THOROUGHBRED RACING : Lite Light Will Not Run in Belmont

Lite Light will be running at Belmont Park next weekend, but not in the Belmont Stakes. The 3-year-old filly’s owners said Thursday she will bypass the Belmont on June 8 to run in the Mother Goose the next day.

The decision makes sense. Lite Light is an extraordinary filly, at the top of her game, but the deck would have been stacked against her in the Belmont.

The only fillies that won the final race in the Triple Crown series did it in 1867 and 1905. And Lite Light would have been asked to run 1 1/2 miles, facing colts for the first time, without being able to use Lasix, the bleeding deterrent that is prohibited in New York. In her only New York race, Lite Light bled from the lungs and finished 12th in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Stakes last year.

Lite Light’s owners also would have had to pay a $50,000 supplementary fee, because she had not been nominated for the Triple Crown races.

Lite Light still won’t be able to be treated with Lasix before the Mother Goose, and that race figures to be her severest test, for the opposition will include Meadow Star, who would be undefeated but for her fourth-place finish against colts in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 20. Meadow Star recovered from that defeat and won the one-mile Acorn by six lengths last Saturday.

The Mother Goose is 1 1/8 miles, the same distance Lite Light ran in winning the Kentucky Oaks by 10 lengths in record time May 3.

Lite Light has won three consecutive races--the Santa Anita Oaks, the Fantasy at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., and the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs--since her owners, rap star M. C. Hammer and his family, bought her from Jack Finley for an estimated $1.2 million. Finley, an Arizona rancher, bought Lite Light at a yearling auction for $35,000. The filly’s overall earnings are $928,391.

Jerry Hollendorfer, who replaced Henry Moreno as Lite Light’s trainer when she was sold to the Hammer family, wasn’t enthusiastic about running her in the Belmont from the beginning. The size of the Belmont field, which may number at least 11 starters, among them Kentucky Derby winner Strike The Gold and Preakness winner Hansel, also concerned Lite Light’s owners.

“Belmont Park is a tiring track,� said Louis Burrell Jr., who is Hammer’s brother. “For the filly to run over it against colts going 1 1/2 miles might not have been in her best interests. The Breeders’ Cup (at Churchill Downs Nov. 2) is still our goal, and we don’t want to do anything to jeopardize that opportunity.�

There had been an outside chance that Best Pal, who ran second in the Kentucky Derby and fifth in the Preakness, would run in the Belmont, but trainer Ian Jory eliminated the possibility Thursday.

He said that Best Pal would stay in California and be prepared to run in two Hollywood Park races: the Silver Screen Handicap June 16 and the Swaps July 7.

“The horse has been doing well since he got back from the Preakness,� Jory said. “But from what I hear, the Belmont track is deep and loose, and I don’t think our horse would like running there. He had trouble running over a similar track at Pimlico (where the Preakness was run).�

Considered definite starters for the Belmont are Strike The Gold, Hansel, Mane Minister, Corporate Report, Green Alligator, Lost Mountain, Scan, Subordinated Debt, Quintana, Smooth Performance and Another Review.

Chris McCarron, who won the Belmont with Danzig Connection in 1986, has picked up the mount on Scan for this year’s race. Jerry Bailey, who usually rides Scan, won the Preakness aboard Hansel and will ride that colt again in the Belmont.

With Lite Light bypassing the Belmont, Corey Nakatani will be able to ride Green Alligator, who took him to a fourth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby.

Nakatani, who has ridden Lite Light in all her starts during a four-race winning streak, canceled his mounts at Hollywood Park Thursday after learning that his father had suffered a heart attack.

In his third race since returning to action, Rafael Meza rode Due To The King to a surprising victory Monday in the Oakland Handicap at Golden Gate Fields.

Meza was sidelined for five weeks with a broken arm after a filly he was riding snapped a leg at Santa Anita. Meza needed surgery on his left forearm. A steel plate was inserted and the arm is not expected to be fully healed for two more months. Meza stayed in shape during his down time by exercising at home on a mechanical horse.

In recent years, Meza, 33, has also suffered a broken wrist and a separated shoulder.

Due To The King, who hadn’t won a stakes race since September of 1990, is trained by Jim Dotson and may run in the Triple Bend Handicap at Hollywood Park on June 29.

Horse Racing Notes

Eight turf horses are entered in Saturday’s 1 1/8-mile Cinema Handicap at Hollywood Park. The high weights are River Traffic and Persianalli, who each will carry 117 pounds. Gary Stevens, who rides Character, has won the Cinema the last two years with Jovial and Raise A Stanza. Others running are Timeless Account, Kal Grey, Mr. P. and Max, Sounds Fabulous and Scottish Castle, an entrymate of Character.

Big Al’s Express, who was vanned from Stockton to Louisville to run in the Kentucky Derby and then was sent home when he didn’t beat a horse in the Derby Trial, will race for the second time in his career Saturday, running in a maiden race with an $18,000 purse at Golden Gate. . . . Media Plan, who is owned by the M. C. Hammer family, will run on Belmont day in the Riva Ridge Stakes, which also may draw Fly So Free.