A.P. Indy Gallops at Belmont and Dispels Kitchen Rumors : Horse racing: Drysdale says 1 1/2-mile distance Saturday will suit colt because of his breeding and his running style.

Trainer Neil Drysdale had returned to the stakes barn from the track kitchen at Belmont Park.

“There are guys in there who say that we’re not running,” Drysdale said.

Asked where that sort of information came from, Drysdale rummaged through a few New York newspapers. All he found was a political cartoon in the Daily News that made him laugh.

“I don’t know where the rumors started,” Drysdale said. “They write a lot of rubbish around here.”

Otherwise, the trainer is in good spirits. Drysdale’s A.P. Indy, whose sire, Seattle Slew, won the 1977 Belmont Stakes to sweep the Triple Crown, is the probable favorite Saturday in the 124th running of the race. But last weekend, several days after A.P. Indy had won impressively at Belmont in the Peter Pan Stakes, rumors spread that something was wrong with him.

In a strange, perhaps unprecedented announcement, Belmont Park issued this statement last Sunday: “Contrary to the rumors that have been buzzing around the backstretch, Peter Pan Stakes winner A.P. Indy is alive and well and on schedule for his engagement in the Belmont Stakes this Saturday. “He’s fine,” a bemused Drysdale said. “He galloped (Saturday) and he went well, and he galloped today and went well. Who starts these rumors?’ ”

Belmont Park officials and ABC television have an intense interest in the welfare of A.P. Indy, because without Drysdale’s horse, the 1 1/2-mile race loses much of its pizazz, and the Belmont was not being billed as a sequel to Affirmed vs. Alydar to begin with.

Lil E. Tee, the Kentucky Derby winner, isn’t running, having bled from the lungs while finishing fifth in the Preakness and then developing a respiratory infection. Pine Bluff, the Preakness winner, is expected to be the second betting choice Saturday, and in Thoroughbred Racing Communications’ weekly poll of 3-year-olds this week, he was outvoted by A.P. Indy, 17-11.

The Belmont field keeps growing in quantity, but not quality. As many as 14 may run now. The probables are A.P. Indy, Pine Bluff, Casual Lies, Colony Light, Al Sabin, Montreal Marty, Agincourt, Jacksonport, Conte Di Savoya, Robert’s Hero and European imports My Memoirs and Cristofori.

Berkley Fitz might run if there is an off track--which is possible, with showers in the forecast for Friday and Saturday. Dixie Brass, an excellent miler, doesn’t fit the marathon Belmont, but his owner, Michael Watral, is still weighing the options.

A.P. Indy, owned by Tomonori Tsurumaki, a land developer in Japan and a horse owner for about 20 years, probably would have been the second choice, behind Arazi in the Kentucky Derby. The afternoon before the race, however, A.P. Indy went lame. The injury was later diagnosed as a blind quarter-crack, a small split in his left front hoof.

Drysdale, not known to rush any horse, was holding out for running in the Preakness, two weeks after the Derby, but after a couple of workouts at Churchill Downs after the Derby, he figured that A.P. Indy had lost too much time.

“If we had located the problem straight off, it might have been different,” Drysdale said.

A.P. Indy was brought to New York, having not raced since April 4, when he won the Santa Anita Derby for his fifth consecutive victory. The horse’s only defeat in seven starts was in his first race, last August at Del Mar, where he was fourth. He has been undefeated since surgery removed an undescended testicle not long after the Del Mar race.

On May 24, in the 1 1/8-mile Peter Pan, A.P. Indy came from slightly off the pace and won by 5 1/2 lengths. Five other horses have used the Peter Pan as a successful prep for winning the Belmont, starting with Counterpoint in 1951 and followed by Gallant Man, Cavan, Coastal and Danzig Connection, in 1986.

“In the Peter Pan, it looked like Eddie Delahoussaye might have moved with the horse too early,” Drysdale said. “But it turned out that the horse moved on his on. He was doing it so easily.”

Delahoussaye will be aboard again Saturday, as he has been for all of A.P. Indy’s races. In his only two Belmonts, Delahoussaye was second with Gato Del Sol in 1982 and won with Risen Star in 1988.

Joey Carroll, a Churchill Downs blacksmith, repaired A.P. Indy’s cracked hoof with a fiberglass patch.

“So far--knock on wood--it’s working,” Drysdale said, tapping his head with his knuckles. “The horse has been going well, but of course it’s not an ideal situation. It doesn’t affect the way that we train him.”

On Monday, Carroll appeared at Belmont to examine A.P. Indy, giving the rumor mongers more ammunition. Then Tuesday, because of rain early this week, Drysdale vanned the horse to Aqueduct--about 10 miles from Belmont--for a six-furlong workout that was postponed Monday.

“The track was in much better condition at Aqueduct,” Drysdale said. “He went very well. It was a very relaxed work. He breezed in 1:17 and change. It looked like a steady three-quarters. We just wanted him to relax. The horse just ran. He’s fit and in good condition.”

An off track Saturday shouldn’t bother A.P. Indy. He broke his maiden in the slop at Santa Anita last Oct. 27. Seattle Slew, his sire, won the Belmont in the mud. A.P. Indy’s grandsire, Secretariat, was a Triple Crown champion in 1973.

“The mile and a half will suit him because of his breeding and his running style,” Drysdale said. “But you never know until you try it.”

And A.P. Indy is planning to try it. No matter what’s being said in the track kitchen.

Horse Racing Notes

Laffit Pincay, who won three consecutive Belmonts, with Conquistador Cielo, Caveat and Swale in 1982, ’83 and ‘84, will ride in the race for the 12th time, having gotten the assignment on Al Sabin. Henryk deKwiatkowski, Conquistador Cielo’s owner, also races Al Sabin. Pincay landed the mount on Conquistador Cielo when Eddie Maple suffered broken ribs in a spill at Belmont. Pincay’s three winners all were trained by Woody Stephens, who also won with Creme Fraiche in 1985 and Danzig Connection in 1986. Pincay, who has been in 11 Belmonts, last rode in the stake when he finished fourth aboard Stephens’ Cefis in 1988.

The only Belmont for Steve Cauthen resulted in the Triple Crown clincher in 1978 for Affirmed, the last horse to sweep the series. Cauthen moved to England the next year and now, after intermittent returns to the United States for important races, will be back in the Belmont. His mount is the longshot Cristofori, who’s had two victories and a second in seven French races. Cristofori’s trainer, Andre Fabre, will remain in Europe, to saddle a horse in the English Oaks, and his wife, Elizabeth, will be at the Belmont. The owner of Cristofori, Sheik Mohammed al Maktoum, is the co-owner of Arazi.

Cauthen, a two-time winner of the Epsom Derby, will ride Alnasr Alwasheek, a 6-1 shot, in the $1-million race in England today. Other favorites are Muhtarram, a John Gosden-trained colt, and Rodrigo de Triano, who will try to give Lester Piggott, at 56, his 10th Derby victory.