THOROUGHBRED RACING : Hansel Is Fine, Trainer Is Hurting

Fortunately for owner Joe Allbritton, his horse is in better shape than his trainer.

Hansel, the winner of the Preakness three weeks ago, worked four furlongs in :49 1/5 over a sloppy track Tuesday and appears ready to win the Belmont Stakes Saturday. It would be a $1.4-million day--counting the purse and the Triple Crown bonus--for Allbritton if he does.

Lately, Hansel has been feeling much better than trainer Frank Brothers. At his Arlington International base last week, Brothers, 44, was kicked in the left hip by a horse named Wolf Spy. Brothers was on crutches for three days and still walks tentatively.

“It’s still sore,” Brothers said. “When you’re around horses as much as we are, you’re going to get kicked. I’ve been kicked before, but this is as bad as I’ve been kicked.”

A reporter had to crane his neck to hear Brothers, who has also been stricken with laryngitis since he arrived in New York. But the questions about Lasix keep coming. Hansel bled from the lungs on the February day he finished fifth in the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park and since then has been running on Lasix, a diuretic that can prevent bleeding. He was treated with it before he ran third in the Florida Derby; before he won the Jim Beam and the Lexington Stakes; before he finished 10th as the favorite in the Kentucky Derby, and before he won the Preakness.

This Saturday, however, Hansel will run in the Belmont “clean”--that is, without Lasix or any other medication, to comply with New York’s controversial no-drug policy. It is the only major racing state with officials who believe that horses need just hay, water and oats to run.

The Lasix question gave Brothers pause before he finally decided to chance the Belmont with Hansel. He supports the use of Lasix but is diplomatic when discussing New York’s anti-medication rule.

“If you don’t like it, then you don’t race here,” Brothers said. “When you go to somebody else’s back yard, you just have to play their game.”

Last year’s Derby winner, Unbridled, also used Lasix. Although he ran fourth in the Belmont without Lasix, Unbridled didn’t bleed here. Curiously, he bled badly with Lasix in the Pimlico Special at Pimlico last month and now his career is on hold.

Brothers seems more concerned about Hansel handling the 1 1/2-mile Belmont distance than with his bleeding in the race. Hansel’s sire, Woodman, was a champion 2-year-old in Ireland but was not a sound horse and raced only five times. Hansel is from Woodman’s first crop of offspring.

“I still think Hansel is on the upswing,” Brothers said. “He’s held his weight (through the Triple Crown races) and he’s training well. After the Derby and the Preakness, there’s not much you need to do with a horse in the three weeks before the Belmont, because all that racing is enough to get him fit. What we hope to do is just hold what we’ve got.

“When you talk about a mile and a half, a horse has just got to be able to do it. Most American horses are bred for speed and middle distances, so it takes an unusual horse to handle a mile and a half.”

The tendency is to bill this Belmont as a rematch between Strike The Gold, the Derby winner who was sixth in the Preakness, and Hansel, the Preakness winner who was 10th in the Derby.

“This isn’t a two-horse race,” Brothers said. “I think it’s wide-open. All the horses in here have decent credentials.”

Safely Kept, one of the best sprinters in training, won the $100,000 Genuine Risk Stakes at Belmont Park Thursday. The 5-year-old mare finished two lengths ahead of Missy’s Mirage, with Token Dance third in the five-horse field.

Safely Kept, ridden by Craig Perret, was timed in 1:10 for six furlongs and paid $2.40 to win. She was given a rest after winning the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Belmont last October, and the Genuine Risk was her second consecutive victory since returning.

Lite Light, who was withdrawn from the Belmont Stakes to force a showdown with Meadow Star in Sunday’s Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont, probably will have only three other opponents. When entries for the 1 1/8-mile stake are taken today, the only other names in the box are expected to be Risen Colony, Shared Interest and Nalees Pin.

M.C. Hammer, the rapper whose family owns and manages Lite Light’s career, will watch the filly run for the first time. Hammer will also be here to watch his Media Plan run in another race on the Belmont card Saturday.

Corey Nakatani, who has a dangerous mount in the Belmont in Green Alligator, will also ride Lite Light and is predicting victory. “It’s a one-horse race,” Nakatani said. “The farther my filly goes, the better she likes it.”

Horse Racing Notes

Julie Krone, the rider on Subordinated Debut, will become the first woman to have a mount in the Belmont Stakes. . . . Chris Antley has replaced Robin Platts as the jockey on Jolie’s Halo, one of the favorites Saturday in the $500,000 Nassau County Handicap at Belmont. Platts upset trainer Happy Alter when he failed to show up for a workout. . . . Chris McCarron has won the 1991 Mike Venezia Memorial Award, given to a jockey whose qualities of sportsmanship and citizenship resemble those of Venezia, the New York jockey who was killed in a spill at Belmont Park in 1988. . . . There will be a 12-horse field today in the $150,000 Early Times Manhattan Handicap at Belmont. Phantom Breeze is the high weight with 119 pounds, two more than Stage Colony.