Triple Crown Ratings : Career...

REMARKS: Eddie Maple, who has been astride Stephan’s Odyssey and Script Ohio, two top 3-year-olds based in Florida, will be at Santa Anita Sunday to ride Floating Reserve in the $125,000 San Felipe Handicap.

It could be that kind of year for jockeys and their agents--testing the waters until the assignments fall into place for the Kentucky Derby May 4.

Maple has not won a Derby in six tries, and he lost one of his potential mounts this year when Script Ohio developed a bone chip in his right knee last week. Maple’s other 3-year-old, Stephan’s Odyssey, was a disappointing sixth in the Florida Derby.

The mount on Floating Reserve became available when Laffit Pincay, sixth with the colt in the San Rafael Stakes Feb. 23, chose to stay with Image of Greatness for the San Felipe. Trainer Wayne Lukas said last week that Image of Greatness would start in the San Felipe, and Tank’s Prospect, winner of the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows in his last start, would be saved for the Santa Anita Derby April 6.

Jorge Velasquez and Pat Day are other jockeys who will eventually have Kentucky Derby decisions to make. Velasquez has been riding Tank’s Prospect and Proud Truth, winner of the Florida Derby, and would like to wait until just before the Kentucky Derby before he picks his horse.

“I can’t wait that long,” Lukas said. If both Tank’s Prospect and Proud Truth continue on their separate routes to the Derby, it’s likely that Velasquez would stick with Proud Truth, since the jockey’s relationship with trainer John Veitch dates back to 1978 and Alydar, who with Velasquez finished second to Affirmed in all three Triple Crown races.

Veitch didn’t even give Velasquez any instructions for riding Proud Truth in the Florida Derby. “I have great confidence in Jorge,” the trainer said. “The less I say, the better off we’ll be.”

Day, winner of the 1984 Eclipse Award as the country’s best jockey, had a choice between two undefeated colts in last Saturday’s Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park. The horses ran 1-2, and for a race, at least, Day picked the right mount as Clever Allemont won by a half length over It’s a Done Deal.

There seems to be an exceptionally strong crop of 3-year-olds at Oaklawn this year and the best may be Tiffany Ice, a gray trained by Joe Cantey. Tiffany Ice won the Sanford Stakes at Saratoga last summer, then finished second to Chief’s Crown in the Hopeful two weeks later.

In New York Saturday, King Babar won the six-furlong Swift, and Nordance triumphed in an overnight stake at a mile and 70 yards, but neither horse looked like a Secretariat in the rough. The best thing that can be said about Nordance at this stage is that he’s a son of a hot sire, Danzig, who is already represented by Chief’s Crown and Stephan’s Odyssey in the ratings.

Pamela Sinn, who trains King Babar, had earlier been denied stall space at Garden State Park. After the win in the Swift, Aqueduct found room for Sinn’s colt, who ran as though a roof over his head depended on it.

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