GETTING THERE IS HALF THE BATTLE FOR ALYROB.

Byline: Kevin Modesti Daily News Staff Writer

They say you can't win the Kentucky Derby with a horse who wasn't an accomplished 2-year-old. So Wally Dollase has brought a gelding who won once in 1995.

They say you can't win the Derby unless everything goes right in training. So Dollase has brought a horse who missed 10 days of exercise and two months of racing while recovering from throat surgery.

They know you can't win if you don't enter. So, naturally, he isn't particularly worried that his horse's spot in the field isn't guaranteed just four days before the 122nd Kentucky Derby.

Wally Dollase, trainer and 12-1/2 percent owner of Alyrob, has them right where he wants them.

``This is why it's going to work out for me,'' he said at the Churchill Downs stakes barn during a Monday morning rainstorm. ``This is the way I do everything. The hard way.''

Certainly, Dollase's only previous Derby horse got here the hard way. In the 1986 Hawthorne Juvenile in Chicago, Momentus vaulted the inner rail and splintered the furlong pole after being spooked by the starting-gate crew while leading.

By the time Momentus arrived in Louisville, he had been beaten soundly in the major Derby preps and the pressure was off.

``We had our party the night before the race,'' Dollase recalled.

Momentus finished 14th to Alysheba. He has been retired to a new life as - appropriately - a jumping horse.

The bumps in Alyrob's road to Kentucky are less spectacular but just as daunting.

The first was his trainer's decision to delay his debut until November, at Hollywood Park, after purchasing Alyrob at auction for $50,000 and cobbling together a partnership of 13 owners.

``I'm interested in the long pull,'' Dollase explained, dismissing the fact 16 of the past 18 Derby winners won at least a race of a mile or longer as 2-year-olds: ``There's a first time for everything.''

But the gelding's more recent detours didn't happen by choice.

After a swift allowance victory at Santa Anita, Alyrob finished fourth in the Santa Catalina Stakes and had trouble breathing. He underwent surgery to repair an entrapped epiglotis. It's a common thoroughbred condition: His sire, Alysheba, had similar surgery before winning the '87 Derby.

In his only race since, Alyrob battled traffic and was the only horse that stayed with Cavonnier at the finish of the Santa Anita Derby, but he and jockey Corey Nakatani were disqualified from second to last place for interfering with also-rans. It was another similarity to Alysheba, who was DQ'd from victory in his Derby prep, the Blue Grass.

But that good omen was overshadowed by the fact Alyrob was left without a penny of purses in graded stakes, the Derby qualifier if more than 20 horses are entered on Wednesday.

``It's incredible, all these things that have happened,'' said Dollase, a friendly man who calmly expresses anger about the earnings qualifier.

``This is America's greatest 3-year-old race. Let's keep out horses who don't belong,'' he said, estimating half the likely field is overmatched.

Missing the Derby on a technicality would be the latest - and worst - bad luck to befall Santa Anita Derby graduates, who have been stopped by injury (Dinard, '91; A.P. Indy, '92; Larry the Legend, '95) and a disastrous start (Brocco, '94).

Dollase proposed a new system that guarantees 15 Derby berths to top earners - counting only the horses' past four races - and leaves five open to invitation.

Still, with exactly 19 others on the likely entries list, Dollase is confident Alyrob will run Saturday and not have to settle for the Illinois Derby. And how confident is he about winning?

``Very confident.''

Why not? The last 1-1/4 miles might be the easiest.

Notes: Unbridled's Song is exercising with a bar shoe on his left forefoot to protect a cracked heel. But trainer Jim Ryerson said the injury, apparently sustained in the colt's Wood Memorial win, is not the much-sought chink in the Kentucky Derby favorite's armor: ``It hasn't compromised our preparation. If he had any tenderness or infection, he wouldn't be able to gallop 2 miles a day.'' . . .

Skip Away was reported to be the most impressive of five Derby horses working out on the sloppy track Monday. The Blue Grass winner went 5 furlongs in 1:00 2/5 under regular jockey Shane Sellers.. . . Others at 5 furlongs: Cavonnier 1:01, Blow Out 1:01 1/5. Four furlongs: Prince of Thieves :48, Corker :50 2/5. . . .

Also among the 20 likely entrants: Built for Pleasure, City By Night, Diligence, Editor's Note, Grindstone, Halo Sunshine, Honour and Glory, In Contention, Louis Quatorze, Matty G, Semoran, Victory Speech and Zarb's Magic.

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Photo

Photo: Kentucky Derby hopeful Alyrob gets a morning workout at Churchill Downs. He's not certain of a place in Saturday's large field.

Associated Press