HORSE RACING : AFTER LOSING HORSE, WILL HE WIN WAR?

Byline: Kevin Modesti

History, both ancient and very recent, teaches us that good jockeys who get yanked from the backs of good horses often land squarely on their feet.

Before the 1973 Hollywood Gold Cup, Bill Shoemaker was booted off Cougar II by owner Mary Jones, but he got even by riding Kennedy Road to an upset victory over Quack - and Cougar II.

Before last Saturday's Preakness, Pat Day was removed from Prince of Thieves because trainer D. Wayne Lukas preferred Derby winner Jerry Bailey, but Day hitched a ride on Louis Quatorze and won the race - while Prince of Thieves panted home seventh.

Gary Stevens knows his history and his current events and estimates these things work out for the best ``nine times out of 10.''

Maybe he's just being optimistic, because, now, Stevens is hoping to imitate Shoemaker and Day and make the best of the bad situation that cost him the chance to ride Fastness for a second straight season. But Stevens' predicament is a little tougher than theirs.

For one thing, he looks around and can't find a middle-distance turf specialist to compete with Fastness. And even if he had a capable horse, he's in no position to get revenge on the person who took him off Fastness. Because that person is Stevens' agent.

The way this happened illustrates the roles luck and timing play in a jockey's success - or disappointment.

Handicappers were surprised when entries for the May 12 Inglewood Handicap were published and Stevens was named to ride Tychonic while Corey Nakatani had Fastness. Did Stevens know something we should know?

Stevens had ridden Tychonic to five stakes victories in a row for trainer Bobby Frankel, but did he really prefer the horse to Fastness, whom he rode to a win in the Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar and a game second in the Breeders' Cup Mile at Belmont?

Not at all. But agent Ron Anderson had given a commitment to Frankel two weeks before the Inglewood - shortly after a slow workout made it appear Fastness would skip the race. When Fastness bounced back with a quicker work, and trainer Jenine Sahadi said he would end his 5-1/2-month layoff in the Inglewood, Anderson was caught in a dilemma.

He decided to give up Fastness rather than break an agreement with Frankel, who trains California's deepest stable of stakes horses, and who is easily riled. Anderson says it might have been different ``if it was anybody but Frankel.''

``It's tough to blow a horse like this. (But) the boat had sailed,'' says Anderson, who doesn't second-guess himself.

The agent would have looked like a genius if Tychonic had won the Inglewood. But after leading the 1 1/16-mile race in midstretch, he and Stevens faded to third, while Fastness and Nakatani surged through a gap at the rail and won going away.

Stevens was disappointed and let Anderson know it. But the jockey - second nationally (behind Bailey) with $6.3 million in purses through May 19 - said their partnership is solid.

``He's the best agent in the country, as far as I'm concerned,'' Stevens says. ``When a guy makes one mistake in 24 months, you've kind of got to let it slide.''

Besides, Stevens notes, maybe he was due for some bad luck. During his magical string of big-race successes in '95, he picked up Larry the Legend, Thunder Gulch and, yes, Fastness, from jockeys who honored prior commitments.

Still, losing Fastness hurts. Stevens calls the gray 6-year-old ``the best turf horse in America,'' and we're just starting the most lucrative part of the grass-racing season. Nakatani, not Stevens, will be aboard when Fastness races next in the $700,000 Shoemaker Breeders' Cup Mile at Hollypark on June 16.

The first pivotal turf race of 1996 happens Monday when the $500,000 Hollywood Turf Handicap brings together Earl of Barking (with Stevens) and Sandpit - those horses finished 1-2 last year - and Eclipse Award winner Northern Spur, Labeeb, Awad and Petit Poucet.

Labeeb worked 6 furlongs in a dawdling 1:20 3/5 Thursday on what trainer Neil Drysdale is calling a bruised foot, and remained a ``possible'' starter.

It's a 1-1/4-mile race. Fastness is one thing. These guys have stamina as well.

Sunday, 3-year-old fillies will warm up the course, with Antespend heading the Honeymoon Handicap at 1-1/8 miles.

MEMO: Staff Writer Kevin Modesti's horse racing column appears on Fridays in the Daily News.