TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

REMARKS: The question regarding Hansel’s 17 3/4-length improvement, from 10th in the Kentucky Derby to first in last Saturday’s Preakness, is not going to be answered. The colt ran the worst race of his life at the Derby and ran the race of his career two weeks later. Easier to answer is why some of the Preakness favorites--in particular, the California horses--did so poorly.

Olympio, winner of the Arkansas Derby and well-rested after skipping the Kentucky Derby, worked like a winner at Pimlico, yet finished fourth, beaten by more than eight lengths in his worst showing since the Hollywood Futurity last year.

Best Pal, second in the Santa Anita Derby and the Kentucky Derby, also worked well at Pimlico, but he couldn’t gain a favorable close position early in the Preakness and had no finishing kick. Hansel was 11 lengths better than Best Pal, who finished fifth.

Gary Stevens, who rode Best Pal, said afterward: “He just threw in a clinker. I’m going to throw the race out.”

At Pimlico, it also might have helped handicappers if they had thrown out the Preakness workouts, because the track on race day was different from what it had been for training. All during the week, the track was packed hard, and a common complaint heard around the barn area was that horses were burning their heels. For the Preakness, all eight horses wore rundown bandages, and Best Pal even wore them front and back.

Then on Friday, toward the end of the racing program, a rainstorm hit Pimlico, loosening the track. There was no more rain Saturday, but the temperatures also dropped about 30 degrees, to about 60, and John Passero, the track superintendent, said that he didn’t have to use the water truck all day.

As a result, the running surface for the Preakness was sandier and cuppier than it had been all week, and the California horses suffered. “The track wasn’t unfair, but it was the kind where some horses handle it and some don’t,” said Ian Jory, Best Pal’s trainer. “It was a sandier track than what we trained on. It was similar to what the Breeders’ Cup track was last year.”

In the Breeders’ Cup at Belmont Park in November, Best Pal, who had won four consecutive stakes, including the Del Mar Futurity and the Norfolk at Santa Anita, went off at 9-5 and struggled to finish sixth. Six weeks later, he was back in California on a track he liked and won the Hollywood Futurity.

Trainer Ron McAnally also attributed Olympio’s performance to the track. “He lost a shoe, but I don’t think that bothered him,” McAnally said. “I feel like he wasn’t getting a hold of the track that well, and he wasn’t the only one.”

Even Mane Minister, the third-place finisher in both the Derby and the Preakness, apparently didn’t care for Pimlico’s racing surface.

“He had a tough time getting a hold of it in the first part,” said his jockey, Alex Solis. “It was too deep. Then, when we got clear at the quarter pole and he started running, it was too late.”

Passero is a conscientious foreman who worries so much about horses breaking down at Pimlico that he seldom watches a race.

“When they come out of the gate, I usually put my head down, just hoping that nothing bad happens,” he said. “The main thing I wanted to do for the Preakness was give the horses a safe track. And the way they came out of it, I think I succeeded.”

Strike The Gold, Olympio and Best Pal were the three betting favorites in the Preakness, yet the best any of them could finish was fourth. Hansel had been 10th and Corporate Report ninth in the Kentucky Derby, and they ran 1-2 in the Preakness. The rain on Friday and the cuppiness of Pimlico on Saturday obviously agreed with them. There should be a similar surface when the Belmont Stakes, the last leg of the Triple Crown, is run on June 8. Best Pal and Olympio have no business there, and they won’t be.

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

Horse Str 1 2 3 Earnings 1. Strike The Gold 9 3 2 1 $1,034,610 2. Hansel 11 6 1 2 $1,244,106 3. Mane Minister 10 3 0 4 $291,280 4. Green Alligator 8 2 4 0 $256,500 5. Corporate Report 6 2 3 0 $286,160 6. Lite Light 14 7 2 1 $928,391 7. Best Pal 12 6 3 1 $1,293,695 8. Olympio 9 5 1 0 $611,965 9. Fly So Free 11 7 1 1 $1,382,004 10. Dinard 5 4 1 0 $452,750