OCEANPORT, N.J. – Curlin, the me dia-hype horse of the year despite losing two jewels of the Triple Crown, gets a chance to justify the hoopla this afternoon when he faces six cut-throat rivals in the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park.

It looms a killer race, the best Haskell in 20 years, and the media champ will need to flex his best muscle to pull it off. Take the even money morning line odds at your peril.

At the end of the nine furlongs, Curlin, win or lose, may be puffing and blowing harder than the sea breezes off the nearby Atlantic. The speed demons will make him run his lungs out.

His task was made only slightly easier Friday night when the fastest of all the speed horses in the race, Stormello, was stricken with a colic attack shortly after his arrival from California. He will not run in the Haskell.

His eleventh-hour scratching has removed one of Curlin’s most dangerous rivals by changing the complexion of the race.

Stormello threatened to break the Haskell wide open from the starting gate, setting a blistering pace that would put all his rivals under the gun. Now he is out, but that still leaves three high-quality, hell-bent colts in place to carve out lightning fractions.

One out from the rail is Cable Boy, New Jersey’s great bay hope. He is 3-for-3 lifetime, all at Monmouth (where he set a track record), cruising out front, never out of second gear. Jersey’s training icon, John Forbes, and his assistant of 30 years, Pat McBurney, say they don’t know how fast he is because he has never been challenged.

Today, they’ll find out.

Further out in the lineup is Hard Spun, Curlin’s Triple Crown shadow. They’re the only horses to compete in all three Crown races. Hard Spun finished six lengths in front of Curlin in the Kentucky Derby, then Curlin beat him by four lengths in the Preakness and 11 lengths in the Belmont Stakes.

But the Haskell is a different day, a different track, a different distance – and maybe a different story. Hard Spun is quality speed, through and through. With Stormello out of the way, he could get an easier lead and, on Monmouth’s speed-favoring strip, run off with the whole thing.

Hard Spun has not raced since a nightmare trip in the Belmont under an inexplicable ride by Garrett Gomez. In any case, the Classic races were at least a furlong too long for Hard Spun.

He’s back to nine furlongs here, making him a formidable opponent for Curlin. He’ll be reunited with his old rider Mario Pino, who was fired after the Preakness, only to be replaced by the hapless Gomez in the Belmont. Asked why he went back to Pino, trainer Larry Jones quipped, “We didn’t see any improvement when we changed.”

On the outside, in gate 7, is Xchanger, another speedball. He ran his fastest race ever winning the Federico Tesio at Pimlico in April, leading all the way. He ran his second fastest race winning the Grade 3 Barbaro Stakes at Delaware three weeks ago, running right on the speed.

Curlin also must deal with the rejuvenated Any Given Saturday from the Todd Pletcher armory. Any Given Saturday disappointed in the Kentucky Derby, but after a two-month freshening, came back to blow away the Grade 2 Dwyer at Belmont a month ago.

He ran a 110 Beyer speed fig, just one point shy of Curlin’s best mark, 111, when he won the Preakness. Pletcher won the Haskell last year with Bluegrass Cat.

So this is a stiff test for Curlin after losing the Belmont by a head to the filly Rags to Riches. But since good horses overcome difficulties, Curlin should dust this field if he is the wonder many – especially his trainer, Steve Asmussen – believe him to be.

“It’s reasonable to say he’s the best horse I’ve ever had,” a starry-eyed Asmussen said. He makes no bones he has brought Curlin to the Haskell because his goal is the Breeders’ Cup Classic [to be run over this track in October] and Horse of the Year honors.

One strong point in Curlin’s favor is that the Haskell is owned by favorites. The chalk has won 13 of the last 20 runnings, for a 65 percent win average. Still, some fancy horses at prohibitive prices have also flopped – like Funny Cide, Rock Hard Ten, Spend a Buck, Slew o’Gold, etc.

By any measure, this Haskell is the best since the Bet Twice, Alysheba, Lost Code thriller 20 years ago in 1987.