Sweet Catomine, last year’s 2-year-old filly champion who’s been mired in controversy since finishing fifth as the even-money favorite in the April 9 Santa Anita Derby, has been retired, owner Marty Wygod announced yesterday. She’ll be shipped from California to Kentucky and bred to A.P. Indy.
Sweet Catomine won three of four races, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, to win the Eclipse Award as the nation’s top 2-year-old filly of 2004, then won her first two starts this year at 3. But she never fired facing colts for the first time in the Santa Anita Derby, losing by five lengths.
Afterward, Wygod revealed that he’d considered scratching Sweet Catomine, who was in less-than-perfect condition. She bled during a workout the previous Sunday, and early Monday morning, deliberately misidentified as a stable pony, she was vanned from the track to an equine clinic for treatment.
The betting public was never informed of the setback, causing the California Horse Racing Board to mount an investigation. Subsequently, the CHRB filed complaints against Wygod, the van driver and her former trainer, Julio Canani, whom Wygod fired the day after the Santa Anita Derby.