HORSE RACING : Triple Crown Ratings

Career Horse S 1 2 3 Earnings 1. Chief’s Crown 10 7 0 2 $951,682 2. Proud Truth 6 5 0 0 $325,197 3. Rhoman Rule 7 3 1 1 $153,848 4. Irish Sur 12 4 2 4 $220,209 5. Banner Bob 10 5 3 1 $188,351 6. Tank’s Prospect 9 3 2 2 $582,795 7. Do It Again Dan 15 3 2 6 $154,084 8. Steph. Odyssey 6 3 1 0 $667,360 9. Stone White 7 3 1 1 $98,270 10. Image Greatness 8 3 3 1 $154,750

REMARKS: Chief’s Crown, preparing for Saturday’s Flamingo Stakes, worked an excellent 1:11 3/5 for six furlongs Monday morning at Hialeah.

Chief’s Crown, last year’s 2-year-old champion and an easy winner in his only start this season, turned in the best time of the day for the six-furlong distance.

Stephan’s Odyssey, also scheduled to run in the Flamingo, was clocked in 1:12 3/5. Proud Truth, winner of the Florida Derby, worked a mile in a good 1:40 2/5.

Banner Bob, who led in midstretch of the Florida Derby before fading to fourth, is scheduled to run Sunday in the Jim Beam Stakes at Latonia Race Course near Cincinnati. One of his opponents will be Image of Greatness, winner of Santa Anita’s San Felipe Handicap, who’ll make his first start outside California.

Image of Greatness will be ridden by Jorge Velasquez, who won the Jim Beam in 1983 with Marfa, another Wayne Lukas trainee.

Jockeys are still shuffling among the Kentucky Derby candidates. Velasquez is currently the rider of record for three horses in the top 10--Proud Truth, Tank’s Prospect and Image of Greatness.

Although Velasquez rode Tank’s Prospect to victory in his last start, the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows Feb. 3, Laffit Pincay was scheduled to have the mount in the Santa Anita Derby April 6. But Pincay has chosen Skywalker, replacing Pat Day. Skywalker bled in the San Felipe and lost by a nose to Image of Greatness.

The change from Day, last year’s Eclipse Award winner, to Pincay was not surprising, since Skywalker is a trouble horse who needs strong handling. After the El Camino Real, in which Skywalker was disqualified from third to fourth, Day had indicated to trainer Mike Whittingham that he might not be the right rider for the colt.

Frank Lovato was the right rider for Pancho Villa in Saturday’s Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct, winning the seven-furlong race by 3 lengths. Lukas, who also trained Pancho Villa’s speedy full sister, Terlingua, held out for Angel Cordero, Day or Jacinto Vasquez, but settled for Lovato when the three jockeys rode other horses. Cordero, back in action after suffering a broken hand in a spill several weeks ago, rode Spend a Buck, who finished third in his first start after knee surgery.

Lukas said he had about a dozen phone calls from jockey agents after the Bay Shore, but indicated he will stay with Lovato, the best apprentice in the country in 1980, in the Gotham Mile at Aqueduct April 6.

“I hope he can go a mile and a quarter,” Lovato said about Image of Greatness. “The way he was running, I think he can go that far.”

Pancho Villa, a son of Secretariat and Crimson Saint, was bought by Lukas and Bob French of Midland, Tex., for $1.8 million as a yearling. French was also one of the owners of Terlingua and Landaluce, who won the 2-year-old filly title before dying of a bacterial infection late in 1982.

The panel wants to see more of Pancho Villa before it considers him for the top 10. After beating maidens at Santa Anita, Pancho Villa couldn’t catch Phone Trick at 6 1/2 furlongs in his last start before being flown to New York three days prior to the Bay Shore.

Although Phone Trick has won his only two starts by more than 10 lengths, trainer Dick Mandella has no Derby dreams--Santa Anita, Kentucky or otherwise. He’ll move slowly with the colt before deciding whether he can go a distance.

Advisory panel for The Times’ Triple Crown Ratings: Lenny Hale, racing secretary at Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga; Frank (Jimmy) Kilroe, vice president for racing at Santa Anita; and Tommy Trotter, director of racing at Arlington Park and racing secretary at Gulfstream Park.