Lasix Ban Main Threat to Unbridled Today

Country Day, a colt with two victories in 15 starts, no stakes victories and no victories in more than six months, is the third morning-line choice, and that’s all that needs to be said about the 122nd running of the Belmont Stakes today at Belmont Park.

Today’s will be one of the weakest fields to contest the 1 1/2 miles, the final race in the Triple Crown series. There won’t be a horse in the race who has won more races than he has lost. The closest are two .500 hitters, Baron de Vaux, the eighth-place finisher in the Preakness, and Go and Go, the Irish-bred who won the Laurel Futurity on the dirt last year in Maryland. Neither is given much chance of upsetting Unbridled, the 4-5 favorite.

Unbridled is called an honest horse, with in-the-money finishes in all but one of his 12 starts, victories in the Kentucky Derby and the Florida Derby and a second-place finish behind Summer Squall in the Preakness. If Unbridled loses today, the result will be overshadowed by the question of how the absence of Lasix, the anti-bleeding drug that’s illegal in New York, affected the Kentucky Derby winner.

The eight other horses still are in search of reputations. Yonder, expected to be the second betting choice, had not won a stake this year until the Jersey Derby at Garden State Park on May 28. He won in the second-slowest time in the history of that race at 1 1/4 miles.

Country Day has a trainer, John Parisella, who calls more attention to the horse than he deserves. Country Day beat maidens at Calder in July and also won an allowance race there last November, but has shown little in the big races.

Thirty Six Red is the only horse besides Unbridled to have won a major stake, but his Wood Memorial victory April 21 was devalued after a ninth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby two weeks later.

The other Belmont starters:

--Video Ranger, who earned his only victory in the $40,000 Santa Anita race that he was claimed out of.

--Land Rush, who has only two victories in 11 races, one of them a minor stake at Santa Anita.

--Hawaiian Pass, who is also two for 11, neve better than third in a stake.

Still, there is doubt that Unbridled can win without Lasix.

For one thing, horses that come from far off the pace seldom win the Belmont. Alysheba, whose running style is much like Unbridled’s, fell far back in the 1987 Belmont and never gained contact with the leaders. His fourth-place finish cost him the Triple Crown and a $5-million payday.

Craig Perret, the jockey who rode Bet Twice to victory in the 1987 Belmont, also rides Unbridled. Carl Nafzger, who trains Unbridled, said he will give Perret the same instructions today that he gave in the Derby--which is to say none.

“I don’t know when Craig will ask our horse to run,” Nafzger said. “But Craig knows this horse better than anybody--you hae to understand that he’s usually on him in the mornings as well as in the races--and I’ll leave it up to him. The main thing is that my horse relaxes, and he’ll do whatever the jockey asks him to do. If my horse has his way, he’ll win the race.”

Nafzger is hoping someone--Land Rush, perhaps--tries to run early with Thirty Six Red, who appears to be the only front-runner in the race. Although Thirty Six Red has the breeding to win at 1 1/2 miles--each of his grandsires, Seattle Slew and Stage Door Johnny, won the Belmont--trainer Nick Zito didn’t run him beyond a mile until his 11th start, the 1 1/8-mile Wood. The colt was hard-pressed to hold off Burnt Hills at the wire.

Land Rush, seventh in the Kentucky Derby and sixth in the Preakness, seldom has been rushed in his races.

“Speed wins the Belmont when the speed isn’t cheap,” Nafzger said. “But I don’t think Thirty Six Red will be allowed to go out there by himself. I can’t believe that (trainer Wayne) Lukas will go the same way with Land Rush that he did in the other two (Triple Crown) races.

“I don’t think he’ll try to go over center from the two-yard line for the third straight time. I think he’ll look at the Blue Grass and decide to have Land Rush run another race like that.”

The Blue Grass, at Keeneland on April 14, was Land Rush’s best race. He stuck a head in front on the far turn and gave ground only grudgingly the rest of the way, finishing second, 1 3/4 lengths behind Summer Squall.

The absence of Summer Squall, second in the Kentucky Derby and 2 1/4 lengths better than Unbridled in the Preakness, means Unbridled needs to finish the Belmont to collect the $1-million Triple Crown bonus.

For Unbridled, this Belmont is almost a no-win situation. Should he lose, he will be remembered as a horse who couldn’t win the big one without his medication. And if he wins, it will be over a group of opponents who have a long way to go before they become household names.

Horse Racing Notes

Bill Shoemaker, who won five Belmonts, one fewer than Eddie Arcaro and James McLaughlin, will be honored here today with the Mike Venezia Memorial Award, presented annually for contributions to racing. Venezia is the jockey who died when he was trampled at Belmont in 1988 . . . For only the second time in the last nine years, trainer Woody Stephens will not have a starter in the Belmont. Stephens, who saddled five consecutive winners in the race starting in 1982, remains in intensive care in a Louisville hospital since undergoing open-heart surgery on May 11. . . . Stephens trained Yonder before the horse was turned over to Angel Penna Sr. in late April.

Stella Madrid, winner of the Acorn, will try to win the second leg of the New York triple for 3-year-old fillies when she runs in the 1 1/8-mile Mother Goose at Belmont Sunday. The favorite in the race probably will be either Go for Wand or Charon. The other starters will be Bright Candles, Dance Colony and Danzig’s Beauty . . . Today’s weather for the Belmont Stakes is expected to be humid, with temperatures in low 80s and a 30% chance of thunderstorms. . . . Peter Brant, who owned 25% of 1984 Kentucky Derby and Belmont winner Swale, has been given a 90-day suspended sentence after pleading guilty to tax fraud. Brant, who also raced Gulch, Just a Game, Track Barron and Waya, owns Stella Madrid. He was ordered to pay $375,000 in taxes and penalties and was fined $200,000. . . . The Belmont is worth $686,000 with $411,600 going to the winner. . . . On Friday at Belmont, Craig Perret won his second stake in as many days, riding Tricky Creek, a 12-1 shot, to a nose victory over another longshot, Montubio, in the $100,000 Nassau County Handicap. De Roche finished third. On Thursday, Perret rode Safely Kept to victory in the Genuine Risk at Belmont.

THE BELMONT FIELD

PP HORSE JOCKEY TRAINER ODDS 1 Thirty Six Red Mike Smith Nick Zito 8-1 2 Go and Go Michael Kinane Dermot K. Weld 12-1 3 Baron de Vaux Jean Cruguet Charlie Peoples 30-1 4 County Day Chris Antley John Parisella 6-1 5 Unbridled Chris Perret Carl Nafzger 4-5 6 Video Ranger Jose Santos Ian Jory 8-1 7 Hawaiian Pass Art Madrid Humberto Aguilera 30-1 8 Yonder Jerry Bailey Angel Penna 9-2 9 Land Rush Angel Cordero Wayne Lukas 12-1