MULLINS WIDENS GRAY AREA WITH WIN.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI Horse Racing 

ARCADIA - As he rode a creaky elevator to the racetrack press box for his annual Santa Anita Derby winner's news conference Saturday, Jeff Mullins was asked how this victory might feel different than the first two.

Mullins flashed a naughty grin.

``I don't have my attorney here,'' he said. ``I'd better not say.''

They could have had a courtroom full of lawyers, a judge and a jury at Santa Anita and not been able to tell the good guys from the bad on an afternoon when 38,014 fans showed up for the Santa Anita Derby, most hoping to cheer Sweet Catomine to a Battle of the Sexes victory that might have made her the sentimental favorite for the Kentucky Derby.

The Sweet Catomine story went sour as the filly ran a dull fifth at even money and owner Martin Wygod invited bettors' anger by revealing after the race that a bout with pulmonary bleeding had made the filly ``50-50'' to be scratched. You either hit the bettors with that kind of information before they dump $700,000 in win-place-show wagers on your horse, which Wygod and trainer Julio Canani did not do, or you bite your tongue. What these guys did was the worst kind of alibi-making, and might have left thousands of losing players feeling deceived by the sport.

The Jeff Mullins story turned sweet as Buzzards Bay and jockey Mark Guidry won by one-half length at 30-1 odds to provide some vindication for the trainer who stuck his boots in a pair of controversies this season, first running afoul of the racetrack narc squad and then slamming horse players.

As Sweet Catomine spun her wheels, Buzzards Bay raced close to a soft early pace and kept going. General John B, another long shot at 64-1, finished second, a nose in front of Wilko. Then came Giacomo, Sweet Catomine and Don't Get Mad in the 11-horse race.

It was Mullins' third consecutive Santa Anita Derby victory, following those of Buddy Gil, a 6-1 shot, and Castledale, at 30-1, and gave him the first three-peat in the history of the race whose two-time winners include some of the greats.

Although Mullins was careful not to enumerate the reasons for his vindication, he clearly felt satisfaction after his winter of embattlement.

``There's quite a bit of gratification that comes with this one,'' Mullins said after he got off the press-box elevator. ``I think you know why.''

To be a horse-racing fan means accepting that along with the occasional true hero and clear-cut villain comes a barn full of men and women whose true character is impossible to discern.

Emblematic is Mullins, the 42-year-old Utah native whose extraordinary winning percentage is the result, depending on whom you ask, of either horsemanship or cheating - or both.

In February, Mullins became one of four Santa Anita trainers nailed by postrace tests designed by the track and state owners' and trainers' associations to detect performance-enhancing ``milkshakes.''

A Mullins horse was found with excessive carbon dioxide in blood samples. All of his horses were placed under surveillance in a detention barn for 24 hours before racing.

In the month of detention, Mullins' win percentage dropped from 28.4 to 13.1, and it has been around 18 since the sanction was lifted.

``I haven't had to prove anything, I don't think,'' Mullins said after winning with Buzzards Bay, whose co-owner Bill Bianco is - ironically enough - a member of the California Horse Racing Board.

``I'm going to still win races no matter what anybody says.''

The milkshake case was only half the winter battle for Mullins, who is second in the Santa Anita trainer standings.

Amid that controversy, Mullins told a Los Angeles Times columnist that anybody who bets on racehorses is either an ``idiot'' or an ``addict.''

The swipe at the paying customers caused panic in the anxious world of horse-racing PR. Mullins went on the TVG racing network for an apologetic interview.

Having the Santa Anita Derby won not by the popular filly but by a horse trained by Jeff Mullins just might not have been what the sport's marketing department ordered.

This is racing, though. Sometimes the heroes wear black hats, sometimes the heels wear white. If you know which is which, please contact your local Racing Board investigator.

Mullins found Buzzards Bay in another trainer's barn in Florida and recommended the $175,000 purchase. The colt has run four times for Mullins, winning only the Golden Gate Derby by a nose in January. Off more recent form, the only reason to pick him in Saturday's race was Mullins' Santa Anita Derby touch.

This didn't turn out to be a great Santa Anita Derby.

The race typically produces a Kentucky Derby winner only when it is run in 1:48 4/5 or faster for the 1 1/8 miles and 12 3/5 seconds or faster in the final eighth.

Buzzards Bay clocked 1:49.18 and 12.73.

Buzzards Bay likely will go to Churchill Downs anyway for the May 7 Derby.

You talk about a chance for vindication. Jeff Mullins can't talk about it, not without his attorney at hand.