He Thinks He Can Strike The Gold Twice : Belmont: Zito is confident his Kentucky Derby winner will be ready for the third race in the Triple Crown series.

Here’s a multiple choice, with no prizes: Why did Strike The Gold, the Kentucky Derby winner, run so poorly in the Preakness two weeks later, costing himself a shot at the Triple Crown?

(a) It was the colt’s third tough race in less than five weeks and he wasn’t up to par.

(b) He couldn’t handle Pimlico’s cuppy track and tight turns.

(c) Jockey Chris Antley let himself get trapped on the rail by Honor Grades and his rider, Chris McCarron, and was unable to get position early.

As far as Nick Zito is concerned, the answer to the question is none of the above. “Dracula lives in Baltimore, that’s why we lost,” the trainer of Strike The Gold joked at his barn Wednesday.

Zito kids a lot, but he is serious--and quite confident--about Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, the Triple Crown windup that includes Hansel, the Preakness winner, and nine other horses besides Strike The Gold.

Strike The Gold worked a half-mile Wednesday in :49 3/5 in what Zito calls an “open gallop.” Despite running sixth, 11 1/2 lengths behind Hansel, in the Preakness, Strike The Gold is likely to go off the favorite in the 1 1/2-mile Belmont, the longest race in the series.

“Yes, I think we’ll be the favorite,” Zito said. “My horse likes this track, he doesn’t need Lasix (the anti-bleeding diuretic) like Hansel does, and he’s the Derby winner, which means he’s got to be a good horse. I think he’ll vindicate the trainer and the jockey, like always. Hercules unchained will carry the day for the infamous Nick Zito and the infamous Chris Antley.”

New York rules prevent horses from racing on Lasix.

Antley won the Blue Grass Stakes and the Kentucky Derby with Strike The Gold in the only two times he rode him before the Preakness, and if he is indeed infamous, it’s because Zito was not enthralled with his ride in Baltimore. But Zito said he has not thought about changing jockeys for the Belmont, and added that there was also no pressure from the owners to make a switch.

“I think that if Chris had swung the horse to the outside early, we probably would have been second in the Preakness,” Zito said. “The kid has won two out of three with the horse, and Baltimore’s over.”

In the 1 1/4-mile Derby, Strike The Gold came from 12th place and 11 lengths back to win by almost two lengths, but the longer Belmont, which frequently has a snailish pace, usually isn’t won by come-from-behind horses.

Zito believes that Strike The Gold is capable of being closer to the lead. “We really weren’t that far back in the Preakness,” he said. “Take a look. We were only five lengths off the lead after the first half-mile, but we were pinned on the rail and couldn’t do anything about it. Chris McCarron is a professional rider, and I don’t believe he cost himself a chance to win just for the sake of keeping us down in there, although my Chris (Antley) isn’t so sure.”

Zito will know early in the Belmont whether Strike The Gold has a chance of redeeming himself.

His colt and Hansel have 10 points apiece based on their other victories and are among four horses with the chance to win the $1-million Triple Crown bonus for best finishes in the three races. The others in contention are Mane Minister, who has six points for third-place finishes in the Derby and the Preakness, and Corporate Report, who got five points for running second in the Preakness.

“To win the Belmont, my horse has to settle early,” Zito said. “Chris (Antley) won’t be able to throw the reins like he did in Baltimore. We finished second (to Fly So Free) in the Florida Derby because we lost contact with the field early. Then in the Blue Grass we didn’t lose contact.”

Corporate Report, who tried to win the Preakness on the lead, should run the same kind of race in the Belmont, Zito thinks.

“Trust me,” he said. “(Trainer Wayne) Lukas will try to steal this race (with Corporate Report).

“He’s going to tell (jockey) Pat Day to just take off running. But that’s good. If Corporate Report does that, it will ensure an honest pace.”

Should Corporate Report win the Belmont and take the $1-million bonus, Zito might go back to his Dracula theory again.

“Wayne could be the real Dracula,” Zito said. “He’s sure got the teeth for it.”

Horse Racing Notes

The weather is expected to be dry through Saturday, and temperatures on race day should be in the mid-70s. . . . The break in the hot spell should help Hansel and the other Belmont starters--Scan, Quintana, Subordinated Debt and Mane Minister--who are bleeders and can’t race with Lasix because of New York rules. . . . Scan is trying to do what Best Pal couldn’t do in the Derby and Preakness, win a Triple Crown race after not having won a race all year. Scan’s 3-year-old campaign began at Santa Anita, and he was second to Subordinated Debt in the Withers at Belmont Park on May 8.

The Nick Zito-trained Thirty Six Red, winner of the Wood Memorial last year, has been retired and will stand at stud at Gainesway Farm in Kentucky. “Thirty Six Red was a victim of what is now just called wear and tear,” Zito said.