HORSE RACING : Triple Crown Ratings

Career Horse S 1 2 3 Earnings 1. Chief’s Crown 10 7 0 2 $951,682 2. Proud Truth 6 5 0 0 $325,197 3. Rhoman Rule 7 3 1 1 $153,848 4. Irish Sur 12 4 2 4 $220,209 5. Banner Bob 10 5 3 1 $188,351 6. Tank’s Prospect 9 3 2 2 $582,795 7. Do It Again Dan 15 3 2 6 $154,084 8. Steph. Odyssey 6 3 1 0 $667,360 9. Stone White 7 3 1 1 $98,270 10.Image Greatness 8 3 3 1 $154,750

REMARKS: Asked to evaluate Rhoman Rule’s win in Saturday’s Everglades Stakes at Hialeah, jockey Eddie Maple said: “On one hand, he beat a bunch of mediocre horses. But his time was awful good.”

Maple had the best albeit distant view of Rhoman Rule--he finished eight lengths behind on Creme Fraiche, a 3-year-old colt who’s now been beaten by five horses in the top 10.

After a slow half-mile pace of :48 4/5, Rhoman Rule covered a mile in 1:35 2/5--a second faster than Hialeah’s track record--and his time of 1:47 4/5 for the 1 1/8 miles was the third fastest in stake history. Only Gen. Duke in 1957 and ’66 Horse-of-the-Year Buckpasser have run the Everglades faster.

Hialeah’s track, however, has been conducive to fast times this season. The six-furlong and 1 1/8-mile records have been broken since the meeting opened on March 7.

“I had plenty of horse all the way,” said Jacinto Vasquez, Rhoman Rule’s jockey. “He was running easy from start to finish.”

Rhoman Rule, who’ll probably run next in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 20, ran behind horses such as Script Ohio, Spend a Buck, Tank’s Prospect and Mighty Appealing as a 2-year-old. A $310,000 yearling purchase by Brownell Combs, the Stop the Music colt would be the first Pennsylvania-bred to win the Kentucky Derby if he finished first at Churchill Downs on May 4.

As for Spend a Buck, who underwent arthroscopic surgery for a bone chip in his knee after running third in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Stakes at Hollywood Park last November, he left Monday for Aqueduct, where he’ll make his 3-year-old debut in the Bay Shore Stakes on Saturday. Spend a Buck had what jockey Angel Cordero called a “super” workout at Calder last week, going 1:12 1/5 over a track not known for fast times.

A new though not yet forceful name in the Triple Crown picture is Regal Remark, who won Saturday’s Budweiser-Tampa Bay Derby at Tampa Bay Downs. The 5-year-old Tampa Bay race isn’t a major stop en route to the Kentucky Derby, but Reinvested, who won there in ‘82, came back to finish third in Louisville.

Regal Remark, who was sidelined seven months with a leg injury, runs best when Jeffrey Fell rides him. As a 3-year-old, Regal Remark has won two of three starts, running sixth when Fell missed the race due to an ankle injury. Regal Remark also won last year at Woodbine in the only other race Fell rode him.

Just when it appeared that Skywalker had run out of excuses after finishing second by a nose to Image of Greatness in Sunday’s San Felipe Handicap at Santa Anita, some of his supporters found a new reason for the colt to lose. Reruns of the race showed that Pat Day had trouble switching whip hands in the run with Image of Greatness to the wire.

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.