TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

REMARKS: It just wouldn’t be a Triple Crown race without Louie Roussel, the trainer and 50% owner of Risen Star, playing another game of equine intrigue.

Roussel didn’t settle on Eddie Delahoussaye as his rider in the Kentucky Derby until three days before the race, while a couple of other jockeys, Craig Perret and Jacinto Vasquez, waited in the wings.

After Risen Star had run third in the Derby, behind Winning Colors and Forty Niner, Roussel debated all Preakness week about running in the second jewel of the Triple Crown, because of the rain that the Pimlico track had absorbed.

Roussel actually filled out a scratch card the day of the Preakness, then changed his mind about 90 minutes before the race and Risen Star scored a 1-length win over Brian’s Time, with Winning Colors finishing third.

Now, with Saturday’s Belmont Stakes approaching, Roussel has a horse whose physical condition makes him only a probable starter for the 1 1/2-mile test, the longest in the Triple Crown series.

Actually, Risen Star’s status for the Belmont was more doubtful before Monday, when the rangy son of 1973 Triple Crown champion Secretariat galloped 2 1/2 miles around Belmont Park.

“He came back from that happy,” Roussel said. “And this is a horse who likes to train. If he’s not training well, he’s unhappy.”

Risen Star’s training schedule was interrupted last week because of a swelling just above the ankle on the right foreleg. There are two versions about what caused the injury. The barn is saying that the colt ran off during a gallop and may have rapped himself. Another source close to Roussel says that the swelling was an adverse reaction to a cortisone treatment.

Whatever the cause, the swelling still hadn’t subsided Friday, and Risen Star stayed in the barn Saturday and Sunday.

“We hosed him and tubbed him (in ice),” Roussel said. “That’s the first time we ever had to do that to him. The X-rays didn’t show anything wrong, and after the gallop (Monday), there was no heat or swelling. I’d say the leg is about 95% all right.”

Risen Star has a black spot about 2 inches above the ankle.

“The vets say that the spot will be gone in 30 to 60 days,” Roussel said. “But we don’t have that much time.”

Risen Star’s condition will be monitored closely the rest of the week, which assures Roussel of being center stage daily, as he was before the Derby and the Preakness.

“The big test for the horse will be Friday,” Roussel said. “He’ll gallop a mile and three-quarters, then work three-eighths of a mile. That will tell us whether he’ll run.”

The 120th Belmont will have seven starters if Risen Star runs. Joining him, Winning Colors and Brian’s Time will be Dynaformer, Winning Colors’ entrymate and the winner of the Jersey Derby; Cefis, who was 3rd in the Jersey Derby, 5th in the Preakness and 8th in the Kentucky Derby; Granacus, who was 11th after almost clipping another horse’s heels in the Kentucky Derby; and Kingpost, winner of the Jim Beam, 14th in the Kentucky Derby and 4th in the Peter Pan at Belmont on May 29.

Winning Colors’ final serious preparation for the Belmont was a 5-furlong workout Sunday and she responded with a brilliant :59, the fastest time of the morning at that distance.

So the trappings are in place for a Derby-Preakness rematch between the roan filly and the colt from Louisiana--providing that last-minute Louie Roussel leaves Risen Star’s scratch card in his pocket again.

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 8 6 1 1 $1,116,350 2.Risen Star 10 7 2 1 726,125 3.Brian’s Time 10 3 2 1 461,619 4.Forty Niner 13 7 4 0 1,021,880 5.Private Terms 9 7 0 0 759,828 6.Dynaformer 11 4 3 1 449,430 7.Proper Reality 8 6 0 0 750,820 8.Cefis 18 3 4 2 281,477 9.Granacus 14 3 2 1 296,724 10.Kingpost 15 3 4 4 466,098