TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

REMARKS: In the paddock just minutes before Saturday’s Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park, trainer Jimmy Croll and jockey Craig Perret were having more than the typical prerace conversation as they discussed the strategy to employ with Bet Twice.

Perret, who had ridden Bet Twice in seven of his eight starts, was asking Croll for permission to change the running tactics with the colt.

“They’ve put a lot of water on the track today,” Perret said. “In some of the other races, the dirt’s been flying and it’s been stinging horses that have been coming from off the pace. I’d like to have him closer today. I’d hate for him to get discouraged in the first part (of the race).”

There was no debate. “You’re the rider, not me,” Croll said to Perret.

Although Bet Twice is known as a late-running horse, Perret had him just off the pace, then moved on the far turn to pass the four leaders and take a 1 1/2-length lead. Bet Twice increased that margin by a length over No More Flowers, a 25-1 shot, at the wire, and a foul claim against the winner by Walter Guerra, the runner-up’s jockey, was disallowed.

After the race, Croll said: “Craig was right. That’s why we use him.”

Despite winning the Flamingo at Hialeah Feb. 28, Talinum is expected to be the second choice behind Bet Twice when they meet in the Florida Derby at Gulfstream April 4.

One of the other winners over the weekend was Gulch, who under heavy punishment from his jockey, Jose Santos, managed a one-length victory over High Brite in the seven-furlong Bay Shore at Aqueduct.

Gulch’s first win since last September must be tempered by the fact that the horse he beat is a Wayne Lukas trainee who wasn’t even nominated for the Triple Crown races. Lukas has at least six 3-year-olds in his well scattered barns that he thinks more of, and High Brite ran for a $50,000 claiming price when he first started in New York last fall.

Capote, who along with Talinum is part of Lukas’ first string, had a six-furlong workout postponed Monday morning at Hollywood Park, where the track was sticky and deep from recent rains. Capote will try again today, then is due to be sent to New York, where he’ll face Gulch in the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct on April 4.

Despite Chart The Stars’ win Sunday in the San Felipe Handicap at Santa Anita, the Triple Crown panel has reservations about his stamina and put Alysheba ahead of him in the ratings, even though he was beaten by three-fourths of a length. They’ll meet again April 4 in the Santa Anita Derby, which is the next start for Masterful Advocate.

The $500,000 Jim Beam Sunday at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., is the richest 3-year-old race this week, but more attention will be focused on the $100,000 Rebel Stakes Saturday at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. That’s because the Rebel will mark the return of Demons Begone, who has run the most impressive Kentucky Derby prep by any 3-year-old so far.

Demons Begone won his last race at Oaklawn by eight lengths, running a mile in 1:34 3/5 and going much faster at the end than he did at the start.

“I have never witnessed a horse making a move like that one did that day at the three-eighths pole,” said Pat Day, who rides Demons Begone. “He did it so fast, it was amazing.”

The Kentucky Derby on May 2 is a quarter-mile farther, however.

“The way this colt relaxed for me, I have to believe that he can run all day,” Day said.

TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

Career Horse S 1 2 3 Earnings 1. Masterful Advocate 8 5 1 1 $409,425 2. Capote 4 3 0 0 645,680 3. Bet Twice 9 6 0 1 799,047 4. Talinum 8 3 1 1 365,116 5. Demons Begone 7 4 2 0 186,874 6. Cryptoclearance 9 4 1 1 220,750 7. Gulch 9 6 1 0 564,710 8. Alysheba 9 1 5 1 400,236 9. Chart The Stars 6 2 4 0 165,100 10. Temperate Sil 7 3 0 1 575,375

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