TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

REMARKS: The other day, Charlie Whittingham, who trains Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand, and Mel Stute, the conditioner of Preakness winner Snow Chief, met by chance in the Hollywood Park paddock.

Stute was saddling a horse in a claiming race, where most of his stock runs.

Whittingham--well, Whittingham likes to hang around the paddock even if he doesn’t have a horse running. The 73-year-old trainer has done more winning than anybody--Ferdinand’s victory in the Derby was Whittingham’s 465th stakes win--but he still figures he might learn something.

“I was just talking with Marje Everett (Hollywood Park’s chief executive officer),” Stute said. “She asked me how much it would take to get Snow Chief to run here before the season ends. Wanna match race, Charlie?”

Whittingham shook his hairless head. “A horse that gets the lead in a match race always wins it, so that wouldn’t be any good,” Whittingham said. “But I’ll tell you what: I’d run against your horse if we went a mile and a half on the grass. I think that’s going to eventually be the best spot for my horse.”

Snow Chief has never run on the grass, and there aren’t any immediate plans to try him there, but Stute didn’t say no. “Somebody puts up enough money,” he said to Whittingham, “and we’ll run you at any distance on any surface you want.”

Whittingham has more immediate considerations with Ferdinand. While Stute remains at Hollywood Park, starting to prepare Snow Chief for his next race, the $300,000 St. Paul Derby at Canterbury Downs on June 29, Whittingham has gone to New York, to saddle Ferdinand in the $350,000 Belmont Stakes this Saturday.

Ferdinand, second to Snow Chief in the Preakness, will be favored in the Belmont, which has eight definite starters and four possible entrants.

The definites besides Ferdinand are Rampage, Mogambo, Danzig Connection, Fobby Forbes, Johns Treasure, Imperious Spirit and Bordeaux Bob. Others that might be dropped into the race at entry time Thursday morning include Groovy, Personal Flag, Royal Doulton and Wise Times.

Ogygian and Meadowlake, two of the best 2-year-olds in the country last year, are also stabled at Belmont, but they are returning from injuries and don’t have enough seasoning to run in the 1 1/2-mile Belmont.

Ogygian, like Meadowlake, didn’t lose a race last year, and last month, in his second start at 3, he missed the Belmont Park record for seven furlongs by just a fifth of a second.

On Monday, Meadowlake made his much-delayed 3-year-old debut, and easily disposed of a field of mostly older horses, winning by 3 3/4 lengths and running six furlongs in 1:09 1/5. That was four-fifths of a second slower than the track record.

While not running in the Belmont, Ogygian is scheduled to run Belmont day, in the 1 1/8-mile Colin Stakes that’s also on the card. There were 25 3-year-olds nominated for the Colin, but the word at Belmont is that most of the trainers want no part of Ogygian and there may not be enough entries for the race to be run. In that event, Ogygian would run at Belmont Friday, in the 1 1/8-mile Nassau County Handicap against older horses.

Meadowlake’s win Monday was his first start since he won the Arlington-Washington Futurity by almost nine lengths last September.

“He slipped a little leaving the gate,” jockey Chris McCarron said. “But once he got his feet under him, he was all right. He did it easy. He’s a big, strong horse and he won pretty handily.”

Trainer Bert Sonnier will probably run Meadowlake next in another overnight allowance before he considers the colt for stakes competition. Because of Meadowlake and Ogygian, the survivors of the Triple Crown wars will have their toughest competition still ahead of them.

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.

TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

Career Horse S 1 2 3 Earnings 1.Snow Chief 16 1 2 1 $2,730,940 2.Ferdinand 11 3 4 3 1,020,300 3.Ogygian 5 4 1 0 143,320 4.Rampage 9 4 2 0 365,086 5.Meadowlake 3 3 0 0 308,580 6.Broad Brush 11 7 1 2 650,443 7.Mogambo 13 4 3 4 858,246 8.Badger Land 14 5 2 0 519,625 9.Danzig Connect. 11 4 4 2 240,060 10.Fobby Forbes 10 4 4 0 323,470