TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS : Derby Field at 14, Could Reach 19

For the 11th consecutive year, Churchill Downs won’t have to invoke the earnings rule when the 121st Kentucky Derby is run on May 6.

The Arkansas Derby on Saturday and a couple of minor races at Keeneland and Hialeah on Sunday left Churchill Downs with a cast of no more than 19 horses for the Derby. Here’s the way the field shapes up:

Definite (14)--Talkin Man, Timber Country, Afternoon Deelites, Jumron, Suave Prospect, Tejano Run, Thunder Gulch, Wild Syn, In Character, Pyramid Peak, Ski Captain, Dazzling Falls, Mecke and Eltish.

Possible (5)--Jambalaya Jazz, Serena’s Song, Royal Mitch, Lake George and Citadeed.

After Pleasant Colony beat 20 horses in the 1981 Derby, an earnings rule was established. Had this year’s field exceeded 20, the starters would have been determined by highest career earnings in graded races. Before Dazzling Falls earned $300,000 for winning the Arkansas Derby, his camp was concerned about earnings. The colt had earned $375,531 before his victory at Oaklawn Park, but none of it had come in a graded race.

Since the earnings rule was put into place, the maximum field of 20 horses has been reached only twice, when Sunny’s Halo won the Derby in 1983 and Swale won the next year. Since 1985, the field has fluctuated between 13 and 19, and last year’s 14-horse lineup was the smallest since 1985.

Mecke and Royal Mitch each finished second as odds-on favorites in races Sunday. At Hialeah, Mecke was 1 1/2 lengths behind Highest Yield in the Citation Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile race on the grass. His trainer, Manny Tortora, said the colt will be shipped to Churchill Downs early next week.

“He can’t help what happens to him,” Tortora said of the Citation. “I wanted to be back in the pack, last if I had to. I didn’t want him to be on the front end.”

Herb McCauley, who rode Mecke, said that the horse was aggressive and dragged him into early contention. Mecke’s only victory in seven starts this year came on grass, in the Tropical Park Derby at Calder. He’s been second or third five times.

Royal Mitch lost by 2 1/4 lengths to Star Standard in the 1 1/16-mile Lexington Stakes, run on a sloppy track at Keeneland. In his two starts before Sunday, Royal Mitch beat Wild Syn, the eventual Blue Grass winner, at Gulfstream Park and was second, three-quarters of a length behind Pyramid Peak, in the Flamingo at Hialeah.

Star Standard, who finished next to last in the Florida Derby, might run in the second leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness at Pimlico on May 20.

Serena’s Song, the filly who will run in either the Derby or the Kentucky Oaks on May 5, worked three-quarters of a mile in the dark at Churchill Downs Monday. Clockers caught her in 1:15 1/5 over a sloppy track. Thunder Gulch and Afternoon Deelites worked later in times of 1:14, and Timber Country was clocked in 1:25 3/5 for seven furlongs with Pat Day aboard.

Both Day and trainer Wayne Lukas felt that Timber Country didn’t adjust to the track when he ran fourth in the Santa Anita Derby. Lukas said he might have been better off if he had run Serena’s Song in the Santa Anita Derby and Timber Country in the Jim Beam Stakes at Turfway Park. Serena’s Song won the Jim Beam.

Day liked Timber Country’s latest work. “It’s amazing how much different this horse is on this surface,” he said. Timber Country hasn’t won since his victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs in November.

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RATINGS

Horse S 1 2 3 Earnings 1. Talkin Man 8 5 1 0 $677,967 2. Timber Country 10 4 1 3 1,043,590 3. Jumron 8 5 2 1 369,380 4. Afternoon Deelites 6 5 1 0 668,125 5. Serena’s Song 14 8 2 1 1,231,435 6. Suave Prospect 14 4 6 1 458,850 7. Tejano Run 8 3 2 2 481,147 8. Thunder Gulch 9 4 2 1 716,006 9. Wild Syn 6 3 0 1 344,974 10. Dazzling Falls 13 7 3 2 675,531

Advisory panel for The Times’ Triple Crown Ratings: Racing historian Jim Bolus; Trevor Denman, announcer at four Southern California tracks; Tom Durkin, track announcer in New York and Florida; and Dave Johnson, racing telecaster for ABC and ESPN.