TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS

REMARKS: Marylanders are not only excited about two Kentucky Derby candidates who have yet to lose a race, they’re also debating which horse is better.

Private Terms extended his winning streak to five Saturday at Pimlico, winning the 1 1/16-mile Federico Tesio Stakes by 4 1/2 lengths. His stablemate, Finder’s Choice, has won four straight.

Finder’s Choice has yet to run beyond 6 1/2 furlongs, but Jose Santos, who has ridden both horses, is said to be leaning toward Finder’s Choice as the horse with the better chance of negotiating the Kentucky Derby’s 1 miles.

Private Terms and Finder’s Choice have never even run against each other in morning workouts. They both have Ruffian blood in their pedigrees, which is not surprising since they run for Stuart Janney, the former Maryland Hunt Cup jump-riding champion who bred and raced Ruffian, considered by many to be the greatest filly ever to run. Undefeated, Ruffian broke down in a 1975 match race against Foolish Pleasure, the Kentucky Derby winner, and a team of equine surgeons was unable to save her.

Santos, who has led the country in purses the last two years, his mounts earning $23.6 million, is not committed to any Derby horse yet. He is expected to ride Dynaformer, a New York stakes winner, if he runs in the Jim Beam at Turfway Park on April 2.

By then, Kent Desormeaux may have regained the mounts on Private Terms and Finder’s Choice. Both colts broke their maidens under Desormeaux, and he has won six times with them, but last year’s Eclipse Award-winning apprentice has been sidelined recently with a separated shoulder. Desormeaux may return to action this week.

Private Terms and Finder’s Choice will run outside Maryland for the first time when they try Aqueduct, Finder’s Choice going in the seven-furlong Bay Shore on March 26 and Private Terms heading for the one-mile Gotham on April 9. Trainer Charlie Hadry would like to keep them apart until they get to the Kentucky Derby. Hadry was an assistant to Frank Whiteley, who trained Ruffian.

Another undefeated colt, Seeking the Gold, will try for his fifth straight win in the Gotham. Seeking the Gold, whose debut at Saratoga last year was delayed by a summer-long cough, didn’t run his first race until December, but he’s won four times by combined margins of more than 18 lengths.

Trainer LeRoy Jolley, his stable decimated when owner Peter Brant transferred his horses to Wayne Lukas, has been on both coasts and is not generally impressed by the 3-year-old crop.

“The only one that looks good to me is Lively One,” Jolley said. “He looks like he’s capable of running beyond a mile. The rest of them might have trouble going that far.”

Lively One, trained by Charlie Whittingham and ridden by Bill Shoemaker, the team that gave you Ferdinand, the winner of the 1986 Derby, shoots for his fourth win in six starts in the 1 1/16-mile San Felipe Handicap on Sunday at Santa Anita.

It is rare when a filly makes the ratings, but the panel felt that Winning Colors, off Sunday’s eight-length win in the Santa Anita Oaks, deserves consideration. Althea, winner of the Arkansas Derby in 1984, was another filly trained by Wayne Lukas who was in the top 10.

Winning Colors, a $575,000 yearling purchase by Gene Klein, may have her Kentucky Derby fate determined by how the Lukas colts--Dynaformer, Tejano, Notebook, Success Express and Cougarized--perform between now and Derby day, May 7.

A big, coltish-looking filly, Winning Colors certainly looks the part. She’s built a lot like Ruffian, in fact.

“She has all kinds of speed,” Lukas said, “and speed can be king when you’re running a mile and a quarter or a mile and a half. I’d be surprised if this filly can’t go a mile and a half.”

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

Career Horse S 1 2 3 Earnings 1.Forty Niner 9 6 2 0 $854,444 2.Brian’s Time 6 3 1 0 341,619 3.Lively One 5 3 1 1 91,600 4.Regal Classic 8 4 3 1 812,500 5.Tejano 11 5 2 2 1,192,189 6.Cherokee Colony 7 2 3 0 302,200 7.Seeking the Gold 4 4 0 0 62,100 8.Stalwars 5 2 2 1 86,450 9.Private Terms 5 5 0 0 201,428 10.Winning Colors 5 4 1 0 195,150