HORSE RACING UPDATE: CHRB DROPS CHARGES.

Byline: Kevin Modesti Staff Writer

INGLEWOOD - Charges that Sweet Catomine's owner hid the filly's infirmities from bettors before her upset defeat in the Santa Anita Derby were abruptly dropped Saturday after track stewards heard a state investigator admit his work had been hasty.

But owner Martin Wygod did not appear placated by the dismissal, blaming the controversy on the press, threatening to sue California racing officials and saying he may walk away from the sport in which the billionaire health-care entrepreneur is a major player.

``My name was dragged through the mud in 20 to 30 newspapers,'' Wygod told reporters. ``Charges were brought against me that were totally unfounded.''

Stewards Tom Ward, Pete Pedersen and Dennis Nevin called Saturday's hearing at Hollywood Park to a halt after three hours - which made it only about one-half hour shorter than the investigation squeezed into the day after Sweet Catomine's fifth-place finish as an even-money favorite in the April 9 Santa Anita Derby.

Under questioning by defense attorney Richard Kendall, California Horse Racing Board investigator Christopher Loop said his fact-gathering was ``not necessarily to my satisfaction'' and regretted failing to interview Wygod and others directly involved in the case that riled bettors who lost money on Sweet Catomine.

Loop said supervising investigator Marla Lloyd told him to be ``expedient'' in seeking evidence to support charges Wygod misled the public about Sweet Catomine's physical problems and ordered the filly misidentified when she was transported from Santa Anita to a Santa Barbara-area farm for treatment.

Loop, who used to be with the Los Angeles and Glendale police departments, said he felt pressured to finish his investigation before two scheduled days off.

Neither Lloyd, who was on medical leave, nor CHRB executive director Ingrid Fermin, who was said to be in Kentucky, were available to testify Saturday.

In addition to Loop, only two witnesses were called by James Ahern, the state deputy attorney general presenting the CHRB's case. Trainer Julio Canani and horse-van driver Dean Kerkhoff - each still facing charges in the case - said nothing to suggest it was Wygod who ordered Sweet Catomine misidentified as a stable pony in a Santa Anita gate log. Kerkhoff said Wygod farm manager Russell Drake asked him to keep the filly's 3 a.m. departure ``quiet.''

Said Kendall in calling for the dropping of charges that could have led to a suspension or fine: ``There's no evidence at all connecting Mr. Wygod to what happened on that gate book. There's no evidence ... there was anything wrong with the horse.''

Ahern then conceded he was working with insufficient evidence.

It was Wygod who had said there was something wrong with Sweet Catomine in the first place.

After 2004's champion 2-year-old filly finished fifth behind Buzzards Bay in the Santa Anita Derby, Wygod went to the press box and said he had been ``thinking about scratching her'' because she had bled in an April 3 workout, the condition that prompted the trip to the Alamo Pintadomedical facility in Los Olivos. Wygod added she had suffered from a foot problem and had just gone into heat for the first time. The owner detailed none of those problems to reporters in the days before the race.

Kevin Modesti, [phone]

heymodesti(at)aol.com