Horse Racing : Favorite Has Won 1 of Last 9 Belmonts

New York horseplayers will be hard-pressed in choosing between Risen Star and the Wayne Lukas-trained entry of Winning Colors and Dynaformer as the favorite in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes.

Considering the recent record of favorites in the Belmont, neither Louie Roussel, the trainer of Risen Star, nor Lukas may want to be favored.

In the last nine Belmonts, only one betting favorite--Swale in 1984--has won the race. The list of favored losers includes Spectacular Bid, Codex, Pleasant Colony, Linkage, Slew o’ Gold, Chief’s Crown, Rampage and Alysheba. Spectacular Bid, Pleasant Colony and Alysheba were odds-on favorites, but none of them finished better than third.

During the 1970s, favorites had won the Belmont in 6 of 7 years at one point. Riva Ridge, Secretariat, Little Current, Bold Forbes, Seattle Slew and Affirmed were all worthy of public support, with only Foolish Pleasure--second as the favorite in 1975--breaking the string.

Most handicappers figured Risen Star would be the favorite Saturday, since he beat the Kentucky Derby winner, Winning Colors, in the Preakness and also seems more likely to handle the 1 1/2-mile Belmont distance than Lukas’ filly.

But Risen Star’s leg problem, combined with Winning Colors’ brilliant workouts here, might make the filly the favorite. A bonus for bettors enamored of Winning Colors is that they also get her entrymate, Dynaformer, who won the Jersey Derby at Garden State Park in his last start.

Of the jockeys riding Saturday in the Belmont, only Gary Stevens, Winning Colors’ rider, is without experience in the stake.

Angel Cordero, who will be aboard Brian’s Time, is the most experienced of the Belmont jockeys, having been in the race 17 times. But he’s only won it once, with Bold Forbes in 1976.

Laffit Pincay, who is riding Cefis for the first time, has won 3 times in 10 Belmonts. It doesn’t even require asking why trainer Woody Stephens has replaced Eddie Maple with Pincay on Cefis. When Stephens won five straight Belmonts, starting in 1982, Pincay rode the first three--Conquistador Cielo, Caveat and Swale.

Pincay got the mount on Conquistador Cielo when Maple was injured in a race the day before the Belmont.

None of the other jockeys in Saturday’s Belmont has ever won one. Eddie Delahoussaye, on Risen Star, is 0 for 1, as is Robbie Davis, riding Kingpost. Jose Santos, on Dynaformer, is 0 for 2, and Jacinto Vasquez, on Granacus, is 0 for 8.

Craig Perret rode Dynaformer to victory in the Jersey Derby, but he’s not available Saturday. He will ride Lost Code in the $200,000 National Jockey Club Handicap at Sportsman’s Park in Chicago.

Delahoussaye may be wishing that the Belmont were being run on Sunday rather than Saturday. Sunday has been Delahoussaye’s lucky day at Hollywood Park, where he has won the last four stakes races run on that day.

Goodbye Halo, the only filly that has beaten Winning Colors, will be favored here Friday in the $200,000 Mother Goose, a 1 1/8-mile stake for 3-year-old fillies.

Goodbye Halo, who beat Winning Colors by a neck going a mile at Santa Anita in February, will be making her first appearance since easily winning the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs the day before the Kentucky Derby.

Others running in the Mother Goose are Make Change, Our Gallamar, Costly Shoes, Thirty Eight Go Go, Avie’s Gal, Love You by Heart and the entry of Aptostar and Topicount.

The Mother Goose is the middle leg in New York’s unofficial triple crown for fillies, with Aptostar and Topicount having run 1-2 in the opener, the Acorn, at Belmont last month. The last race in the series is the Coaching Club American Oaks.

Pat Day, who rode Goodbye Halo to victory in the Kentucky Oaks, will be aboard Costly Shoes in the Mother Goose. Jorge Velasquez, who rode the filly in California, will be on Goodbye Halo.

Trainer Guido Federico keeps bemoaning Waquoit’s physical problems, but the 5-year-old gray won Saturday at Suffolk Downs near Boston in his first start since last August and is expected to return Sunday at Belmont in the $200,000 Hempstead Handicap.

Waquoit, who won 5 of 6 starts last year, including the Brooklyn Handicap at Belmont, could be another factor in this year’s handicap division, which is already deep with good horses.

Bet Twice, who beat two of the handicap stars--Lost Code and Alysheba--in the Pimlico Special last week, is at Monmouth Park and scheduled to run in the Suburban Handicap at Belmont July 4. Bet Twice will be retired to stud after this year, with his last race expected to be the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs in November.

Horse Racing Notes

Richard Migliore, seriously injured in a four-horse spill at Belmont last month, will be sidelined for about nine months while he recovers from a broken neck. Migliore underwent 7 1/2 hours of surgery to re-align a vertebra and will be hospitalized for two more weeks. . . . Pat Valenzuela, who was licensed to ride in New Mexico because of a technicality, won a small quarter horse stake at the Downs at Albuquerque recently. Valenzuela, a leading rider in Southern California, tested positive for cocaine just before he was supposed to begin riding in Albuquerque, but the result was thrown out when it was discovered that racing authorities there were beyond their jurisdiction in requiring the test. Valenzuela is riding both thoroughbred and quarter horses in Albuquerque. . . . Sandy Hawley, who left California to ride in his native Canada, is the leading jockey at Woodbine near Toronto. . . . Marco Castaneda, who has been riding in Northern California in recent years, will spend the summer at Monmouth Park. . . . Russell Baze, the perennial leading jockey at Bay Area tracks, will invade Hollywood Park with a record of 2,903 wins. Baze won 132 races this year at Golden Gate Fields.