TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

REMARKS: A man of many afterthoughts, trainer Neil Drysdale has had another one in the wake of Tasso’s easy victory Saturday at Aqueduct, in the colt’s first start since he finished last year as 2-year-old champion.

Why not keep Tasso in New York and let him finish up his preparation for the Kentucky Derby at Aqueduct, a track the horse obviously loves?

“That’s a possibility,” Drysdale said Monday upon returning to his 25-horse division at Hollywood Park. Tasso is one of nine of Drysdale’s horses at Aqueduct.

Drysdale had said before last Saturday’s win in the Manassa Mauler Stakes that Tasso would probably run next in the Gotham at Aqueduct April 5. That’s still the plan, but now Drysdale is leaning toward staying at Aqueduct for the Wood Memorial April 19 instead of going to Kentucky for the Blue Grass at Keeneland April 26, which is nine days before the Derby.

The Wood has been a popular springboard for previous Derby winners. Eleven Wood winners have gone on to run first in the Derby and four--Seattle Slew, Assault, Count Fleet and Gallant Fox--also swept the Triple Crown series.

Tasso’s win Saturday was his first since he won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Aqueduct last November and clinched the divisional championship.

“He liked the track a lot,” Drysdale said of Saturday’s race. “It was just what he needed. He was closer to the lead than he normally is, and then when he went to the front he started loafing around a little, because he’s not used to getting the lead that quickly. There wasn’t anything to speak of that ran behind him in the race, but it was a nice spot to start him off.”

Tasso might be facing Pillaster or Mogambo in the Wood, since trainer Leroy Jolley has made the decision to ship both of those colts from Florida to New York this week. Mogambo finished third in the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park, and Pillaster has yet to run as a 3-year-old, having been scratched from a grass race Saturday at Hialeah when the turf came up soft. Jolley has indicated that he does not want to run the colts against one another before the Kentucky Derby.

Monday was the mailing deadline for owners who had to pay $3,000 to make their horses eligible for the Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. It would have cost them only $600 if they had paid by Jan. 15.

My Prince Charming, who won Saturday’s Budweiser-Tampa Bay Derby at Tampa Bay Downs by a neck over Lucky Rebeau, wasn’t a definite for the late payment. “I’ll have to talk to my owner,” was what Newcomb Green, My Prince Charming’s trainer, was saying late in the day.

“Newcomb doesn’t like to take a horse anyplace where he might be embarrassed,” a friend of the trainer said. In 1983, the only time Green has started a horse in the Derby, he was embarrassed as the former claimer, My Mac, finished 14th. My Prince Charming ran fifth in the Florida Derby, almost 12 lengths behind the victorious Snow Chief.

Big Play, Imperious Spirit, Icy Groom, Rare Brick and Zabaleta are among at least 10 horses whose owners have paid the $3,000 Triple Crown fee.

Big Play, a distant second to Variety Road in Saturday’s San Felipe Handicap at Santa Anita, will not run right back in this Saturday’s Jim Beam Stakes at Latonia, as trainer Wayne Lukas had considered.

Zabaleta has moved from California to New York, to run Saturday in the Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct. Getting away from Santa Anita-based Snow Chief has sounded like a good idea. The only trouble is, in New York there’s now the rejuvenated Tasso to contend with.

Career Horse S 1 2 3 Earnings 1.Snow Chief 12 8 2 1 $1,444,040 2.Tasso 8 6 1 1 $794,534 3.Pillaster 4 3 1 0 $248,390 4.Ketoh 5 3 0 0 $173,550 5.Variety Road 8 3 1 4 $210,195 6.Badger Land 10 3 2 0 $251,325 7.Ferdinand 8 2 3 2 $265,900 8.Mogambo 9 3 1 4 $380,096 9.Meadowlake 2 2 0 0 $293,580 10.Rare Brick 6 6 0 0 $111,060

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 Hollywood Park and racing secretary at Gulfstream Park.