TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

REMARKS: Swimming by horses is back. Maybe it never went away, although trainer Woody Stephens almost lost a good 2-year-old by having him swim at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and at least one horse has drowned in the pool at Hollywood Park. Remember Sunny’s Halo, who won the 1983 Kentucky Derby after swimming his way through the winter--and not running a race--at Hollywood? For a while, the swimming pool at Hollywood was named after Sunny’s Halo, until Alysheba won the Derby.

Now, another testimonial for swimming horses comes from Dermot Weld, the trainer of Go And Go, the upset winner of Saturday’s Belmont Stakes. Before Go And Go was flown to New York, three days before the Belmont, he swam frequently in jockey Michael Kinane’s pool in Ireland.

Go And Go would go around the pool five times. He was not a horse with sore legs, as Sunny’s Halo was, but he was a colt who needed to learn how to relax, and Weld, 41, thought the swimming might help.

The Belmont went swimmingly for Go And Go, Weld and Kinane, and now that they have made a puzzle out of the 3-year-old picture in the United States, the Irish contingent is setting its sights on the $1-million Travers at Saratoga Aug. 18. Go And Go will be shipped back to Ireland today and Weld will make travel plans similar to last week’s, with Go And Go arriving in Upstate New York a few days before the race. Weld believes that his horses run better when they run shortly after traveling,

Go And Go’s path from Ireland to victory in the Belmont caught even the Irish by surprise. Walter Haefner, who owns Go And Go, was in Zurich Saturday. Belmont Park’s media office had only one request for working credentials from an Irish journalist, and he apparently didn’t show up.

To get to the Belmont, Go And Go had to run a good race against a bad field in the Laurel Futurity last October. He was sent to Laurel to run on the grass, but the turf was soggy and the Futurity was switched to the dirt, giving Go And Go a tough first chance to prove himself.

May 12, Go And Go ran fourth in the Derrinstown Derby Trial at Leopardstown in Ireland. That told Weld that his horse wasn’t good enough to run in the English Derby, so he chose the 1 1/2-mile Belmont because Go And Go, besides being bred for stamina, had liked running on dirt in America as a 2-year-old.

Despite his Belmont victory, Go And Go is not being characterized as a special horse by Weld, which ought to tell Americans something about their top 3-year-olds.

“This is a good, tough, solid horse,” Weld said. “He’s not a super horse, but he’s tough, sound and genuine.”

And because the diuretic Lasix is banned in New York, there probably will be no rematches between Unbridled, the Kentucky Derby winner who seems to need Lasix to run effectively, and Go And Go at Saratoga. Summer Squall, the winner of the Preakness, won’t be at Saratoga, either, because he also needs Lasix to prevent respiratory bleeding.

Unbridled didn’t bleed while finishing fourth in the Belmont, but opponents of Lasix claim that the absence of the drug might still have hurt him. A recent study commissioned by the New York Jockey Club claims that Lasix improves the performance of horses whether they tend to bleed or not.

“I’m not a scientist, but he ran so well with Lasix that you have to think that it helped him,” said Craig Perret, Unbridled’s jockey.

There’s a new player the other 3-year-olds will have to beat later this year. Rhythm, last year’s 2-year-old champion and a colt who beat Go And Go by seven lengths in winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last November at Gulfstream Park, has recovered from March throat surgery. Saturday, about 45 minutes before the Belmont, Rhythm won the 1 1/8-mile Colin Stakes in 1:48, a good time considering the slow track.

“He ran a powerful race,” said Perret, who also rides Rhythm. “I think he’s back on track.”

The Travers is Rhythm’s objective, and he also might run next month in the Haskell at Monmouth Park.

“The way Rhythm ran Saturday, he’s the horse to beat in the Travers,” said Nick Zito, who trains Thirty Six Red, the Belmont runner-up. “Go And Go’s about fifth on my list (of 3-year-olds), behind Rhythm, my horse, Unbridled and Summer Squall. Go And Go ran a big race, but I’d like to see him do it one more time.”

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 13 4 3 4 2,278,695 3. Go And Go 9 5 0 0 635,900 4. Thirty Six Red 13 3 3 4 729,435 5. Rhythm 10 5 1 1 701,240 6. Silver Ending 9 4 0 3 638,900 7. Housebuster 10 8 1 1 472,226 8. Yonder 12 4 2 2 570,829 9. Mister Frisky 18 16 0 1 609,685 10. Go for Wand 8 6 2 0 932,878