TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

REMARKS: Although Alysheba ran fourth, beaten by 14 1/2 lengths, in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, he has narrowly kept the top spot in the final edition of this year’s ratings.

“I’ve liked Bet Twice all year, ever since he started running his early races in Florida,” Gulfstream Park’s Tommy Trotter said. “But even though he won the Belmont in a big way, I’ve still got to leave Alysheba up there.

“Alysheba beat Bet Twice in two of the three races (the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness). If you were weighting these two horses for a handicap race, you’d go back more than one race before you’d come to a conclusion. Right now, if they ran, I’d put 126 pounds on Alysheba and 125 on Bet Twice.”

Santa Anita’s Frank (Jimmy) Kilroe had a different opinion. “There’s no question in my mind that Bet Twice is the No. 1 horse for the time being. Any horse that wins the Belmont by as much as he did deserves to be on top.”

For Lenny Hale, the counterpart for Trotter and Kilroe at Belmont Park, the call was almost too tough to make.

Hale felt that Alysheba had none the best of it in the Belmont. “There’s the Lasix question, and then you wonder if the horse might have been--as the English put it--over the top when he came to the race. He had had three hard races--the Blue Grass before the Derby and the Preakness--going into Saturday.

“It also amazed me the way he was ridden (by Chris McCarron). I couldn’t believe that he was under tight restraint for as long as he was.”

Because of New York rules, Alysheba couldn’t run on Lasix, an anti-bleeder medication that he was able to use while running in California, Kentucky and Maryland this year.

Alysheba didn’t bleed in the Belmont, however, and trainer Jack Van Berg doesn’t think that he needs the medication, because he’s planning to run the colt in August at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where Lasix also won’t be available. Bet Twice will continue their rivalry in the Travers, with a $1-million purse on the line.

McCarron will keep the mount on Alysheba, despite Van Berg being dismayed by the colt’s far-back position in the face of plodding early fractions in the Belmont.

“Jockeys ride in a mile-and-a-half race so seldom that it can be tricky,” Kilroe said. “To win at that distance, you’ve got to be on the pace. Nobody comes from left field to win the Belmont, because by then they don’t have any punch left.”

This is the way The Times’ panel fared during the Triple Crown season:

KENTUCKY DERBY--Demons Begone was the leader, but he bled heavily in the race and was pulled up by jockey Pat Day after a half-mile. Demons Begone hasn’t raced since, but has been training at Churchill Downs and is a possibility to run in the Travers. Alysheba was ranked seventh going into the Derby.

PREAKNESS--Stand up and cheer. The panel had Alysheba, Bet Twice, Cryptoclearance, Gulch and Avies Copy in that order, and that’s the way they finished at Pimlico.

BELMONT--Bet Twice and Cryptoclearance, who ran 1-2, were ranked 2-3, behind Alysheba.

The question was put to the panel Monday about the quality of this year’s crop. All three of the Triple Crown races were run in slow times.

“After the Derby, most people seemed to think that this wasn’t much of a crop,” Kilroe said. “Then after the Preakness, many people changed their opinion. Only one horse was able to run a mile and a half in the Belmont, so the thinking is probably back to the original theory. What it all means, probably, is that we still don’t know. Let’s watch the 3-year-olds run against older horses in the fall before we decide.”

Career Horse S 1 2 3 Earnings 1. Alysheba 13 3 5 2 $1,495,642 2. Bet Twice 13 7 3 1 2,313,207 3. Cryptoclearance 13 5 3 2 701,442 4. Gulch 15 8 1 2 401,482 5. Demons Begone 10 6 2 0 573,394 6. Java Gold 9 5 1 1 336,552 7. Temperate Sil 8 4 0 1 853,625 8. Avies Copy 14 3 2 1 404,200 9. Gone West 13 5 4 2 526,701 10. Polish Navy 6 4 1 0 377,928

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 Belmont Park.