TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

REMARKS: Trainer Nick Zito says that his Thirty Six Red will be the second choice, behind Kentucky Derby winner and Preakness runner-up Unbridled, in the 122nd running of the Belmont Stakes Saturday..

“Unbridled will go off about 4-5, and we’ll be next, at about 5-2 or 3-1,” Zito said. “Now all I got to do is have him run like he’s the second choice.”

In the Kentucky Derby, Thirty Six Red’s last start, Zito’s colt went off the 5-1 third choice, based on his victory in the Wood Memorial two weeks before. But the colt ran his worst race, finishing ninth, more than 22 lengths behind Unbridled.

“We got to the bottom with the horse,” Zito said.

With Thirty Six Red, it was a case of too much too quickly. The Derby was his seventh race of the year, and his third start in a month.

Now, Thirty Six Red has had a month off and is back home at Belmont, where he ran three times as a maiden 2-year-old, hitting the board twice.

“His tank is full and he’s going to give a good account of himself,” Zito said. “We were going to skip the race, but when Dotsero (the Illinois Derby winner) dropped out, and when Mister Frisky had to come out (because of illness), my horse became the lone speed, and that’s always dangerous, no matter how far you go. I don’t see who’s going to run with him. He’s going to run well and he’s got a lot of guts.”

Thirty Six Red is certainly bred to be a Belmont winner. His sire, Slew o’ Gold, ran second to Caveat in the 1983 Belmont, and the grandsire, Stage Door Johnny, won the Belmont in 1968.

Zito, 42, has run only one horse in the Belmont--his Morning Bob finished third behind Swale and Pine Circle--but as a native New Yorker, he was going to the race long before it was legal for him to bet. Zito was 10 when he saw his first Belmont, in 1958 when Tim Tam went lame trying to sweep the Triple Crown and Cavan won the race. Another Belmont that Zito remembers well is Sherluck’s victory three years later, at 65-1, when Carry Back’s Triple Crown bid failed.

Mike Smith, 24, is a rookie rider in the Belmont, but that doesn’t bother Zito. Smith was aboard for Thirty Six Red’s only two stakes victories, in the Gotham and the Wood.

“Many of the name riders who are usually in the Belmont aren’t here this year,” Zito said. “Pat Day’s not here. Neither is Laffit Pincay, or Chris McCarron. So who’s Mike riding against? The jockeys he rides against in New York every day, and if he’s able to compete against them on that basis, why should the Belmont be any different?”

Of the nine jockeys in the race, only three have won a Belmont. Craig Perret, Unbridled’s regular jockey, won with Bet Twice in 1987; Jean Cruguet, who will ride Baron de Vaux, was Seattle Slew’s rider for the Triple Crown sweep in 1977; and Angel Cordero, who has Land Rush this time, won the Belmont with Bold Forbes in 1976. Overall, though, Cordero’s Belmont record is not good. He’s been in the race 19 times, failing to win the last 12 Belmonts he has ridden in.

Land Rush does not have the look of a horse who might give Cordero his second Belmont. The Wayne Lukas-trained colt has won only two of 11 starts, and is one for six this year. Land Rush was seventh in the Derby and finished sixth in the Preakness.

Based on Land Rush’s past performance lines in the Daily Racing Form, he looks like the type of horse who would be more at home on an obstacle course. “Rough start,” “broke slowly,” “broke awkwardly,” “checked far turn” and “slow start” are some of the comments.

“This is a horse who always seems to find himself in some kind of trouble,” Lukas said, “and he’s not handy enough to overcome it. But we’re hoping that the wide, sweeping turns at Belmont (the only 1 1/2-mile track in America) will help him.”

The best race of Land Rush’s career came in the Blue Grass at Keeneland April 14, when he ran second to Summer Squall. Since then, in the Triple Crown races, Cordero has only been along for the ride--two bumpy rides.

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 8 1 3 1 257,650 9. Land Rush 11 2 3 1 139,737 10. Pleasant Tap 9 2 2 2 173,655