Wrecking Crew headed to Churchill post-Arkansas Derby scratch

Wrecking Crew, a Grade 1-placed colt who scratched from the Arkansas Derby (G1) after it was discovered he was on the vet’s list back home in California, is cleared to race again.

Trainer Peter Miller sent the son of Sky Kingdom out Tuesday for a five-furlong breeze at Oaklawn Park in a bullet 59.40 seconds because due to California Horse Racing Board rules enacted Jan. 1, “He had to work 5/8s and get tested — urine and blood — for clenbuterol, which he hasn’t been on for seven weeks now,” Miller said Friday. “It is what it is.”

Miller and owner Rockingham Ranch only found out about the vet’s list designation after shipping Wrecking Crew for last Saturday’s Arkansas Derby. The trainer expressed disdain toward Oaklawn for not recognizing the colt was ineligible to run, as well as California’s policy that “makes no sense because we have a zero tolerance on the drug” on race day.

“You talk about a waste of money,” Miller said last week. “So you’re going to spend $500 to test a horse for a substance he’s not allowed to have. Why are you testing for it?”

Scrutiny has ramped up in recent years given the perception that horsemen could abuse clenbuterol, a bronchodilator, by administering excessive doses out of competition in hopes of a steroid-like effect. Wrecking Crew, a $875,000 son of Sky Kingdom, had been prescribed it for a brief time in March after a veterinarian found mucus in the colt’s airways.

From Oaklawn, Wrecking Crew will join Miller’s string of about a dozen horses at Churchill Downs rather than return to California.

“He’s about had enough of it,” Miller said of Rockingham Ranch’s California-based Gary Hartunian. “A lot of owners and trainers are getting fed up with the amount of nonsense.”

Wrecking Crew will be nominated to the May 23 Matt Winn (G3), a 1 1/16-mile race recently added to the Kentucky Derby trail, but Miller said an allowance for 3-year-olds is “more than likely” the spot with jockey Jose Ortiz to ride.

Churchill has in its condition book a May 17 allowance optional claiming event at seven furlongs that fits the bill for Wrecking Crew. He won on debut last summer at Saratoga and has competed exclusively in graded stakes since then, placing in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, Del Mar Futurity (G1) and Best Pal (G2).

Miller and Rockingham Ranch have paired up to win multiple Breeders’ Cup races and Eclipse Awards with champions Roy H and Stormy Liberal.