Sweet Catomine Retired After Santa Anita Flop

Sweet Catomine, the champion filly who wound up in the center of a firestorm after her fifth-place finish in the Santa Anita Derby, has been retired, her co-owner, Marty Wygod, said Wednesday.

Wygod, who along with his wife, Pam, bred and raced Sweet Catomine, said that the filly would be sent to Mill Ridge Farm in Lexington, Ky., and bred to A.P. Indy, the 1992 horse of the year. A.P. Indy stands at Lane’s End Farm in Versailles, Ky., where he commands a $300,000 stud fee, second only to Storm Cat’s $500,000.

“Our veterinarians have examined the filly, and they recommended that we retire her,” Wygod said. “We are retiring her sound.” He declined to be more specific.

On April 10, the day after the Santa Anita Derby, Sweet Catomine’s trainer, Julio Canani, said the filly had emerged from the race in good order.

Last week, after Sweet Catomine and five other Wygod horses had been moved from Canani’s barn to trainer John Shirreffs, Wygod said the filly was likely to surface in some East Coast races, with a prominent New York horseman expected to take over as her trainer.

While Sweet Catomine might be gone, the ugly aftermath of the Santa Anita Derby won’t go away quickly. Wygod and a van driver, Dean Kerkhoff, are scheduled to testify Saturday at a hearing at Hollywood Park before state stewards, who represent the California Horse Racing Board in its complaints against those who were in close contact with the filly during Santa Anita Derby week.

Wygod allegedly misled the public in commenting about Sweet Catomine’s pre-race condition. Kerkhoff told a racing board investigator that he identified Sweet Catomine as a stable pony to Santa Anita security when he transported the filly to a clinic 140 miles away April 4. Kerkhoff said he told another driver to also identify the filly as a pony when she was returned to Santa Anita on April 5.

The racing board’s complaint against Canani alleges “conduct detrimental to racing” and violation of the trainer-insurer rule, which makes the trainer the bottom-line custodian of a horse. Canani’s hearing is scheduled for May 1.

Wygod declined to comment about his hearing. A horseplayer who bet on Sweet Catomine, alleging fraud, has sued Wygod, Canani and Santa Anita for allowing the horse to run without fully informing the public of a bleeding problem and other pre-race conditions.

“The suit is without merit,” Wygod said. “I intend to vigorously defend myself.”

Sweet Catomine, running against males for the first time, was the even-money favorite in the Santa Anita Derby. She won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies last year, clinching an Eclipse Award. Her final record was five wins and one second in seven starts, with earnings of $1,059,600.

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Churchill Downs and the Jockeys’ Guild have made a deal. Churchill has agreed to drop its request for a temporary injunction, and the guild, which says it represents 1,200 riders, said that it wouldn’t disrupt business at Churchill or any of the company’s other tracks, which include Hollywood Park.

Jockeys declined to ride at Churchill and another of its tracks, Hoosier Park, in November, and Churchill feared that some riders might do the same thing at the Kentucky Derby, which will be run May 7.

Jockeys have been concerned about what they say is inadequate accident-insurance coverage.

In February, Kentucky tracks increased jockeys’ coverage from $100,000 to $1 million.

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Gary Stevens will ride Noble Causeway and Corey Nakatani has taken the mount on Wilko in the Derby. Trainer Nick Zito, who is running Noble Causeway and four other horses, needs a rider for Andromeda’s Hero, who finished third under Nakatani in the Arkansas Derby. Zito’s riding lineup includes Javier Castellano on Bellamy Road; Edgar Prado on Sun King and Jerry Bailey on High Fly.... Jeremy Rose, who won the Arkansas Derby with Afleet Alex, will retain the mount when the colt runs in the Kentucky Derby.... Don’t Get Mad, sixth in the Santa Anita Derby, will run in the Derby Trial at Churchill Downs on April 30, with an outside chance that he would return in the Kentucky Derby a week later ... Blues and Royals, Sheik Mohammed’s Derby contender, will miss the race because of a respiratory ailment.