TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

REMARKS: Today’s quiz: Which trainer said this a couple of days before last Saturday’s Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland: “I wish we could have run this race two days ago. My horse is over the top.”

Scotty Schulhofer, the trainer of Fly So Free?

Or Nick Zito, the trainer of Strike The Gold?

Considering the way the Blue Grass was run--Strike The Gold beating Fly So Free, the future-book favorite for the Kentucky Derby, by three lengths--the educated guess would be Schulhofer.

But no, it was Zito, apprehensive about what Strike The Gold would do in his rematch with Fly So Free, the winner by a length in the Florida Derby.

But what does Nick Zito know? For that matter, what does anyone know about the Eastern candidates for the Derby?

The form of the Western 3-year-olds is clear. Dinard and Best Pal, a half-length apart for the second time as they ran 1-2 in the Santa Anita Derby, aren’t scheduled to race again until the Kentucky Derby May 4.

The Eastern horses are still trying to sort themselves out, and Fly So Free’s surprising loss in the Blue Grass has made Dinard the probable favorite for the Derby.

“If I were making a line on the Derby right now, I’d have Dinard at about 2-1,” said Jeff Weissman, who handicaps the Preakness at Pimlico. “I’d have Fly So Free at 5-2 and make Strike The Gold 3-1. But, of course, this could all change depending on what the filly does.”

The filly is Meadow Star, undefeated in nine races and scheduled to run against colts for the first time Saturday in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. The weakest group of 3-year-olds is in New York, so Meadow Star’s chief opposition will come from Kyle’s Our Man, a horse trying to establish a reputation; and Cahill Road, a horse trying to regain one.

Wet or dry, the Aqueduct racing strip appears to agree with Kyle’s Our Man. On off tracks there last year, he was a close third in the Remsen and won the Nashua. He won the Gotham, which is an eighth of a mile shorter than the Wood, by four lengths April 6 in a wire-to-wire performance. Still, Kyle’s Our Man has only won three of 10 races and was unimpressive in Florida this winter.

Chris Antley, who will ride Meadow Star in the Wood, also rides Strike The Gold.

Ready to move in on Strike The Gold if Antley opts for Meadow Star is Pat Day, one of the country’s most successful jockeys, but winless in eight Derby tries. Day’s only other Derby possibility is Richman, a horse of questionable stamina who ran second to Hansel in the Jim Beam Stakes at Turfway Park.

Both Richman and Hansel will have their final Derby tuneups this weekend, but on different fronts. Richman will run Saturday in the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park, where Olympio probably will be favored; and Hansel will race the next day at Keeneland, in the Lexington Stakes.

Cahill Road, a full brother to Unbridled, last year’s Kentucky Derby winner, has been the East Coast’s version of Split Run, a lightly raced California colt who was immortalized ahead of his time. In his stakes debut April 6, in the Preview at Gulfstream Park, Cahill Road was beaten by both Shoot To Kill and Shotgun Harry J., horses of little repute. Cahill Road, like Fly So Free, is trained by Schulhofer.

Fly So Free wouldn’t be the first horse to lose in the Blue Grass and win the Derby. Recent examples have been Unbridled and Gato Del Sol in 1982. Fly So Free has more time to recover than Gato Del Sol, because in ’82 the Blue Grass was run nine days before the Derby.

With Scan out of the Derby, Cahill Road on the wrong track and Fly So Free no longer invincible, the Unbridled and Gato Del Sol cases could be of some comfort to Schulhofer’s barn. But not much.

Career Horse S 1 2 3 Earnings 1. Dinard 5 4 1 0 452,750 2. Fly So Free 10 7 1 1 $1,382,004 3. Best Pal 10 6 2 1 1,148,695 4. Strike The Gold 7 2 2 1 3718,810 5. Meadow Star 9 9 0 0 1,086,850 6. Hansel 8 4 1 2 724,593 7. Sea Cadet 11 5 2 2 457,050 8. Olympio 7 4 1 0 278,675 9. Richman 13 8 2 1 585,379 10. Mane Minister 8 3 0 2 154,700

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.