HORSE RACING : ALYROB ON THE DERBY BUBBLE DISQUALIFICATION COULD COST TRIP TO KENTUCKY.

Byline: Kevin Modesti Daily News Staff Writer

Cincy Dollase, wife of Alyrob's trainer and co-owner, watched the Santa Anita Derby runner-up clamber into a van bound for his Hollywood Park home Sunday morning and didn't know whether to smile or cry.

A day earlier, Alyrob's performance in the $1 million Santa Anita Derby made him a contender for the Run for the Roses and, at the same time, may have cost him a spot in the May 4 race.

``If it's meant to be, it's meant to be,'' Dollase said of Alyrob's chances, now at the mercy of a weird kind of racing luck.

Alyrob, a fast-finishing second to Cavonnier in the Santa Anita Derby, was disqualified to last place for interfering with Matty G and Corker in the stretch. The stewards' ruling cost the gelding a $200,000 purse, leaving him with $0 in graded-stakes earnings, the tiebreaker if more than 20 horses are entered.

Jockey Corey Nakatani's agent, Bob Meldahl, called the ruling ``marginal.'' But trainer Wally Dollase indicated he wouldn't appeal it - or race Alyrob again before the Derby just to earn money.

Dollase has said before that Alyrob, a son of 1987 Kentucky Derby winner Alysheba, is a light-framed horse who needs time between races. If he ran between the Santa Anita and Kentucky derbies he would wind up with three starts in four weeks after missing two months to have throat surgery.

Dollase said Alyrob will be shipped to Churchill Downs and run in the $100,000 Crown Royal American Turf on May 3 if he doesn't make the Derby.

All of which means the Derby's rules, which make no provision for judgment calls the way the Breeders' Cup's do, could keep a deserving horse out of the starting gate.

The Derby hasn't attracted 20 horses since 1984 - when 19 chased Swale home - but this could be the year for it because the talent below Florida Derby winner Unbridled's Song seems so spread out.

Sunday, it appeared as many as seven of the eight Santa Anita Derby horses could go on to Louisville, the stay-at-home being failed pacesetter Super Mining.

D. Wayne Lukas planned to send Honour and Glory, whose third-place finish supported suspicions about his stamina, and Prince of Thieves, who finished sixth and bled. Charlie Whittingham planned to make a long-shot bid for a third Derby victory with fourth-place Corker. Even EC's Dream, whose fifth-place finish was his ninth straight defeat, was likely to get another chance.

Ron McAnally said he would talk to the owners before deciding about Matty G.

Next Saturday's Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn and Wood Memorial at Aqueduct could thin the herd, especially if Unbridled's Song wins the Wood as expected.

Next weekend will help to answer two other questions: Will jockey Chris McCarron stick with Cavonnier? Is Cavonnier the best Derby prospect in trainer Bob Baffert's barn?

McCarron said Sunday he won't make a Derby commitment until after he rides Louis Quatorze for trainer Nick Zito in the Blue Grass. McCarron and Zito teamed up to win the 1994 Derby with Go for Gin.

``Obviously (Cavonnier is) our leading candidate right now,'' said McCarron's agent, Scotty McClellan.

Also in the Blue Grass is Semoran, the Baffert-trained winner of four straight races, including the Remington Park Derby. Semoran is owned by Donald Dizney and Cavonnier by Robert and Barbara Walter.

McCarron rode Cavonnier in the Santa Anita Derby after Dollase wavered on whether to run Alyrob and Baffert demanded an early commitment. McCarron rode Alyrob in his first four starts.

Now Alyrob appears to be Nakatani's to give up. The jockey could land on a Lukas horse.

Sunday, the Santa Anita stewards suspended Nakatani for five days beginning Thursday for the Derby infraction, bringing his total suspensions for the season to 20 days. Despite the inactivity Nakatani leads Alex Solis 71-63 at Santa Anita.

``He deserves more than five days,'' said McAnally, whose Matty G was interfered with. ``The stewards are stuck on that `five days.' ''

Although Lukas claimed to have thought 10-1 Cavonnier was ``the horse to beat'' in the Santa Anita Derby, McAnally admitted he was surprised by the California-bred gelding's 1-3/4-length victory.

``I didn't see him coming off the rail and off the pace,'' McAnally said. ``I didn't see him as a mile-and-a-quarter horse.''

Cavonnier has most of the hallmarks of recent Kentucky Derby winners, including a low (1.10) Dosage Index, indicating stamina in his pedigree, and a strong 2-year-old season.

He has, however, been busier than most Derby successes, racing five times already as a 3-year-old. Could he still improve enough in the Kentucky Derby to win?

``I don't know about those things,'' Baffert said. ``All I've been doing is trying to win these races. I haven't been on a mapped-out schedule. . . . The more he races the better off he is.''

Notes: Borodislew ($8), coming off two losses totaling 35-3/4 lengths against classier fillies and mares, won the Santa Lucia Handicap by 1-1/2 lengths with Real Connection second and Dixie Pearl third Sunday. . . .Total wagering on a Santa Anita Derby card went over $20 million for the first time Saturday. . . . First post will be 3 p.m. for the next two Fridays. . . . Serena's Song worked in 1:00 3/5 for Friday's Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park.