jimmy Jones, Mesh Tenney, Bob Wheeler, Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert, Mullins won the Santa Anita race Saturday for the third consecutive time. Maybe someday the bettors will pay attention, because Mullins always does it with longshots, and Buzzards Bay was the longest shot of his three, at 30-1. The undistinguished colt paid $62.60, beating a 64-1 shot, General John B, by half a length as Sweet Catomine, the heavily favored filly, finished fifth in a lackluster performance that disappointed many in the crowd of 38,014.

Sweet Catomine, who went off at even money as she tried to become the fourth filly to win the race, was seventh of 11 after half a mile and never threatened. Her five-race winning streak ended, and co-owner Marty Wygod questioned whether he and his trainer, Julio Canani, should have run her. Wygod said that Sweet Catomine had bled internally during a workout Sunday, and that the next day she was found to have been in season -- ovulating -- for the first time.

Santa Anita can’t seem to get a break. This year, Mullins alienated track management and fans by calling bettors “idiots” and “addicts.” Those incendiary comments came not long after his horses were confined to a detention barn, after one of them failed a test for a performance-enhancing sodium bicarbonate solution, known as a milkshake. Then on Saturday, Santa Anita officials were thrust into another debate: How much does an owner owe the public about the pre-race condition of a horse, and should a horse with multiple physical problems be allowed to run?

Ron Charles, executive director of Magna Entertainment’s California tracks, said he and Wygod had discussed Sweet Catomine’s problems Wednesday, shortly after entries were taken.

“I said then that it was their decision to make [about running],” Charles said after Saturday’s race. “Julio is a very competent trainer, and as long as he was comfortable with running, there shouldn’t have been a problem.”

Wygod said Sweet Catomine wouldn’t run in the Kentucky Derby on May 7 or the Kentucky Oaks the day before.

“I’m not feeling very good about [Saturday’s race],” he said. “Not that she would have won the race, anyway. But this was the only prep race she would have for the Kentucky Derby. I was 50-50 about running her. I was thinking about scratching. We sent her to a clinic [near Santa Barbara] and brought her back. She had a little foot problem [Wednesday]. In my heart, I felt not to run, but [Friday] we made up our mind. We gave her drugs to prevent bleeding. In my [pre-race] interviews on NBC, I said the horse had problems. I was pretty explicit. No one asked me what kind of problems.”

Corey Nakatani, who could have ridden Wilko, who missed second by a nose, said Sweet Catomine warmed up poorly.

“Usually she livens up going to the gate, but not this time,” Nakatani said. “It was strange. She wasn’t herself. At the five-sixteenths pole, I moved her outside, but then she gave me nothing.”

Mullins’ other Santa Anita Derby winners, Buddy Gil and Castledale, ran sixth and 14th in the Kentucky Derby. Mullins said he would take a week to decide whether to go to Kentucky with Buzzards Bay, a horse he bought in Florida, on behalf of Bill Bianco and David Shimmon, for $175,000. The purchase came late last year, after Buzzards Bay, in his third start, beat maidens at Calder Race Course.

For Mullins, Buzzards Bay had won one of four starts, the win coming in the Golden Gate Derby on Jan. 15. After that, the colt beat only one horse in the Risen Star Stakes in New Orleans, then ran third in the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows. Mullins said Buzzards Bay bled significantly at Bay Meadows.

Ridden by Mark Guidry, Buzzards Bay completed 1 1/8 miles in 1:49, earning $450,000. Third behind Customer and General John B after a quarter of a mile, Buzzards Bay went to the front on the backstretch and stayed there. He held off General John B on the rail and Wilko from the outside in the closing strides.

“I’m getting quite a bit of gratification out of this win,” Mullins said as he sipped a beer after the race. “I think you [the media] know why. This is a horse who has a lot of heart and just keeps going. At the three-eighths pole, when I saw his ears going back and forth, I knew we had a good chance.”