TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

REMARKS: Remember Rhythm? The winner of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, later voted the Eclipse Award as best 2-year-old colt, Rhythm suffered an injury to his palate while in Florida last winter, and surgery didn’t seem to help when he resumed running in New York.

Monday, Rhythm made his first appearance in six weeks and showed some of his previous form, beating older horses handily and running seven furlongs in an impressive 1:22 2/5 in a $50,000 allowance race at Belmont Park.

Would Shug McGaughey, Rhythm’s trainer, consider running the colt in the Belmont Stakes on June 9?

“The door is always open,” McGaughey said. However, he indicated that Rhythm’s next start probably will be in the Dwyer, a 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds at Belmont June 30.

Belmont officials are desperate to improve the field for the Triple Crown finale. Unbridled, the Kentucky Derby winner and runner-up to Summer Squall in Saturday’s Preakness, will be there, but few other top horses will.

Lenny Hale of Belmont Park was on the phone Monday to Cot Campbell, trying to cajole him into running Summer Squall in the Belmont. Summer Squall’s ownership is divided among 28 people, but Campbell makes the decisions.

His decision before and after the Preakness was to skip the Belmont, because under New York racing rules horses can’t race on Lasix, and Summer Squall has shown that he needs the medication to control respiratory bleeding.

Still, Hale reminded Campbell that if something should happen to Unbridled, preventing him from running in the Belmont, Summer Squall could easily earn the $1-million Triple Crown bonus merely by running. The bonus is based on points (5-3-1 basis for finishing first, second and third) accumulated in the three races. Summer Squall and Unbridled are tied with eight points apiece, and the only other horse in training with a point is Mister Frisky, who ran third in the Preakness.

Unbridled also has bled. Last October, in the colt’s fifth race, he finished second in the Florida Stallion Stakes at Calder. After the race, trainer Carl Nafzger called Bentley Smith, son-in-law of owner Frances Genter, and told him that the horse should run in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Gulfstream Park 13 days later.

“We won’t be worse than third if we run,” Nafzger said.

Five minutes later, Nafzger received a call from a veterinarian who said that Unbridled showed signs of substantial respiratory bleeding.

Nafzger quickly called Smith back and told him the Breeders’ Cup was off. Unbridled would have to be treated with Lasix, and according to Florida rules, a horse on that medication must wait 14 days before he can run again. The Breeders’ Cup was going to be run the day before Unbridled would be eligible.

Unbridled, since being treated with Lasix, hasn’t bled again in seven races, including victories in the Florida Derby and the Kentucky Derby.

By dehydrating Unbridled, Nafzger believes he will still get a solid performance out of his horse without Lasix in the Belmont. “Lasix is an easier way to achieve what we want to achieve,” the trainer said. “But since we can’t do that, we’ll just have to try another method.”

Two horses who won the Preakness in recent years--Codex in 1980 and Alysheba in 1987--were bleeders who still ran in the Belmont without Lasix. Both ran poorly in the Belmont, but it wasn’t because of bleeding. Codex became sore, finishing seventh, and Alysheba, too far back early, finished a badly beaten fourth.

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 Arlington International Racecourse and Gulfstream Park.

Career Horse S 1 2 3 Earnings 1. Summer Squall 10 8 2 0 $1,330,978 2. Unbridled 12 4 3 4 1,237,435 3. Mister Frisky 18 16 0 1 609,685 4. Housebuster 9 8 0 1 341,326 5. Video Ranger 7 1 2 1 157,650 6. Thirty Six Red 12 3 2 4 578,515 7. Silver Ending 9 4 0 3 638,900 8. Music Prospector 10 3 1 2 187,631 9. Land Rush 11 2 3 1 139,737 10. Killer Diller 10 3 1 2 145,700