TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

REMARKS: There are many comparisons to be made between Go And Go, the winner of last year’s Belmont Stakes, and Smooth Performance, the Irish import who will try to give the same owner, trainer and jockey another victory in the Triple Crown race Saturday.

But there are at least two differences. Smooth Performance has all his teeth, and he has never run on dirt.

Go And Go, bred and owned by Walter Haefner, trained by Dermot Weld and ridden by Michael Kinane, doesn’t have any bottom teeth, having been kicked in the face when he was a young horse. He also had an advantage that Smooth Performance won’t have Saturday, having run twice on dirt in the United States before his Belmont, winning the Laurel Futurity as a 2-year-old.

The rest of Weld’s blueprint for the 123rd Belmont is the same. Smooth Performance has been swimming between workouts, as Go And Go did; he will be flown to New York on the Wednesday before the race and will spend two days in quarantine, and he used the same prep race for the Belmont. Go And Go finished fourth in that Irish stake at Leopardstown a year ago, and Smooth Performance ran third, beaten by 1 3/4 lengths, going the 1 1/4 miles there May 11.

Smooth Performance, who has won at 1 1/4 miles, has three victories, three seconds and one third in nine starts. His breeding gives the colt license to do anything. The sire is Seattle Slew, winner of the Triple Crown in 1977, and his dam, Seasonal Pickup, is by The Minstrel, the winner of the English and Irish Derbies at 1 1/2 miles, the Belmont distance. The Minstrel, who was 16, had to be destroyed last year because of an incurable hoof disease.

“If he’s by Seattle Slew, he should be able to handle the (dirt) track,” said Frank Brothers, who will saddle Hansel, the Preakness winner, in the Belmont.

Before or after his New York victory, Weld didn’t classify Go And Go as an extraordinary horse, and in fact he beat one of the weakest Belmont fields in several years. Go And Go hasn’t won a race since his Belmont, and after finishing third in the San Fernando at Santa Anita Jan. 19, he suffered a broken right foreleg. Go And Go is now being prepared for a return to the races by trainer Wayne Lukas, who took over the colt after he ran last in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic at Belmont Park.

Lukas has a horse in this Belmont. Corporate Report, who has run only six times and is winless in four stakes, nevertheless showed substantial improvement in the Preakness while finishing second, seven lengths behind Hansel. Two weeks before, in the Kentucky Derby, Corporate Report couldn’t maintain his front-running pace nearly as far and wound up ninth.

Front-runners are always dangerous in the Belmont, despite its marathon distance, and the front-runners Saturday should include Corporate Report, Scan and Subordinated Debt. The last horse that came from far back to win the Belmont was Creme Fraiche, a gelding, in 1985.

For this reason, no one seems to fear Strike The Gold, the late-running Kentucky Derby winner who ran sixth in the Preakness. A New York horse, Strike The Gold has run only once at Belmont, finishing ninth in the first race of his career last year.

Strike The Gold’s vulnerability, and doubts about Hansel’s ability to race without the bleeding medication that is forbidden in New York, have accounted for an 11-horse field Saturday, the largest Belmont turnout since Creme Fraiche’s year.

Joining Strike The Gold, Hansel, Smooth Performance, Corporate Report, Scan and Subordinated Debt in the field will be Mane Minister, Green Alligator, Lost Mountain, Quintana and Another Review. These are the survivors of a 3-year-old crop that has already lost too many top horses along the way to be considered a good one.

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

Career Horse S 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 3 2 0 286,160 6. Best Pal 12 6 3 1 1,293,695 7. Olympio 9 5 1 0 611,965 8. Fly So Free 11 7 1 1 1,382,004 9. Dinard 5 4 1 0 452,750 10. Scan 10 3 4 2 321,080