Alysheba

Both Breeders' Cup Classic winner Ferdinand and runner-up Alysheba emerged from their monumental stretch struggle in good order yesterday, and both are expected to race again next year. With his nose victory over 1987 Kentucky Derby winner Alysheba in the $3 million Classic on Saturday's Hollywood Park card, '86 Derby winner Ferdinand established himself as the likely male handicap champion. Because the other divisions are so mixed up, he also forged his way into the picture for horse of the year.

Thirty years ago, Bold Ruler, Round Table and Gallant Man met in a classic showdown in the Trenton Handicap at the old Garden State Park. Bold Ruler won that race and was named best 3-year-old and Horse of the Year. Today, Bet Twice, Alysheba and Lost Code meet in a modern-day showdown at Monmouth Park in the Haskell Invitational (Channel 6, 4:30). The Trenton was contested among three horses that went on to be legends. Today's participants are not yet legendary, but the winner will move (at the very least)

In 1973, when Secretariat was going for the first Triple Crown in 25 years, his trainer, Lucien Laurin, always was on edge, a bundle of nerves looking for a place to relax. When Seattle Slew was going for the Triple Crown in 1977, his trainer, Billy Turner, was as interested in avoiding the cameras and notebooks as his horse was in losing. Not long after Affirmed won the Triple Crown in 1978, his trainer, Laz Barrera, went into the hospital - for open heart surgery. Tomorrow in the Belmont Stakes (Channel 6, 5:33 p.m. post time)

What the Breeders' Cup has done best is keep top horses on the race track. What it can't do is keep them there forever. Today's fifth Breeders' Cup marks the end of an era. Nearly all the names that have dominated the racing stories the last few seasons are running for the last time. Alysheba, Personal Ensign, Forty Niner, Bet Twice, Waquoit, Precisionist, Gulch and Afleet will be memories. If Alysheba doesn't win, he may get a reprieve and go after John Henry's earnings record next year.

As Bet Twice crossed Belmont Park's finish line with an overpowering, 14- length victory in Saturday's Belmont Stakes, jockey Craig Perret did not look to see what was happening behind him. He did not look for Alysheba's jockey, Chris McCarron, as they galloped out after the race. McCarron's mount had just been defeated in his bid for thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown. As he returned to the winner's circle with the Levy family's colt, Perret averted his eyes from the infield tote board.

BOB LEVY thinks Smarty Jones will win the Belmont and earn that $5 million bonus that goes to a Triple Crown winner. "He's the best horse," Levy gushes. "He's the most athletic horse. He's the fastest horse. None of the horses that have run with him can beat him. " And then he pauses, sighs, and adds a racing disclaimer that goes back to Man o' War. Maybe further. "Unless something happens," he whispers. "There is no sure thing in racing. I had a horse five [lengths] in front at the eighth pole.

Although the days of "Diamond Jim" Brady and the grand hotels are gone, Saratoga Springs, N.Y., still has enough charm to divert ABC from its mission of televising tomorrow's $1 million Travers Stakes. Fortunately for racing fans, and others who only pay attention to the thoroughbreds on special occasions, ABC is planning to concentrate on the Travers during tomorrow's "Wide World of Sports" telecast (Channel 6, 4:30 p.m.). The Travers lineup is something special. In the field along with Alysheba, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, and Bet Twice, winner of the Belmont and Haskell, are potential winners such as Java Gold, Temperate Sil, Cryptoclearance and Polish Navy.

In Saturday's $3 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Hollywood Park, two Kentucky Derby winners will race against each other for the first time in eight years. Alysheba, winner of this year's Run for the Roses at Churchill Downs, will oppose the 1986 victor, Ferdinand. Their meeting will be the first clash of Derby winners since 1979, when Affirmed bested Spectacular Bid in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Alysheba, who also won the Preakness Stakes but lost the Triple Crown when he finished fourth behind Bet Twice in the Belmont Stakes, drew into the ninth post position for the world's richest horse race.

Donald Levinson said yesterday morning that he had a new horse, a 2-year- old filly, and that he just might name her "Car Wash. " And with good reason. Levinson, a semiretired Baltimore businessman and a former member of the Maryland Racing Commission, ran into trainer William Donovan at a car wash early in 1986. It was a chance encounter with enormous consequences. Lost Code, whom Levinson purchased as a result of the car-wash encounter, runs today in Monmouth Park's $500,000 Haskell Invitational Handicap.

Chip Banks, a linebacker for the NFL's San Diego Chargers, was arrested last night in Atlanta on charges of cocaine and marijuana possession. Sgt. G. E. Smith, a spokesman for the Atlanta police, said Banks was arrested at 9:30 p.m. at a routine police roadblock, when a search of his gold Mercedes convertible turned up what was alleged to be about half an ounce of marijuana and four packets of crack cocaine. Banks, 29, was a star for the Cleveland Browns but was traded before the season began to the Chargers.