Craig Lewis

After spending years climbing the corporate ladder at national credit card issuer MBNA Corp., Craig Lewis decided he wasn't going to be content unless he could run his own company. "I got nearly to the top, but I still wasn't the boss," said the former senior vice president of marketing at the 25,000-employee operation. Searching for a more entrepreneurial job and better control of his life -- for years the bank transferred him every 15 months -- Lewis set out to buy his own small business.

The former bookkeeper for horse trainers Bill Shoemaker and Craig Lewis is being investigated by Arcadia police for allegedly embezzling more than $215,000, The Times has learned. Lewis, most recently known for his horse Larry The Legend, told police his bookkeeper of 10 years, Susan Bradley of Arcadia, has stolen at least $200,000 from him over the past four years.

You all know what a successful horse trainer looks like--five-gallon hat, boots, string tie. Sleeps in a stable, plates his own horses, never talks above a whisper if he talks at all. Carries a clock with him but works his horse in the dark so nobody but he will know how fast the animal is. He spends his life shopping for a price. He answers to a name like "Plain Ben," or "Sunny Jim," or "Cactus Joe." And we all know what a Kentucky Derby horse is.

Craig Lewis wasn't confident going into the race, and he wasn't confident after most of it had been run. But what does a trainer know? Larry The Legend dug in for the final strides Saturday, beating Afternoon Deelites by a head in the $700,000 Santa Anita Derby, and now this pocket-size 3-year-old colt will run with his legend intact in the Kentucky Derby four weeks from now. "I wanted to win this race, I took a shot, and fate was kind to me," Lewis said.

The former bookkeeper for horse trainers Bill Shoemaker and Craig Lewis turned herself in Wednesday night to Arcadia police after learning she was being sought for allegedly embezzling more than $200,000, police said. Susan Bradley of Arcadia was arraigned Thursday in Santa Anita Municipal Court on two charges of grand theft for approximately $200,000, said Det. Bob Anderson of the Arcadia Police Dept. She is being held in Los Angeles County jail on $150,000 bail, Anderson said.