Without Lasix, Hansel May Skip the Belmont : Horse racing: Best Pal is coming back to California and probably also is finished with Triple Crown races.

Not many Preakness winners fail to run in the Belmont Stakes, but for the second consecutive year the first-place finisher at Pimlico is a bleeder who may skip the Triple Crown windup in New York, where horses are not permitted to race while treated with medication.

On Sunday, less than 24 hours after Hansel atoned for his 10th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby by winning the Preakness by seven lengths, his trainer, Frank Brothers, said that it would be a week to 10 days before a decision is made about the colt running in the Belmont, which is scheduled for June 8.

Racing fans were denied a definitive showdown between Unbridled and Summer Squall a year ago when Cot Campbell, managing partner of the Summer Squall syndicate, decided not to risk running his colt without Lasix, the diuretic commonly given to horses that bleed from the lungs.

Unbridled won the Kentucky Derby, the first Triple Crown race, and Summer Squall avenged that loss in the Preakness. With Summer Squall out of the Belmont, all Unbridled had to do to clinch the $1-million Triple Crown bonus was finish the race, and he wound up running fourth.

Hansel will be flown to Chicago on Tuesday and sent to Brothers’ barn at Arlington International Racecourse.

Hansel bled “very little,” Brothers said, while running fifth in the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park on March 16. Since then, he has won three of four starts--every race but the Derby--while running on Lasix, which is permitted in every major racing state except New York.

Brothers said that endoscopic examinations after Hansel’s post-Fountain of Youth races have shown that he no longer bleeds.

Brothers said Sunday that neither the distance nor the competition nor the chance at the $1-million bonus would be factors in determining whether Hansel runs in the Belmont, which at 1 1/2 miles is the longest of the Triple Crown races.

“The major factor is to do the thing that’s best for the horse,” Brothers said. “If we could get Hansel to run like he did Saturday, I’m sure he could get the mile and a half. And with Mr. (Joe) Allbritton (the owner of Hansel), the bonus isn’t going to affect what we do.”

A Belmont victory, because of the race’s reputation and distance, helps a horse’s career as a stallion, but Hansel would already be a desirable stud after his Preakness victory. “A horse wins one of the classics and his reputation is made,” Brothers said.

The Triple Crown bonus, which began in 1987, goes to the owner of the horse who runs in all three races and registers the most points for high finishes. This year, the point system was changed, with 10 points going to a race winner and the next three positions being worth five points, three points and one point.

Going into the Belmont, Hansel and Strike The Gold, the Kentucky Derby winner who was sixth in the Preakness, have 10 points apiece. Next come Mane Minister with six points and Best Pal and Corporate Report with five points each. Green Alligator, who has one point for running fourth in the Derby, is headed for the Belmont but didn’t run in the Preakness; and Olympio, fourth in the Preakness after skipping the Derby, won’t run in the Belmont.

Best Pal is being flown back to California and isn’t expected to compete in the Belmont.

The possible field for the Belmont is at 11, counting Hansel. Other Preakness holdovers include Corporate Report (second on Saturday), Mane Minister (third for the second consecutive race) and Strike The Gold (sixth).

They could be joined by Green Alligator (fourth in the Derby), Quintana (sixth), Paulrus (seventh) and Lost Mountain (12th). Others under consideration are Subordinated Debt, winner of the recent Withers mile at Belmont; Scan; and Lite Light, the filly who won the 1 1/8-mile Kentucky Oaks in stakes-record time at Churchill Downs the day before the Derby.

Some of these horses may run in prep races, the Peter Pan next Sunday at Belmont being a possibility for Quintana and Scan, and the Jersey Derby at Garden State Park a week from today being on the schedule for Subordinated Debt.

Hansel isn’t the only bleeder on the Belmont list. Others who have run with Lasix include Lite Light, Mane Minister, Paulrus, Subordinated Debt and Quintana.

“I’m a big Lasix believer,” Frank Brothers said Sunday. How much he believes Hansel can run without the medication will go a long way toward determining the colt’s Belmont status.

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Ron McAnally said that Olympio’s throwing a hind shoe had nothing to do with his fourth-place finish in the Preakness. McAnally thought that his Arkansas Derby winner just couldn’t handle the cuppy Pimlico track. McAnally’s champion mare, Bayakoa, lost both hind shoes in her dismal career finale at Oaklawn Park this spring. McAnally has no immediate plans for Olympio and will run his stablemate, Sea Cadet, in the Jersey Derby.

A few hours before the Preakness, Hansel was standing in tubs of ice. “I’ve done that every time I’ve run him,” trainer Frank Brothers said. “I ice a lot of horses. He’s been a very sound horse, but I just do it as a precaution.” . . . Reflecting on Strike The Gold’s performance, trainer Nick Zito said: “I think the horse did not have a proper shot. I’m not making excuses for losing the race. I’m making excuses for my horse not having a fair chance.” Strike The Gold, who was at his best in the Kentucky Derby while on the outside of horses, was trapped on the inside by Honor Grades as they trailed the field in the early part of the Preakness.

HOLLYPARK ATTENDANCE, MUTUEL HANDLE

ATTEND. HANDLE Hollywood Park 24,723 $6,657,822 Off Track 9,064 $2,004,286 Out of State N/A $317,275 Total 33,787 $8,979,383