Horses racing at the track where they are stabled are said to have the “home-court advantage” in races like Saturday’s 137th Belmont Stakes over runners shipping in for the event.

In fact, the “Test of the Champion” has a history of New York-based horses upsetting out-of-state invaders: Coastal over Spectacular Bid, Easy Goer over Sunday Silence and Birdstone over Smarty Jones are just a few examples.

But until trainer Nick Zito sounded the alarm yesterday morning, it appeared that shippers like Afleet Alex and Giacomo – by not having to move to the detention barn before the race – would have an edge over horses stabled at Belmont Park, including Zito’s trio of Andromeda’s Hero, Pinpoint and Indy Storm, who are training at Saratoga and will van down to Belmont tomorrow.

“I’m willing to do anything to protect the integrity of the game,” Zito said. “But the visitors have the advantage, and that’s not fair.

“The main thing is, they don’t have to move. It’s hard enough to beat them to begin with. It doesn’t make any sense. If they go [to the detention barn], then we go. If they stay [in their own barn], we stay.”

In an effort to prevent the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs, the New York Racing Association instituted a pre-race detention barn (actually two barns, 8 and 23) on May 4, opening day of the spring-summer meet. All horses running at Belmont must move into the detention, or “security” barns, at least six hours before they race. After that, only their trainers and grooms are allowed into the stall; private veterinarians are banned.

Then along came a suspected case of “strangles,” a bacterial equine disease that caused barn 60 at Belmont to be quarantined after a filly stabled there turned up sick.

Strangles is highly contagious, so much so that trainer Tim Ritchey cancelled his plans to ship Afleet Alex to Belmont a week after the Preakness and instead kept him at Pimlico.

To guarantee the health of horses shipping in for the Belmont and the five other stakes races on Saturday’s card, NYRA cleared out barn 14, sanitized and repainted it, and is using it to house all shippers. The problem for Zito is that while all the New York horses would have to go into detention Saturday morning, NYRA planned to let Afleet Alex, Giacomo and the others in barn 14 stay in their own stalls – even after recent test results revealed the strangles scare to be a false alarm.

Zito voiced his concerns to NYRA president and CEO Charlie Hayward, who conferred with executive VP Bill Nader and racing secretary Mike Lakow. Within a few hours, the association announced a policy change:

“With the recent ‘strangles’ threat now behind it, [NYRA] is going back to its original security plan for Belmont Stakes Day participants. All Belmont Stakes horses must be on the grounds by noon on Friday and each horse will have a security detail at the time. Participants in all six graded stakes will move to security barns 8 and 23 mid-morning on Saturday.”

Zito wasn’t entirely mollified by the news.

“I’m happy they’re doing something to protect the integrity, but the thought process wasn’t too hep,” he said. “Originally, they were sending half the horses to detention and keeping the other half in another barn. The only reason they’re sending them over now is that we said something. What if Ritchey and those other guys are disappointed?”

Ritchey, like Zito, would prefer the Belmont Stakes horses remain in their own barns with the added security, as was done with the Kentucky Derby runners at Churchill Downs.

As for moving to the detention barn, he said, “It is what it is.”

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Belmont Stakes probable field

HORSE JOCKEY TRAINER ODDS

Afleet Alex Jeremy Rose Tim Ritchey 7-5

Giacomo Mike Smith John Shirreffs 3-1

Andromeda’s Hero Rafael Bejarano Nick Zito 8-1

Chekhov Gary Stevens Patrick Biancone 12-1

Pinpoint John Velazquez Nick Zito 12-1

Reverberate Jose Santos Sal Russo 12-1

Southern Africa Jon Court Michael Puhich 12-1

Indy Storm Edgar Prado Nick Zito 15-1

A.P. Arrow Jerry Bailey D. Wayne Lukas 30-1

Nolan’s Cat Undecided Dale Romans 30-1

Watchmon Javier Castellano Pat Reynolds 30-1