‘Catomine Romps in Santa Anita Oaks

Though Marty Wygod appeared to be a man at peace with himself -- khaki pants, tennis shoes, open-collared shirt and black baseball cap -- looks were deceiving.

“I’m nervous,” he said in the walking ring about 10 minutes before Sunday’s $300,000 Santa Anita Oaks. Wygod’s gargantuan filly, Sweet Catomine, was 1-9 on the board at the time. She had won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at 2-1 and had paid $2.20 the last time she raced, but this was a Grade I race at 1-9, a race that might mean the Santa Anita Derby and the Kentucky Derby down a soon-to-be-traveled road.

Sweet Catomine, ridden by Corey Nakatani, crossed the finish line three lengths ahead in the Santa Anita Oaks, but there still was no immediate relief for the fidgety Wygod. Tyler Baze, riding Cream Donut Keith, who beat only one horse and lost by more than 15 lengths, claimed foul against Sweet Catomine, who crowded the other filly on the turn for home.

By now, Wygod had turned his cap around, Ken Griffey Jr. style. The three stewards put him through another eight minutes of agony before they left Sweet Catomine’s number where it was, at the top of the board. Her odds had gone up some and she paid $2.40, for her fifth straight win since a second-place finish in her debut. Of the $442,317 in the show pool, $394,530 was bet on Sweet Catomine.

“I’m on cloud seven,” said Wygod, who bred and races Sweet Catomine with his wife Pam.

Presumably the next ionospheric levels could be eight and nine with the Santa Anita Derby on April 9 and Kentucky Derby on May 7.

Sweet Catomine’s trainer, Julio Canani, parried the question about the Santa Anita Derby, but Marty Wygod wasn’t as evasive.

“We’ll run in the Santa Anita Derby, to see if she can prove to us that she deserves to run in the Kentucky Derby,” he said. “If she runs the right race at Santa Anita, then we’ll consider Kentucky.”

Only three fillies have won the Santa Anita Derby, the same as the Kentucky Derby. Winning Colors won both races in 1988. Since Winning Colors’ win at Churchill Downs, only three fillies have run in the Kentucky Derby. Serena’s Song finished 16th in 1995 and Excellent Meeting and Three Ring ran fifth and 19th, respectively, in 1999.

“We would want to make sure she belonged back there,” Wygod said. “Too high a percentage of Derby horses never do anything later, and we wouldn’t want to throw her in there unless we thought that she was the horse to beat.”

One less horse that Sweet Catomine has to beat in the Santa Anita Derby is Declan’s Moon. The undefeated gelding was knocked off the Triple Crown trail last week with a knee chip that will require surgery.

“I still think it’s a very competitive group of horses on the West Coast, compared to what’s back East,” Wygod said. “That and a dime would get you a subway ride -- in the old days.”

Baze was not happy with Nakatani’s tactics.

“Going around the turn, he has 20 lengths, the best horse and he

Cream Donut Keith had won both of her previous starts.

“The winner put us in a tight spot,” said Doug O’Neill, who trains Cream Donut Keith. “It didn’t cost us 20 lengths, and the best horse won, but still my jockey had to quit riding for a couple of steps.”

Nakatani thought Cream Donut Keith also felt pressure from the inside.

“I put Tyler in tight, but [Pat Valenzuela, riding Charming Colleen] came out. I had to check to give Tyler some room.”

Memorette didn’t give up and finished second, five lengths ahead of She Sings. The time for 1 1/16 miles, over a fast track that had been dulled by light rain, was 1:44 2/5 , slowest for an Oaks winner since 1982.

Sweet Catomine, sixth after a half-mile, took the long way around. She was six-wide when she looped the field.

“She’s the best filly I’ve ever ridden, and I’ve ridden a lot of nice fillies,” said Nakatani, who rode Serena’s Song in the Kentucky Derby.

Nakatani said Canani had not fully cranked up Sweet Catomine for her last two starts.

“We want to make sure she’s got plenty left in the tank,” Marty Wygod said.

*

Alex Solis limped back to the jockeys’ room and took the rest of the day off after his scheduled mount, Ed Said, kicked him before the sixth race. Solis suffered a bruised right thigh.

*

Turf-course records, which are falling regularly at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., took another beating when Old Forester won the $100,000 Canadian Turf Handicap by 1 1/4 lengths over Gulch Approval. The time for 1 1/16 miles was 1:38 1/5 . Favored Muqbil finished third.