TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

REMARKS: With only two more significant races to be run between now and the Kentucky Derby on May 7, most of the candidates will not go away.

The Wood Memorial on Saturday eliminated Cherokee Colony, because of shin injuries, and the Arkansas Derby reportedly eliminated Notebook, because of a case of the slows, but there seem to be as many Derby prospects now as there were two weeks ago, and there might even be more.

The Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland Thursday and the Derby Trial at Churchill Downs Saturday doubtlessly will send numerous horses to the sidelines, but a check at both tracks Monday showed that 32 horses are either on the grounds or headed for Kentucky. They can be defined this way:

Definite starters (12)--Winning Colors, Private Terms, Forty Niner, Brian’s Time, Risen Star, Lively One, Kingpost, Proper Reality, Tejano, Cefis, Mi Preferido, Purdue King.

Probable starters (5)--Seeking the Gold, Regal Classic, Digress, Stalwars, Sea Trek.

Possible starters (9)--Primal, Firery Ensign, Buoy, Drouilly’s Boy, Five Star Camp, Intensive Command, Cougarized, Granacus, Delightful Doctor.

Not expected to run but don’t be surprised if they show up, anyway (5)--Notebook, Din’s Dancer, What a Diplomat, Ongoing Mister, Star Attitude.

Unless at least 11 of these 3-year-olds drop out by the time Derby entries are taken a week from Thursday, Churchill Downs will have to invoke the money rule, which says that the maximum field of 20 horses is determined by highest earnings in important races.

A field of between 10 and 13 is likely for the 1 1/8-mile Blue Grass. Definites are Digress, Regal Classic, Buoy, What a Diplomat, Cougarized, Intensive Command, Five Star Camp, Drouilly’s Boy, Delightful Doctor and Granacus. Other possibilities are Star Attitude, Kingpost and Din’s Dancer.

The trainer of Din’s Dancer is Jack Van Berg, who had to scratch him because of a fever before the Arkansas Derby. Van Berg’s Alysheba won last year’s Blue Grass, only to be disqualified by the stewards and placed third for interference in the stretch, and then the next week he won the Kentucky Derby.

It has been a dry spring in Lexington, Ky., but rain is forecast today and Wednesday, with partly cloudy skies expected Thursday. Drouilly’s Boy, who was 3 for 3 on off tracks in California before running in the Jim Beam at Turfway Park on April 2, had the lead at the top of the stretch in the mud that day, then finished a respectable fifth.

The Derby Trial, which comes on the opening day of the season at Churchill Downs, is expected to draw Cefis, Jim’s Orbit, Firery Ensign and a few others. The Trial has been won by five horses--Black Gold, Citation, Hill Gail, Dark Star and Tim Tam--who went on to win the Derby, but that was when the race was run on the Tuesday of Derby week. No horse has won the Trial and the Derby since the prep race was moved in 1982 to a Saturday.

Trainer Johnny Campo, who will miss the Triple Crown series with Cherokee Colony because of the banging the colt’s legs took while finishing a troubled third in the Wood, still has a Derby contender, although Intensive Command is considered a longshot.

Intensive Command was soundly trounced in his only two stakes races and took a 2-for-8 record into the Tropical Park Derby at Calder on April 2. Sent off at 54 to 1, the second-highest price in a field of 11, Intensive Command got within a half-length of the victorious Digress at the eighth pole, then wound up second, beaten by 1 1/2 lengths.

A son of Dust Commander, who won the Blue Grass and the Kentucky Derby in 1970, Intensive Command is owned by Nelson Bunker Hunt. The financially troubled Dallas oilman is already running Lively One in the Derby. It would be a kick if a man trying to sell his horses winds up with two shots at winning the roses.

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.

TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

Career Horse S 1 2 3 Earnings 1.Winning Colors 6 5 1 0 $470,150 2.Private Terms 7 7 0 0 742,328 3.Forty Niner 11 7 3 0 921,870 4.Brian’s Time 8 3 1 1 391,619 5.Seeking the Gold 6 5 1 0 260,430 6.Risen Star 8 6 2 0 262,392 7.Lively One 7 3 2 1 202,850 8.Kingpost 11 3 2 4 437,980 9.Proper Reality 5 4 0 0 357,840 10.Regal Classic 9 4 4 1 819,500