TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

REMARKS: On a Belmont Stakes weekend when trainer Wayne Lukas wouldn’t let Gary Stevens forget his unfortunate ride aboard Farma Way in a $500,000 race--”It has to go down in history as one of the world’s worst rides,” he said--another conditioner, LeRoy Jolley, applauded Jerry Bailey’s rides on Hansel in the Belmont and Meadow Star in the Mother Goose. Hansel added to his Preakness victory by beating Kentucky Derby winner Strike The Gold by a head in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, and Meadow Star nipped Lite Light by the shortest of noses a day later.

“You couldn’t ask anybody to ride those two horses any better than Jerry did,” Jolley said.

Pat Day rode Hansel as a 2-year-old, winning the Arlington-Washington Futurity, and he continued to ride the colt last winter in Florida. By late March, Richman, who had won the Louisiana Derby under Day, was headed for the Jim Beam Stakes at Turfway Park. Meanwhile, Frank Brothers, the trainer of Hansel, was debating in Florida whether to ship his colt to Kentucky for the Beam.

“It was Tuesday, two days before entry day for the Beam, and Bill Mott (Richman’s trainer) needed to know who was going to ride his horse,” Day said. “Frankie wasn’t sure about Hansel yet, so we gave Richman the call. If we had done anything else, it wouldn’t have been the proper way to conduct business.”

Then Day tried to get on Strike The Gold for the Kentucky Derby, but Chris Antley had ridden him to victory in the Blue Grass, and trainer Nick Zito wanted to keep Antley. Day wound up with Corporate Report throughout the Triple Crown series.

“Hansel always had a great amount of ability,” Day said. “In Florida, his mentality had not caught up with his prowess. How could you describe him? He was like an immature child. But now he’s improved. He’s coordinated, and he doesn’t run spotty anymore.”

Bailey had never ridden Meadow Star until their victory together in the Acorn, two weeks before the Mother Goose. Antley had the mount in all of Meadow Star’s other races this year, but because he was tied up with Strike The Gold, Jolley switched to Bailey.

Bailey had to sustain Meadow Star’s run through the final three-eighths of a mile in the Mother Goose, with Lite Light looking his filly in the eye all the way.

In the Belmont, it was a case of Bailey holding the exhausted Hansel together barely long enough for them to reach the wire a fraction before the late-running Strike The Gold.

None of the Triple Crown races was won by a favorite, and The Times’ panel had difficulty zeroing in on the right horse at the right time:

In the Kentucky Derby, there was talk about ranking Strike The Gold first, coming off his Blue Grass victory over Fly So Free, but the panel decided to give Fly So Free another chance. He ran fifth, with Hansel going off as the favorite.

In the Preakness, Strike The Gold got the panel’s vote to repeat, then finished sixth as the favorite, one of the worst performances for a Derby winner at Pimlico.

By Belmont time, the panel couldn’t agree on which horse deserved to be on top. In a split decision, with Tommy Trotter favoring Hansel, Strike The Gold was left on top. It was a tough call, as it was a tough defeat for the son of Alydar.

Racing could use at least one more race between Hansel and Strike The Gold before their trainers consider running against the older horses in the fall. Such a rematch might not happen. Today, Hansel will be back at Arlington International, in Brothers’ barn. There are several races in the Midwest for the trainer to consider without returning to New York, where Hansel, a bleeder, cannot use Lasix because of state rules. Brothers can look at Lite Light minus Lasix, bleeding in the Mother Goose and be thankful it didn’t happen to his horse the day before.

Besides, Hansel, a horse-of-the-year candidate, would have more to lose than gain by taking on Strike The Gold again in Strike The Gold’s back yard. They have run against one another in all three Triple Crown races, and Hansel won two. The case will probably be closed, at least until the fall.

TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

Career Horse S 1 2 3 Earnings 1.Hansel 12 7 1 2 $2,661,586 2.Strike The Gold 10 3 3 1 1,187,646 3.Fly So Free 12 8 1 1 1,456,044 4.Mane Minister 11 3 0 5 374,776 5.Meadow Star 12 11 0 0 1,340,530 6.Lite Light 15 7 4 1 972,391 7.Dinard 5 4 1 0 452,750 8.Corporate Report 7 2 3 0 328,908 9.Best Pal 12 6 3 1 1,293,695 10.Green Alligator 9 2 4 0 256,500

Advisory panel for The Times’ Triple Crown Ratings: Lenny Hale, vice president for racing at Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga; Frank (Jimmy) Kilroe, director of racing emeritus at Santa Anita; and Tommy Trotter, director of international racing at Arlington International Racecourse.