Red-hot California trainer John Sadler may also be hot under the collar after California Horse Racing Board investigators raided his barn Monday morning in an apparent search for prohibited medications. So hot, in fact, that Sadler told the Paulick Report he and his attorney are considering legal action against the regulatory agency.

Sadler’s rise to the top of the California training ranks wasn’t exactly meteoric. The one-time show-horse rider who turned 52 years old last month, took out his trainer’s license in 1979 and won his first stakes race that same year. He’s been a steady presence over the years, but Sadler has never been as hot as he has been in 2008. When CHRB investigators conducted their shakedown of his barn at Del Mar on Monday, as first reported in Daily Racing Form, Sadler was the meet’s leading trainer, winning at a 28% clip and having a 60% top-three percentage. Sadler’s 22 winners from 78 starters put him far ahead of second-place Jeff Mullins, who recently was charged with having a horse that exceeded the permitted TCO2 level (milkshaking).

Sadler said on Wednesday he and his attorney, Donald Calabria, are preparing a public statement regarding the raid. “It’s not anything,” he told the Paulick Report in response to a question about the investigation. “These are unusual circumstances. We don’t really understand it, and we are putting materials together.” The trainer then said “we are talking” about possible litigation.

Sadler also was leading trainer at Hollywood Park this summer, winning 30 of 144 racese for a 23% clip and 56% in the money percentage. Three of his meet-leading seven stakes winners came on the same afternoon June 28 when he won the Landaluce, A Gleam and American Handicap. Sadler was runner-up to Mike Mitchell in the winter-spring Santa Anita trainer standings.

Sadler has relied heavily on the California breeding program to populate his public stable and has won stakes races on a steady basis. He got his start as an assistant to the highly respected veterinarian Jack Robbins and also worked for trainers Tom Pratt, David Hofmans and Eddie Gregson. One of his biggest stars in his early years was the unbeaten California-bred filly Melair, who defeated Preakness winner Snow Chief in the 1986 Silver Screen Handicap at Hollywood Park, going a mile in 1:32 4/5.

His win percentage in recent years has hovered between 16-21%, and he’s ranked as high as 16^th nationally among trainer by money won, with $5,408,950 in 2007. Last year was by far his best season, topping the $4,129,131 earned in 2006 and almost doubling his 2003 and 2004 money figures.

Barring a huge slump, Sadler will easily have a career year in 2008. His 413 starters have won 83 times (20%) and earned $4,812,846.

Sadler has also served on industry boards, including California Thoroughbred Trainers and Thoroughbred Owners of California, and he was instrumental in establishing the Eddie Gregson Foundation.

A 2007 profile of Sadler in Bloodhorse magazine said the trainer applauded the tightening of medication rules in California. “We have the best testing in the country,” he was quoted as saying, “and now they’re doing this out-of-performance testing, which I think is fabulous. We’re leading the way in reforming medication.”

The Racing Form article which broke the news of the raid (although it had already been widely discussed in a Del Mar Thoroughbred Club online forum) said speculation centered on the possibility of a search for anabolic steroids, which are being phased out as permitted medications in California. Beginning Aug. 1, tests for steroids became “official,” but positives will not be subject to fines, suspensions or loss of purse money until after Sept. 4.
Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

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