TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

REMARKS: When Frank Stronach finds horses he wants, he knows how to go after them. Stronach, a 57-year-old Canadian industrialist, leads with his strength, which is an open checkbook.

It’s a method that doesn’t always work. Early this year, Stronach sent owner-trainer Ron McAnally a contract, offering about $2 million for a 75% interest in Silver Ending. McAnally said no, and after Silver Ending won the Arkansas Derby, Stronach renewed his interest, in effect telling the colt’s owners to name their price.

Stronach still doesn’t own Silver Ending, but his $2-million offer to Claiborne Farm late last year for Yonder was accepted, and on Monday, in the $500,000 Jersey Derby at Garden State Park, the Seattle Slew colt showed for the first time that he might be worth his sale price.

Yonder beat Video Ranger by a head for the $300,000 first-place purse, and it’s likely that both colts ran their way into the Belmont Stakes June 9.

Yonder had been trained by Woody Stephens, who won five consecutive Belmonts in the 1980s. But after Stephens was hospitalized last month, Stronach turned all of his horses over to Angel Penna Sr.

Under Stephens’ guidance this year, Yonder couldn’t beat the best horses in Florida, Kentucky or New York. Stephens was saying that the colt’s future would be on grass, but Yonder’s victory in the Jersey Derby will keep him on the main track for a while.

The Jersey Derby was Yonder’s first victory since the Remsen at Aqueduct in November. It was shortly after the Remsen that Stronach showed up with his checkbook.

Video Ranger, claimed away from Wayne Lukas for $40,000 at Santa Anita in January, ran second in the Santa Anita Derby and was fourth, at 60-1, in the Kentucky Derby. Video Ranger bled slightly from the lungs in the Kentucky Derby and Monday ran with Lasix, a diuretic frequently given to bleeders. In the Belmont, however, neither Video Ranger nor Unbridled, the Kentucky Derby winner who also has a history of bleeding, will be able to run on Lasix because of New York racing rules.

Ian Jory, who is the third trainer Video Ranger has had, thought racing luck might have kept the colt out of the winner’s circle.

“My horse got squeezed at the sixteenth pole and (jockey Ron) Hansen lost his outside rein and the horse slowed down,” Jory said.

The field for the Belmont is expected to include Unbridled, Mister Frisky, Land Rush, Yonder, Video Ranger, Go and Go, Country Day, Hawaiian Pass and Dotsero.

Country Day, injured the day before the Kentucky Derby and scratched from the race, bounced back Sunday at Belmont Park in the 1 1/8-mile Peter Pan. He came from last place to finish second, 6 1/2 lengths behind Profit Key, who was not nominated for the Triple Crown races.

“After he hopped in the air coming out of the gate, he really ran good,” said Chris Antley, who rode Country Day. “I knew at the quarter pole that we weren’t going to catch Profit Key. But I think my colt would have no trouble with the (1 1/2-mile) Belmont distance.”

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. Thirty Six Red 12 3 2 4 578,515 5. Silver Ending 9 4 0 3 638,900 6. Housebuster 10 8 1 1 472,226 7. Yonder 12 4 2 2 570,829 8. Video Ranger 7 1 3 1 257,650 9. Land Rush 11 2 3 1 139,737 10. Dotsero 10 4 3 1 270,870