VERY WELL BRED : DERBY WINNERS PUT TO STUD STILL REMAIN COMPETITIVE.

Byline: Kevin Modesti Daily News Staff Writer

Unbridled has a certain way with the ladies.

``Like a machine,'' says Gainesway veterinarian Norman Umphenour, who has just walked out of the farm's breeding shed, the equine equivalent of an hourly rate motel, where the young lovers are too well known to register as Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Alysheba's reputation is entirely different.

``Sometimes it takes him three times to breed the mare,'' Susan Lane of Lane's End says as she strolls between that farm's lush stallion paddocks just up the road from here in Versailles. ``I think he just wants to make it last.''

But setting aside the question of technique, Unbridled and Alysheba have a lot in common as stallions this week, when either could join the short list of Kentucky Derby winners who sired Kentucky Derby winners.

Unbridled, who won the race in 1990, will be represented by Unbridled's Song, the embattled favorite, and Grindstone, part of trainer D. Wayne Lukas' five-card hand. Alysheba, who won in '87, is the father of Alyrob, the choice of many California handicappers.

Eleven of the race's 121 winners have passed along their Derby genes, the most recent being Seattle Slew ('77), sire of Swale ('84), and the most astonishing being Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox ('30), sire of Triple Crown winner Omaha ('35).

Gallant Fox is one of two Derby Dads in this century who had a Derby winner in their first crop of foals. The other was Pensive ('44), who sired Ponder ('49), who in turn sired Needles ('56).

At Churchill Downs on Saturday, Unbridled could become the third horse to win a Derby both on the track and as a sire on his first try.

``We're sure rooting for Unbridled's Song,'' says Carl Buckler, Gainesway's assistant stallion manager. ``That would be great for Unbridled.''

Unbridled, who also won the '90 Breeders' Cup Classic, ranked fourth among first-year sires and 14th among sires of 2-year-olds in '95 - but that early acclaim is due almost entirely to Unbridled's Song. Overall, only three of the 33 Unbridled offspring who raced last year found the winner's circle, the lowest percentage among the top 73 sires of 2-year-olds, according to Thoroughbred Times statistics.

``There have been Derby winners who were good sires and Derby winners who were poor sires,'' says John Sparkman, the Thoroughbred Times bloodstock editor and former general manager of Pillar Stud, where he supervised the Cormorant-Never Knock coupling that produced '94 winner Go for Gin. ``The ones that (succeed) were really great horses who had good pedigrees themselves.''

Overall, the most successful Derby winner at stud was probably Northern Dancer ('64), the '71 leading American sire who produced leading sires Lyphard ('86) and Danzig ('91-93). And the most disappointing was Citation ('48).

``Citation, contrary to popular belief, wasn't a total flop as a stallion,'' Sparkman says. ``He sired a classic winner (Fabius, '56 Preakness) and a champion filly. But he was a great racehorse and didn't live up to that as a stallion.''

Alysheba is another sire who hasn't matched his racetrack prowess. After retiring in '88 with a record $6,679,242 in earnings and the Horse of the Year title, he entered stud for a $75,000 fee. That fee had slipped to $15,000.

But Sparkman says Alysheba's breeding-shed disappointments were foreseeable. The horse's tall, lean build suits the longer races favored by European tracks, where, indeed, Alysheba offspring have done their best work.

The fact that U.S. tracks are holding fewer main-track races longer than 1 1/16 miles could mean the influence of Derby winners - whose defining moments came in a 1-1/4-mile race - will wane.

Alyrob's trainer, Wally Dollase, half-jokes that his gelding is ``bred to be an immature distance horse.''

But for handicappers who value good Derby breeding over on-the-track accomplishment, Alyrob may be the bet on Saturday. In addition to Alysheba, his grandsire Alydar (the '78 runner-up) fathered Strike the Gold (the '91 winner); and three great grandsires fathered Derby winners - Raise a Native had Majestic Prince ('69), Hail to Reason had Proud Clarion ('67), and Tom Fool had Tim Tam ('58).

Unfortunately for pedigree fans, the second-best Derby bloodlines in the race may belong to In Contention, a New Jersey-trained colt who has yet to prove a match for his opponents at Churchill Downs. And in the end, it's performance on the track that really matters.

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Photo, Chart

Photo: (color) Unbridled's acclaim as a sire is duelargely to the success of Unbridled's Song, above.

Associated Press

Chart: THE DERBY: A FAMILY AFFAIR