Triple Crown Trio Not Likely to Meet

Chances are remote that the three Triple Crown winners will land in the same race any time soon.

Fusaichi Pegasus, the Kentucky Derby winner, is back at Hollywood Park, but his next race is not likely to be the $500,000 Swaps. While the colt has recovered from the minor hoof injury that knocked him out of the Belmont Stakes and is back in training, his enigmatic trainer, Neil Drysdale, is undecided what he’ll do next.

Red Bullet, who skipped the Derby and then beat Fusaichi Pegasus in the Preakness, is likely to make three appearances in the next two months: The $150,000 Dwyer Stakes at Belmont Park on July 9, the $1-million Haskell Handicap at Monmouth Park on Aug. 6 and the $1-million Travers at Saratoga on Aug. 26. Red Bullet missed the Belmont because his trainer, Joe Orseno, thought the horse needed a gap in the schedule to be ready for the second half of the campaign.

Commendable, the upset winner of the Belmont, gives his trainer, Wayne Lukas, a two-ply threat in the 3-year-old division. High Yield, thought to be Lukas’ best 3-year-old early in the year, was 15th in the Derby and seventh in the Preakness after winning the Blue Grass Stakes.

Lukas said after the Belmont that he’d keep the horses apart for a while, with High Yield scheduled for the Swaps and Commendable a possibility for the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 5.

Depending on those outcomes, High Yield and Commendable might both run in the Travers. Bob and Beverly Lewis, who own Commendable, are partners with Susan Magnier and Michael Tabor in the ownership of High Yield.

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Orseno and Red Bullet owner Frank Stronach won one of the races on the Belmont undercard when Perfect Sting captured the $165,800 Just A Game Breeders’ Cup Handicap. But Orseno, who has been diagnosed with a hernia, was unable to saddle the 4-year-old filly. Orseno, 44, was hospitalized with extreme stomach discomfort Friday, and attended the races on Belmont day as a spectator. He said that more tests will be run on Monday and that surgery is likely.

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In other stakes here Saturday, Manndar, the California-based colt trained by Beau Greely, was a one-length winner over Boatman in the $400,000 Manhattan Handicap; Trippi, making his first start since finishing 11th in the Derby, beat favored Bevo by nine lengths in the $150,000 Riva Ridge Stakes; and Intidab out-finished Brutally Frank in the $150,000 True North Handicap.

Corey Nakatani, who rode the Irish-bred Manndar for the first time when they won the Woodford Reserve Stakes at Churchill Downs on Derby day, was aboard again Saturday. Manndar paid $8, running 1 1/4 miles on grass in 1:59 3/5.