TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

REMARKS: Jose Santos might have to get out some old Bill Shoemaker films to help him cure Fly So Free of loafing once he takes the lead.

In Saturday’s Florida Derby, Fly So Free repeated what he had done during Gulfstream Park’s Fountain of Youth Stakes three weeks earlier: Once in front, the colt lost interest in running. Santos whacked Fly So Free 18 times with the whip as they held off Strike The Gold by a length for Fly So Free’s fifth consecutive victory.

Shoemaker had a similar problem with Ferdinand, who in 1986 gave him his fourth Kentucky Derby victory. Ferdinand also would try to pull himself up in the stretch, and to combat this habit, Shoemaker would wait as long as he could before he moved with the horse.

Trainer Scotty Schulhofer, who trains Fly So Free, Scan and Cahill Road, suggested that Santos moved prematurely with Fly So Free in the Florida Derby. “The horse was just galloping along,” Schulhofer said. “He could have made the lead any time he wanted to.”

Despite Fly So Free’s three victories in Florida this winter, there are still horsemen there who think he can be beaten. On Sunday at Gulfstream, Cahill Road won his third consecutive race for Craig Perret. “I told Scotty after I rode this colt the first time (Jan. 19) that he was going to beat his stablemate (Fly So Free),” Perret said.

Cahill Road, unraced as a 2-year-old, has yet to run in a stake. A son of Fappiano and Gana Facil, he is a full brother to Unbridled, who last year gave Perret his first Kentucky Derby winner. “This horse runs a lot like Unbridled,” Perret said. “He’s a lagger. But he closes late and he wins races.”

Schulhofer will keep his three colts apart leading up to the Kentucky Derby May 4. Fly So Free will run in the Blue Grass at Keeneland April 13; Cahill Road is scheduled for the Preview at Gulfstream April 6; and Scan, who was second to Sea Cadet in Sunday’s San Felipe at Santa Anita, will run in either the Santa Anita Derby April 6 or in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct April 20.

Ron McAnally, who trains Sea Cadet, made these observations after the San Felipe:

--Dinard is the best 3-year-old training in California.

--Excavate, who won the race before the San Felipe, is a horse “on the way up.”

--Fly So Free, in winning the Florida Derby, “ran the best of a bad lot.”

The horse McAnally liked in the Florida Derby is Strike The Gold, an Alydar colt running in his first stake. Strike The Gold, who also is ridden by Perret, drew close to Fly So Free in mid-stretch, then couldn’t make up the needed ground in a slowly run last eighth of a mile.

“Sooner or later, we’ll catch up to him,” said Nick Zito, who trains Strike The Gold. A year ago, Zito trained Thirty Six Red, who won the Wood, ran second in the Belmont and was third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Strike The Gold is expected to follow Fly So Free to the Blue Grass for a rematch. Last year, Zito took the Wood route to the Derby, and Thirty Six Red, with only two weeks’ rest between races, finished ninth at Churchill Downs.

In New York, the countdown has begun to see whether Meadow Star will try to become the fourth filly to win the Kentucky Derby. After an easy victory Saturday at Aqueduct in her 3-year-old debut, Meadow Star will be prepared to run in the Comely, a mile race for fillies, March 30, and that race could lead to the Wood and her first test against colts.

Meanwhile, Stately Wager, who already has won twice around two turns at Aqueduct this winter, is the best New York has to offer in Saturday’s seven-furlong Bay Shore, which is one of the preps for the Wood.

Advisory panel for The Times’ Triple Crown Ratings: Lenny Hale, vice president for racing at Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga; Frank (Jimmy) Kilroe, director of racing emeritus at Santa Anita; and Tommy Trotter, director of international racing at Arlington International Racecourse.

TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

Career Horse S 1 2 3 Earnings 1. Fly So Free 9 7 0 1 $1,301,844 2. Best Pal 9 6 1 1 1,048,695 3. Dinard 4 3 1 0 177,750 4. Meadow Star 8 8 0 0 1,019,290 5. Sea Cadet 10 5 2 1 382,050 6. Scan 7 3 3 1 260,200 7. Strike The Gold 6 1 2 1 118,290 8. General Meeting 5 2 2 1 318,100 9. Cahill Road 4 3 1 0 43,580 10. Excavate 4 2 1 0 43,700