Canani’s Actions Under Review

The California Horse Racing Board, which is investigating the events leading to the Santa Anita Derby, served a complaint Saturday against Julio Canani, the trainer of the beaten favorite, Sweet Catomine.

Jim Ahern, a state deputy attorney general, said Canani has been accused of “conduct detrimental to racing” in addition to violating the trainer-insurer rule, which makes a trainer accountable for his horse. A hearing before state stewards is scheduled for May 1 at Hollywood Park. Canani could be fined, suspended or exonerated.

Previously served with complaints were Marty Wygod, who co-owns Sweet Catomine with his wife Pam, and Dean Kerkhoff, a van driver who has said that he identified the filly as a stable pony when he signed her out at 3 a.m. at Santa Anita’s stable gate on April 4, five days before the race. Sweet Catomine, who had bled slightly in a workout on April 3, was treated at a clinic in Los Olivos, 140 miles away, to protect her against another bleeding incident, and returned to Canani’s barn at Santa Anita on April 5. The filly, whose fifth-place finish in the Santa Anita Derby knocked her out of a chance to run in the Kentucky Derby, was identified as a pony for the second time on the return trip to Santa Anita.

According to Wygod, Canani knew about Sweet Catomine’s trip to the clinic. Canani told investigators he was not at the barn when the horse was picked up by Kerkhoff, who works for Racehorse Transport. Since the race, the filly and five other Wygod horses trained by Canani have been transferred to trainer John Shirreffs.

Wygod, who has said that he did not instruct Kerkhoff to mis-identify Sweet Catomine when she left Santa Anita, is facing a three-tiered racing board complaint that says he made false and incomplete statements about the filly’s condition before the race. A hearing for Wygod and Kerkhoff is scheduled for Saturday at Hollywood Park.

Canani, reached by phone Saturday, hung up on a reporter seeking comment and then did not respond to a later phone message from The Times. He is one of four trainers who have been cited for sodium-bicarbonate violations at the current Santa Anita meet.

“This was a big race, and there appear to be some things that went on that were inappropriate,” Ahern said. “It’s been unfair to the betting public, and it’s given racing a bad name and tarnished the sport’s image.”

Wygod has said that the charges are without merit.

“It’s outrageous what they’ve done to me,” he said in an interview last week. “As much as I’ve done for the sport, and even more so in California, I don’t deserve this. I’m very angry.”

Wygod said that he was surprised that Sweet Catomine, who went off at even money, was not tested for drugs after the race. Ahern did not return a call seeking an explanation about why the filly wasn’t tested.

The Santa Anita Derby was won by longshot Buzzards Bay, trained by Jeff Mullins, who has also had a sodium-bicarbonate violation at Santa Anita this season. In an unrelated development, Mullins has received a complaint from the racing board regarding comments he made last month to T.J. Simers, a columnist for The Times. Mullins called bettors “idiots,” said they were “addicts” and also harshly criticized Ingrid Fermin, executive director of the racing board.

Mullins’ hearing, which had been scheduled for Saturday, has been postponed until April 30 at the request of his attorney.