HORSE RACING : More Than a Race at Stake at Belmont

There’s more at stake here than just the Belmont Stakes.

Once again, the Lasix controversy has erupted as Preakness winner Hansel comes to drug-free Belmont Park to renew his Triple Crown rivalry with Kentucky Derby winner Strike the Gold.

A field of 11 or more is likely for next Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, third leg of thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown. Hansel comes into the race off an impressive, seven-length victory on May 18 in the Preakness at Pimlico, but in New York, he will not be allowed to run on the drug Lasix.

Lasix is legal in both Kentucky and Maryland. The diuretic drug is used to correct pulmonary bleeding, a frequent problem for some of these high-strung race horses, and the type of heat and humidity common to New York in June only makes it worse.

“I guess it could be a factor, but in my opinion it’s not a major factor,” Hansel’s trainer, Frank Brothers, said.

On a sticky, warm day in Kentucky on May 4, the favored Hansel finished 10th in the Derby, running on the drug, while Lasixless Strike the Gold staged an impressive stretch run down the middle of the track at Churchill Downs to win by 1 3/4 lengths.

“I’m sticking to my story,” Brothers said. “I don’t have a concrete reason that I can hang my hat on why he ran bad in the Derby.”

Last year, trainer Carl Nafzger went through the same controversy with Kentucky Derby winner Unbridled, a Lasix horse. Unbridled finished a soundly beaten fourth but did come back to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic in November at Belmont without Lasix.

If 11 are entered on Thursday, it would give the Belmont its biggest field since 1985, when Creme Fraiche won out of a field of 11.

The field got a little lighter last week when the promising filly, Lite Light, was withdrawn from the race. She’ll pass up the grueling 1 1/2 miles of Belmont for the Mother Goose the next day and an exciting showdown with 2-year-old filly champion Meadow Star.

Lite Light, owned by the family of rap star M.C. Hammer, won the Kentucky Oaks on May 3 by 10 lengths but has never faced colts. Meadow Star sustained the only loss in her 11-race career against colts, in the Wood Memorial on April 20, then won the Acorn impressively.

“We know that Belmont is a tiring track, and asking Lite Light to face the best of the colts at 1 1/2 miles might not be in her best interest,” said Louis Burrell Jr., the Hammer’s brother and manager of the family’s Oaktown Stable. “The Breeders’ Cup Distaff has always been our major goal, and we don’t want to do anything that could result in a setback in reaching that objective.”

Besides Hansel and Strike the Gold, the only 3-year-olds expected in the field who also were in the Derby and Preakness are Mane Minister and Corporate Report. Four Derby horses who skipped the Preakness could be entered: Green Alligator, Quintana, Lost Mountain and Another Review.

There are three probable starters who were in neither of the first two Triple Crown races: the Irish challenger Smooth Performance, Scan and Subordinated Debt.

Mane Minister was third in both the Derby and Preakness and could go off among the favorites, as should Smooth Performance, partly because of the results his trainer had last year with Go and Go.

Dermot Weld brought Go and Go to the 1990 Belmont Stakes as an unknown and left with the winner. Go and Go and Smooth Performance also have the same owner, Swiss industrialist Walter Haefner’s Moyglare Stud Farm.

Coporate Report, trained by D. Wayne Lukas, was ninth in the Derby but got three-quarters of a length in front of Mane Minister for second in the Preakness. In the Derby, Green Alligator was fourth, Quintana sixth, Lost Mountain 12th and Another Review 13th.

Hansel, owned by Joe Allbritton’s Lazy Lane Farm, did not arrive at Pimlico until three days before the Preakness. This time, he shipped into Belmont Friday morning after an overnight van ride from Chicago.

Besides the half million or more to the winner of the Belmont, there also is at stake the Triple Crown bonus of $1 million that goes to the horse which accumulates the most points from the three races. Points are awarded on the basis of 10 for first, 5 for second, 3 for third and 1 for fourth.

Since a horse must start in all three races to be eligible, it’s down to Hansel (10 points), Strike the Gold (10), Mane Minister (6), and Corporate Report (5).