Sweet Catomine retired

Sweet Catomine will be bred to A.P. Indy (Michael J. Marten/Horsephotos.com)

Champion SWEET CATOMINE (Storm Cat) has been retired and will be bred to A.P.
Indy, it was announced Wednesday. The massive bay filly goes to the breeding
shed with earnings of $1,059,600 and a career mark that reads 7-5-1-1.

Named champion juvenile filly after an easy 3 3/4-length score in the
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1), Sweet Catomine dropped her career debut
last summer, but would not lose to her own gender again. She broke her maiden in
the Del Mar Debutante S. (G1) at Del Mar before scoring in the Oak Leaf S. (G2)
at Santa Anita. The leggy filly traveled once again for her next race, capping
off her two-year-old season at Lone Star Park in the Breeders’ Cup.

Returning at Santa Anita, Sweet Catomine gave notice to all that she was a
major force in the three-year-old ranks with a 2 1/2-length victory in January’s Santa Ysabel S. (G3). Next out, she finished three lengths ahead of her nearest rival
in the Santa Anita Oaks (G1), and her connections then announced that she would
be pointed toward the Kentucky Derby (G1) instead of the Kentucky Oaks (G1).

Trainer Julio Canani tried her against the boys in the Santa Anita Derby
(G1), but Sweet Catomine ran fifth. After the race, owner Marty Wygod said the
filly had bled in her final workout before the race and was in season. He also
said she was taken to a veterinary clinic days before the race. Based on these
comments, the California Horse Racing Board has started an investigation into
the actions of Wygod, Canani and the van driver who drove Sweet Catomine to the
clinic.