NEW YORK - If you can't beat 'em, overwhelm 'em.

Surely that must be Nick Zito's strategy as the newly elected Hall of Fame trainer prepares to send out three starters in Saturday's $1 million Belmont Stakes,

The grueling 1½-mile Belmont features Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo against Preakness winner Afleet Alex, but watch out for Zito. He's 0-for-8 on this Triple Crown trail just a year after sending out Birdstone to win the Belmont and spoil Smarty Jones' triple try.

Zito all but conceded the race to Smarty Jones before springing the upset. Nothing doing this time.

"Afleet Alex has a great reputation and Giacomo is a Derby winner," he said, "but they can get beat because of that mile-and-a-half."

To that end, Zito will send out his healthiest long-distance runners in Andromeda's Hero, Indy Storm and Pinpoint.

Andromeda's Hero, who skipped the Preakness after finishing eighth in the Derby, tops the trio, with Pinpoint coming off a win in the Sir Barton Stakes and Indy Storm taking an allowance race - both on the Preakness undercard May 21.

Zito didn't even hit the board in the first two races. The trainer's best Derby finish with a record-tying five horses was seventh by favorite Bellamy Road; with a record-tying three Preakness starters, his best finish was fourth with Sun King.

"With strangles, herpes and Iraq, what's the big deal if I run three?" Zito asked.

Zito would be the first trainer since Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons in 1936 to saddle three Belmont starters, according to New York Racing Association officials. Fitzsimmons won that year with Granville.

Afleet Alex and Giacomo would be the only horses from a field of 20 Derby starters to run in all the Triple Crown races. In what looks like an 11-horse field for the Belmont, Andromeda's Hero is the only other starter who ran in the Derby or Preakness.

The other Belmont contenders are A.P. Arrow, Chekhov, Nolan's Cat, Reverberate, Southern Africa and Watchmon.

Andromeda's Hero, ridden by Rafael Bejarano, has yet to win a stakes race, but he's a son of 2000 Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus. Owned by Robert LaPenta, the chestnut colt has two wins in seven starts.

Indy Storm, with Edgar Prado getting the mount, also has two wins in seven starts. The son of 1992 Belmont winner A.P. Indy is owned by Tracy Farmer.

Pinpoint, to be ridden by John Velazquez, did not race as a 2-year-old, but has won three in a row since finishing 12th in his debut on Feb. 12. The bay colt is owned by Arthur B. Hancock III.

"Right now, they don't have the qualifications of Afleet Alex and Giacomo, but this race may get them there," Zito said.

All three horses worked at Saratoga over the weekend, and will be vanned to Belmont on Wednesday.

Trainer D. Wayne Lukas was the last repeat Belmont-winning trainer; he took three in a row from 1994-96 with Tabasco Cat, Thunder Gulch and Editor's Note.

Afleet Alex had an unusually long Monday morning tour of Belmont even by his two-a-day standards. The colt jogged 11/2 miles early, then came back for a three-mile gallop with temperatures in the 80s.

"The second time was just kind of an open gallop to let him stretch his legs a little," trainer Tim Ritchey said. "He just needed to do a little acceleration, which he did. It got a little hotter than anticipated, so we just have to make sure he has some cold water on him and we get some fluids into him. The heat's always a concern, but he's never been bothered by it."

A winner of seven races in 11 starts for Cash is King Stable, Afleet Alex will train up to the race with early-morning jogs and light gallops.

Notes: With the threat of the respiratory disease

strangles over, NYRA will return to its original security plan of having all Belmont Stakes horses on the grounds Friday by noon EDT. Horses in the six stakes races Saturday will be moved to a designated security barn by midmorning of race day. The new security rules were put in place at the start of the meet last month. Only NYRA vets will be permitted to treat horses in the six hours before a race.