HORSE RACING PIMLICO SPECIAL : Charge by Criminal Type Beats Ruhlmann

Criminal Type scored a far-reaching victory in the Pimlico Special Saturday. The 5-year-old son of Alydar ran the fastest 1 3/16 miles in Pimlico history, sent his trainer, Wayne Lukas, over the $100-million mark in career purses and exposed a story about how fine the line is between being a hero and a heel as a jockey’s agent.

Under Jose Santos, who was riding him for the first time, Criminal Type shadowed Ruhlmann all the way around, edged past him with about 50 yards left and won by a neck in the first $1-million race ever run in Maryland. Ruhlmann, the second betting choice at 2-1, finished 1 1/4 lengths ahead of De Roche, a 34-1 shot who finished 1 1/2 lengths in front of Mi Selecto.

Opening Verse, made the 3-2 favorite by a crowd of 15,850 on a cool, overcast day, flattened out in the stretch and wound up fifth, beaten by about 3 1/4 lengths. Wind Splitter finished sixth, and after him in the 10-horse field came Silver Survivor, Gorgeous, With Approval and Music Merci.

Criminal Type’s time was 1:53, breaking by a fifth of a second the record that Blushing John set in winning the Special last year. The Special is the same distance as the Preakness, which will be run here next Saturday, and the fastest Preakness times have been Secretariat’s unofficial 1:53 2/5 clocking in 1973 and Tank’s Prospect’s matching time in 1985.

Criminal Type was the fourth betting choice and paid $17.40, $6.80 and $5.20. Ruhlmann paid $4.80 and $4.60, and De Roche’s show price was $10.20. A $2 exacta on the first two finishers was worth $74.80 and a $3 triple on the first three horses paid $1,965.60.

Lukas, who moved from the quarter-horse business to thoroughbreds in 1978, passed Charlie Whittingham in 1988 to become No. 1 on the career purse list. Lukas needed about $300,000 to hit the $100-million mark Saturday, and Criminal Type’s victory was worth $600,000. The Lukas organization has led the country in purses for seven consecutive years, setting the one-year record in 1988 with $17.8 million.

After the Special, Lukas explained how Santos, one of his regular jockeys, wound up on Criminal Type.

When Lukas spoke with Angel Cordero’s agent, Drew Mollica, about riding the horse Saturday, Mollica said that his jockey had a conflict in New York. Lukas then called another agent, Frank Sanabria, and signed Santos.

An hour later, Mollica called Lukas and said he had been looking at the wrong date, that Cordero would be available on Criminal Type.

“I’ve already given the call to Santos,” Lukas told Mollica. “If you can get him and his agent to back off, you can have the mount.”

Lukas then said that Mollica and Sanabria came to blows at Aqueduct over whose jockey would ride the horse.

Reached in New York Saturday night, Mollica said: “We (he and Sanabria) had a minor argument, but it wasn’t about Criminal Type, it was something else. That’s right about the date mixup. When I looked at the 12th (Saturday), I was actually looking at the 13th (today).

“Hey, I blew it, and I was an hour late (getting back to Lukas). I’m the guy who threw the home-run ball to Bobby Thomson. If it costs me my job, then it costs me my job.”

While Lukas was concerned about no one running early with Ruhlmann on Saturday, he was thrilled about Criminal Type facing his familiar Santa Anita rival with a seven-pound weight advantage. When Ruhlmann beat Criminal Type in the San Bernardino Handicap, he was giving only four pounds, and he carried two pounds more than Lukas’ horse while winning the Santa Anita Handicap.

“I thought my horse ran a good race,” said Whittingham, who trains Ruhlmann. “We spotted the other horse seven pounds. What do they usually say, three pounds equals one length?”

Gary Stevens had Ruhlmann on an easy early lead through fractions of :46 4/5 for the half-mile and 1:10 3/5 for six furlongs. Criminal Type clung to second place, never more than a couple of lengths behind. Opening Verse, dropped into third place by Chris McCarron, was also close.

By the top of the stretch, the Special became a two-horse race, with Opening Verse dropping out of contention and the others in a battle for third place.

“My horse just didn’t fire,” McCarron said. “I had him in good position, and he started to kick in, but then he just didn’t keep trying. I knew at the head of the stretch that I was fighting for third money, but I couldn’t even get that.”

Ruhlmann seemed to try to come back after Criminal Type made the lead, but he didn’t have enough left.

“I was very surprised that a horse came on and passed him,” Stevens said. “They had to break the track record to beat him, but he ran a super race, and the winner ran a great race.”

Criminal Type was bred and is owned by Calumet Farm, which won the Pimlico Special four times in the 1940s, with Whirlaway, Twilight Tear, Armed and Citation. Calumet hasn’t, however, been an important racing presence for years, and before Saturday the Lexington, Ky., farm hadn’t had a major stakes winner since Before Dawn in 1981.

On Saturday, Calumet had two major victories about a half-hour apart. At Belmont Park, before the Special was run here, Tis Juliet won the Shuvee Handicap. Tis Juliet is a daughter of Alydar, and Lukas trains her, too.