TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

The field appears to have settled at 19 horses for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, but there still won’t be enough defections for Churchill Downs to use only one starting gate for the 118th running of the race.

Churchill Downs has a 14-horse gate and must use an auxiliary when a field is larger than that.

This will be the seventh consecutive year that the extra gate has been needed.

It used to be that trainers considered the auxiliary gate a curse.

Clyde Van Dusen won from the No. 20 spot in a 21-horse field in 1929, and after that,no horse from the outside won until Gato Del Sol, who started No. 18 in a 19-horse field in 1982.

A year later, Swale drew the No. 15 post and won.

“I’d rather draw in the auxiliary gate than the one-hole on the rail,” said trainer Shug McGaughey, who ran second and third, respectively, with Easy Goer and Awe Inspiring in the 1989 Derby.

McGaughey doesn’t have a Derby starter this year.

“They went so long without a winner coming from the auxiliary gate that people got tothinking something was wrong with it,” he said. “But then it changed. And the year Forty Niner ran (1988), he was on the outside (No. 17) and he ran a good second, almost beating Winning Colors.

“So when I run a horse in the Derby, I don’t even worry about getting the auxiliary gate anymore.”

Neil Drysdale, starting his first horse in a Derby, trains A.P. Indy, the Santa Anita Derby winner who is expected to be the second betting choice Saturday, behind Arazi.

“Post position?” Drysdale said Monday. “Who would want No. 1? I think that’s standard, nobody wanting the inside. Nobody wants to be on the inside or the far outside, but anyplace else ought to be all right.”

Ferdinand broke from the No. 1 post before winning in 1986, but he is the only rail horse to have won the Derby in the last 27 years.

And Ferdinand and his jockey, Bill Shoemaker, had to survive a scare during the run to the first turn.

More than once, they were close to being sent over the fence, into the infield. That’s why trainers and jockeys fear the No. 1 spot at the Derby.

The post positions will be decided at entry time Thursday, when 19 horses--one fewerthan race capacity--are expected to be entered.

Wayne Lukas’ Hickman Creek, questionable for the Derby distance of 1 1/4 miles after losing to the best California horses at Santa Anita this winter, won’t run.

That still gives Lukas two starters--Dance Floor and Al Sabin.

Others expected to run are Arazi, A.P. Indy, Casual Lies, Conte Di Savoya, Devil His Due, Disposal, Dr Devious, Ecstatic Pride, Lil E. Tee, My Luck Runs North, Pine Bluff, Pistols And Roses, Sir Pinder, Snappy Landing, Technology, Thyer and West By West.

A.P. Indy went through his final serious preparation for the Derby, working six furlongs in a slow 1:15 3/5.

Drysdale would have been surprised by anything faster.

“He’s not a good work horse,” the trainer said. “He’s lazy. You have to give him company just to get him to do what he does. He wasn’t even blowing hard after today’s work.”

A.P. Indy worked with Quilna, a 4-year-old filly from Drysdale’s barn.

A.P. Indy and the others will have to be at their best to beat Arazi, and some Derby contenders have had problems.

Technology, who threw a shoe while winning the Tropical Park Derby at Calder, has had one visit from his regular Florida blacksmith, and the farrier is expected back again toward the end of the week.

Casual Lies, third in the Santa Anita Derby behind A.P. Indy and Bertrando, has been bothered by an allergic reaction to the bedding in his stall.

Lil E. Tee is trying to regain the weight he lost after a second-place finish to Pine Bluff in the Arkansas Derby. And West By West, second to Devil His Due in the Wood Memorial, seemed tired after his 14-hour van ride from New York the other day.

Several Derby horses will have important workouts today, including Disposal, the California Derby runner-up who might be the first on the track, at 6 a.m.

“That’s what time they open up the track,” trainer Bruce Headley said. “If we were at Santa Anita, we’d be out there at 5:30.”

The weather continues to be cold, although there is the chance of a warming trend later in the week.

There also is a chance of rain today and Wednesday. Light rain fell most of Monday morning, with temperatures in the low 40s.

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, racing secretary at Hialeah.

TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

Horse S 1 2 3 Earnings 1.Arazi 9 8 1 0 $1,117,608 2.A.P. Indy 6 5 0 0 722,555 3.Pine Bluff 10 5 1 2 679,988 4.Pistols And Roses 10 6 2 2 821,846 5.Technology 6 4 1 1 464,963 6.Devil His Due 6 4 1 0 432,725 7.Lil E. Tee 8 4 3 1 452,306 8.Casual Lies 9 5 0 2 445,628 9.Conte Di Savoya 10 1 3 1 129,368 10.Dr Devious 7 4 3 0 333,109