TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

Bruce Headley is the trainer of Bertrando, second behind A.P. Indy in Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby, but he is also serious about running the inexperienced Disposal in the Kentucky Derby.

Except for Wayne Lukas, not many trainers have run more than one horse in a Derby in recent years.

Headley is serious enough about Disposal that the 3-year-old colt was a late nominee for the Triple Crown races at a cost of $4,500. Early nominations for the Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes cost $600 apiece.

The lower fee was due in January, when Disposal had yet to arrive at Headley’s barn at Santa Anita.

Horsemen talk about the difficulty of the task for Arazi of coming from France after one prep race and trying to win the Derby on May 2, but Headley’s mission with Disposal would be even more difficult.

If Disposal becomes a stablemate of Bertrando in the Derby, it will be after only two starts--a maiden race at Santa Anita and Saturday’s $300,000 California Derby at Golden Gate Fields.

Disposal’s debut was unusual enough; he ran 1 1/8 miles and won by almost three lengths on March 15.

Headley didn’t think the horse was being asked to over-reach.

“About 10 days before his race, I entered him going a mile and a sixteenth,” Headley said. “But I scratched him when it looked like we’d be able to get the mile-and-an-eighth race for him.”

Disposal’s time was 1:49 1/5, the same as A.P. Indy’s in the Santa Anita Derby. On Saturday, however, the track generally was producing ordinary times because it was a drying-out surface that had been hard hit by rain earlier in the week.

“No matter what, I thought Disposal’s time was fast,” Headley said. “He closed with a strong run. We’ll be able to tell if he’s legit when he runs against winners Saturday.”

In its 77 years, the California Derby has never produced a horse that went on to win the Kentucky Derby, and no change in that is expected this year. The 10-horse field is highlighted by horses who weren’t good enough in more meaningful Derby preps--Treekster, a promising second to A.P. Indy in the San Rafael at Santa Anita, but then third against lesser opposition at Turfway Park; and Arp, a former $32,000 claimer who was second to Bertrando in the San Felipe.

Another probable, Bold Assert, has won three in a row at Santa Anita this winter without facing top rivals.

Disposal’s breeding, by Sunny’s Halo out of Female Star, makes him a full brother of Dispersal, who earned $1.5 million while winning nine stakes, including the Louisiana Derby and the Woodward, in 1989-90. Sunny’s Halo is the Canadian-bred who won the Kentucky Derby in 1983.

Alydeed, another promising but lightly raced colt, appears to have run out of time to make the Derby. He bled from the lungs in his third start, at Calder a week ago, and although he is 70 miles away from Churchill Downs, at trainer Roger Attfield’s barn at Keeneland, Alydeed is suffering from infected lungs.

Keeneland is where the Blue Grass Stakes will be run on Saturday, with Dance Floor, another bleeder, running on the diuretic Lasix for the first time. Dance Floor qualified for the medication when he bled while finishing second to Technology in the Florida Derby. Among Dance Floor’s rivals will be Colony Light and Line In The Sand.

Colony Light won the Louisiana Derby, but minutes after the race the stewards ruled that he had interfered with Hill Pass in the stretch. They moved up Line In The Sand from second to first.

Dance Floor is trainer Wayne Lukas’ best remaining contender for the Derby, after Hickman Creek ran fourth in the Santa Anita Derby. Lukas is going to give Hickman Creek another chance to earn his way into the Kentucky Derby, running him in the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland on April 21.

In another Derby prep Saturday, Technology will make his first start since the Florida Derby, running in the Tropical Park Derby at Calder. Also expected to run is Careful Gesture, who won the Tampa Bay Derby, beating a field of lesser horses. Before that, Careful Gesture was fifth, 5 1/2 lengths behind Technology, in the Florida Derby.

Trouble has been following Careful Gesture around this year. He had traffic problems in his last two races, and in February he was disqualified from second to fifth in the Fountain of Youth Stakes.

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, racing secretary at Hialeah.

TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

Horse S 1 2 3 Earnings 1.Arazi 8 7 1 0 $1,095,802 2.A.P. Indy 6 5 0 0 722,555 3.Bertrando 6 4 2 0 791,665 4.Technology 5 3 1 1 330,803 5.Dance Floor 10 4 4 0 618,859 6.Pine Bluff 9 4 1 2 379,988 7.Casual Lies 9 5 0 1 445,628 8.Pistols And Roses 9 5 2 2 596,046 9.Lil E. Tee 7 4 2 1 352,306 10.D.J. Cat 4 4 0 0 131,270