BELMONT STAKES : The Silver Lining in the Belmont Is Courageous, Speedy Thirty Six Red

It lacks the electricity of Sunday Silence-Easy Goer III or the drama of Alysheba’s bid for a Triple Crown in the 1987 Belmont Stakes.

It lacks even a rematch of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winners, as when Risen Star distanced himself from the filly Winning Colors and emerged atop the 3-year-old division in 1988.

There will be no marquee name joining the Triple Crown fray late in the game--no Conquistador Cielo or Coastal in this bunch.

The 1990 Triple Crown came undone in Baltimore and, as Belmont Stakes go, Saturday’s 122nd lacks panache, drama, consequence and most other things that would make it interesting.

It is the kind of Belmont that brings horses without portfolio like Hawaiian Pass from California on the wing of a third-place effort at 14-1 odds in a minor stakes at Golden Gate Fields.

It brings Baron de Vaux up the Jersey Turnpike from Delaware on the fuel of an eighth-place finish, beaten by 15 3/4 lengths at 37-1 odds in the Preakness.

There is only one possible reason for Land Rush’s participation. He has been beaten in the Derby and Preakness by a total of 30 lengths, but if Unbridled, the Derby winner, fails either to start or finish the Belmont, Land Rush, if he could finish at least third, would win $1 million.

Great horse races do not emerge from such scenarios.

There is greater emphasis being placed upon the $1-million Triple Crown bonus that Unbridled should win than there is on the prospect of his winning two races in the series.

Greater importance is being accorded the Lasix issue, which brings a Derby winner to the Belmont as a heavy favorite with a ready-made excuse and takes the Preakness winner out of the picture because the drug is prohibited in New York, than upon the significance of the Triple Crown finale as a competition among thoroughbreds of quality.

If the Belmont suffered a major blow when Summer Squall won the Preakness after his connections declared their decision to skip the drug-free leg of the Triple Crown, it has eroded even further since then. Mister Frisky, who came into the Triple Crown undefeated in 16 races but performed far below expectations in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, is fighting a grapefruit-sized throat abscess in a New Jersey veterinary clinic. Illinois Derby winner Dotsero was declared out of the Belmont last week.

So far, Nick Zito likes what he sees. If anyone has found a silver lining in the Belmont cloud, it is the trainer of Thirty Six Red.

Even while racing with a developing abscess in his throat at Churchill Downs and Pimlico, Mister Frisky had speed. Dotsero would have been highly questionable at the Belmont’s 12-furlong distance, but he, too, has speed and would have been a factor in the pace. Among the nine Belmont prospects still expected to be entered Thursday, Thirty Six Red is the main speed--the controlling speed--and therefore dangerous.

“We were going to skip it,” Zito said. “But then Dotsero dropped out and Mister Frisky dropped out and he was the lone speed. I don’t see who’s going to run with him.”

Thirty Six Red has demonstrated the speed to run a mile on the lead in fractions of :44 1/5, 1:08 2/5 and 1:33 4/5, which puts him as far in front of this Belmont field as Zito wants him to be. He will have had five weeks to recover from the Kentucky Derby, in which he finished a very tired ninth, and his trainer believes his pedigree will take him 1 1/2 miles.

“His pedigree is terrific,” Zito said. “He’s by Slew o’ Gold out of a Stage Door Johnny mare. Believe me, he’ll get the distance.”

In April, Thirty Six Red burst suddenly into the Kentucky Derby chase when, in a surprisingly courageous effort, he won the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct at 32-1 odds. He did it after returning from a winter in Florida with only a maiden victory and a third-place finish behind Housebuster and Summer Squall in the Swale Stakes at Gulfstream to his credit. He followed the Gotham with a similar, particularly game effort in winning the Wood Memorial.