TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

REMARKS: According to jockey Gary Stevens, Best Pal had a “dream trip” in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.

Stevens should know; he was there, astride the gelding who finished second, 1 3/4 lengths behind Strike The Gold, in the first race of the Triple Crown series.

But Ian Jory, the trainer of Best Pal, had a different perspective on the race. “Remember the day of the (post-position) draw?” Jory said. “When we drew No. 15 (out of 16 horses), there was a gasp. That said it about our chances. We were pretty restricted, breaking from the outside.”

Best Pal was never farther back than fourth in nine of his 10 previous races. But in the Derby, breaking from the auxiliary starting gate, he was behind nine horses at the start.

“Gary took him back, which was the right thing to do, all things considered,” Jory said. “Going down the stretch the first time, Sea Cadet (the leader) wasn’t really going that fast. There were eight or nine across the track. If Gary had gone on, he would have ended up on the lead, and if he had stayed where he was, he would have been eight wide.

“He had to take back, and doing that cost us 10 lengths. At that stage, we were in big trouble. I haven’t seen the stewards’ films yet, but it looked like he was weaving in and out of horses going down the backstretch. Then he had to take up slightly on the far turn, and in the stretch he had to wait to get through on the rail, where the running was deeper than it was on the outside. It might have been a different story if he could have gotten through sooner.”

The 16 horses that ran in the Derby included the usual dregs that should have been running in allowance races. Every year, horses drop into the Derby only because it gives the owners chances to buy box seats near the finish line for their families and friends.

Mark Johnston, last year’s Eclipse Award-winning apprentice jockey, knew better than to ride Forty Something in the Derby. He stayed at Pimlico, honoring his riding assignments there. Forty Something, under Andrea Seefeldt, the third woman to ride in the Derby, finished last, beaten by more than 36 lengths.

There were too many Forty Something look-alikes in the 117th Derby, cluttering the field and making it more likely that contenders like Best Pal and Quintana--who drew No. 16--would either be compromised at the post or run into traffic along the way. Quintana, who ran sixth, could have been on the board with better luck.

“We got beat by a very good horse,” Jory said. “And that’s the Derby--the winner was a horse who got a good trip. There were a few Derby starters who didn’t belong. The Preakness should be fairer in that department, with a smaller field. I think we’ve got a very good shot in the Preakness.”

Best Pal lost only about 20 pounds in the Derby. That’s important, a horse keeping his flesh as he moves from one race to the next in the grueling Triple Crown series.

In the Derby, the California-bred could have become the first gelding winner since Clyde Van Dusen, 62 years ago. Five geldings have won the Preakness, but none since Holiday in 1914. The first gelding to win the Preakness, in 1876, was named Shirley.

For a trainer who celebrated his 33rd birthday just a week before the Derby, Jory has done all right in Louisville. Last year, he took Video Ranger, a claiming horse, to Churchill Downs and finished fourth.

The disappointment of finishing second with Best Pal, a horse that Jory thought was best, was aggravated minutes after the Derby, when overzealous track security guards delayed the trainer from reaching his horse. Jory was stopped at a door leading to the tunnel that goes to the track, and there was a brief scuffle.

“I was wearing all the right credentials, so I don’t know why they wouldn’t let me through,” Jory said. “The last thing you want to happen is not being able to get to your horse right after the Derby, because it’s such a madhouse. Suppose somebody gives him a drink of something, and then there’s a positive test, and then you’re really in trouble.”

There’s one way Jory can circumvent a repeat of this contretemps. The winning trainer in a Triple Crown race gets an escorted trip to trackside.

TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

Career Horse S 1 2 3 Earnings 1. Strike The Gold 8 3 2 1 $1,034,610 2. Best Pal 11 6 3 1 $1,293,695 3. Fly So Free 11 7 1 1 $1,382,004 4. Olympio 8 5 1 0 $578,675 5. Mane Minister 9 3 0 3 $224,700 6. Green Alligator 8 2 4 0 $304,936 7. Hansel 10 5 1 2 $833,336 8. Tank 5 3 0 2 $119,940 9. Quintana 8 2 1 0 $114,000 10. Corporate Report 5 2 2 0 $153,000

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.