Day Off Provides a Chance for Antley : Belmont Stakes: The slumping jockey will take over on Cherokee Run today. Prairie Bayou is the morning-line favorite.

There is a lot that is strange about today’s 125th running of the Belmont Stakes: An overflow field of 14 horses, many of them with questionable credentials; five jockeys who haven’t ridden their mounts before, and Pat Day, a Hall of Fame jockey, sitting at home in Kentucky while Chris Antley is introduced to Cherokee Run, a dangerous front-runner who is 8-1, the fourth choice on the morning line.

Antley has not been riding well--he has won with only 9% of his mounts at the current Belmont Park meeting--but is still no slouch. He won 469 races in 1985, leading the country, and in 1989 he won at least one race at Aqueduct for 64 consecutive days, believed to be a record. In 1991, Antley almost won the Belmont with Strike The Gold, losing by a head to Hansel in a stretch duel that provided the closest finish in the stake in 13 years.

But in Pat Day, Cherokee Run is losing a jockey who has won four Triple Crown races, including the Belmont with Easy Goer in 1989. Day is also a patient rider who would be highly qualified to nurse Cherokee Run around Belmont’s 1 1/2-mile oval while the closing threats--Kentucky Derby winner Sea Hero, Preakness winner Prairie Bayou and Virginia Rapids, the hot local horse--try to catch him through the stretch.

Day, who has ridden in seven Belmonts, is skipping today’s $745,900 race because of a five-day suspension at Churchill Downs for a riding infraction during a $20,820 race for $17,500 claiming horses a week ago. Day, who could have ridden in the Belmont by appealing the ruling to the Kentucky Racing Commission, is being portrayed as either a man of high principle or a fool.

Frank Alexander, Cherokee Run’s trainer, is publicly saying that he respects Day’s decision, but gives the impression that he is angry. Day has had nothing but good races with his colt, including a second-place finish, half a length behind Prairie Bayou, in the Preakness.

Day spent about 24 hours debating a possible appeal, and spoke with Alexander on the phone a couple of times.

Finally, the jockey said: “I feel very strongly about the suspension process, and the decision had to be something I could live by. I’ve never appealed a suspension. My head said one thing and my heart said another. I had a struggle with this, but I’m the one who has to face myself in the mirror in the mornings.”

In the 1970s, when Day was riding in New York, he had a drug habit, fought with other jockeys and went through a marriage breakup.

“In January of 1984, I committed my life to Christ,” Day, 39, has said. “After that, things came together in my life. I found a new sense of balance. My career success is just a by-product of the blessing.”

If the state involved had been California, instead of Kentucky and New York, Day would have been able to ride in the Belmont despite the suspension. For several years in California, track stewards and jockeys have been governed by a designated-race rule, which permits a rider to compete in major stakes during a suspension. On Sunday, Kent Desormeaux rode Toussaud to victory in the $150,000 Gamely Stakes at Hollywood Park while technically being on suspension.

Several other states also use the designated-race rule, but according to John Giovanni, a former rider who is national manager of the Jockeys’ Guild, the Kentucky Racing Commission recently rejected the proposition by a 5-4 vote. Under Nick Jemas, Giovanni’s predecessor until 1987, the guild disapproved of the rule, theorizing that it was unfair to other riders to merely wink at a penalty when a big race came along.

“It’s incredible how much sense the designated-race rule makes,” Giovanni said. “What Pat Day did doesn’t surprise me, and I’m sure Antley will give Cherokee Run a good ride. But this is unfair to a lot of people, including the owner of the horse, the trainer and even the bettors, and if New York had the California rule, we wouldn’t be talking about it.”

Said Alexander: “There ought to be a common rule. This is the second time I’ve lost a top jock before a big race. The first time, the original rider got hurt. I was lucky both times, to get capable replacements, but you wouldn’t have that worry if the big races were the exceptions.”

Alexander at least was cheered by the weather forecast, which calls for showers today.

“My horse won the Derby Trial on an off track,” he said. “He won the Lafayette (at Keeneland) on a ‘good’ track, and he worked really good in the mud here the other day. He might be the best mudder in the race.”

Horse Racing Notes

Chris Antley was aboard Cherokee Run Tuesday when the colt worked half a mile in 49 2/5 on a track labeled good. . . . Besides Antley, other jockeys with new horses in the Belmont are Laffit Pincay on Raglan Road, Kent Desormeaux on Arinthod, Robbie Davis on Only Alpha, and Richard Migliore on Antrim Rd.

Virginia Rapids could be part of a big weekend for trainer Allen Jerkens, who will have Devil His Due in the $400,000 Nassau County Handicap today and will start Sky Beauty against only four rivals--Aztec Hill, Silky Feather, Dispute and Standard Equipment--in Sunday’s $200,000 Mother Goose for 3-year-old fillies.

Also on Sunday, Lure can earn a $1-million bonus with a victory in the $150,000 Early Times Manhattan Stakes. He won the first two races in the series, at Churchill Downs and Pimlico. Opposing him Sunday will be Star Of Cozzene, Spectacular Tide, Al Karnak, Jacksonport, Mio Robertino and the entry of Solar Splendor and Binary Light.