He’s No Bluff in Preakness : Horse racing: McCarron rides Pine Bluff in strong stretch run that wins by three-quarters of a length.

Pine Bluff, the colt that top jockeys kept deserting to ride other horses, got the ride of his life from first-timer Chris McCarron Saturday to win the 117th Preakness by three-quarters of a length, shattering another Triple Crown dream as Lil E. Tee, the Kentucky Derby winner, finished a well-beaten fifth.

Landing in a saddle that had been vacated twice by Craig Perret and once each by Jerry Bailey and Mike Smith, McCarron made the most of his seventh Preakness ride. A former Maryland star who moved to California in 1978, McCarron won the 1987 Preakness with Alysheba. On Saturday, at damp, chilly Pimlico, he went to his whip 14 times through the stretch, urging Pine Bluff past Alydeed six jumps ahead of the wire before 85,294.

Perret was riding Alydeed. Pine Bluff’s regular jockey most of the colt’s career, Perret abandoned the Preakness winner twice this year, most recently after their puzzling fifth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago.

“It seems like every time this horse runs, he’s had a new rider,” said Tom Bohannan, Pine Bluff’s trainer, a few days before the Preakness.

Smith, New York’s leading rider, had called trainer Wayne Lukas to ride Big Sur in the Preakness after they finished second together in the Withers at Belmont Park on May 6. When the mount opened on Pine Bluff, Smith tried to jump ship, but Lukas wouldn’t let him. A hearing before the Pimlico stewards was scheduled for last Wednesday, but Smith called it off, conceding that his obligation was to Big Sur.

Big Sur finished 11th in the 14-horse field, the largest Preakness group in 22 years. Bailey, who won the Rebel Stakes and the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park the only two times he rode Pine Bluff, stayed with Technology for the Triple Crown, finishing 10th in the Derby and a troubled sixth Saturday.

Alydeed, the inexperienced Canadian-bred who had won three of four starts but lost in his only race around two turns, was almost good enough Saturday. He finished 1 1/2 lengths ahead of Casual Lies, who had run second in the Derby.

Casual Lies was three-quarters of a length better than Dance Floor, the third-place Derby finisher, and after them, in order, came Lil E. Tee, Technology, Agincourt, Dash For Dotty, Careful Gesture, Fortune’s Gone, Big Sur, My Luck Runs North, Conte Di Savoya and Speakerphone.

An hour after the Preakness, Patricia Brackett, a Maryland state veterinarian, gave Lil E. Tee an endoscopic examination at the barn and determined that the Derby winner had bled from the lungs.

“He bled quite heavily,” Brackett said. “On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the highest, I would say that it was an eight or nine.”

Lynn Whiting, who trains Lil E. Tee, had suspected that he might have bled, because the horse lacked the stretch punch that he had delivered in the Derby, and he returned to the barn coughing.

Whiting tried to be philosophical about his horse’s condition. “Better he bled than come back here on only three legs,” the trainer said.

Whiting would not speculate about Lil E. Tee running on June 6 in the Belmont Stakes, the final Triple Crown race. Bleeders in most states routinely are treated with Lasix, a diuretic, but in New York no race-day medication is permitted.

“The New York Racing Assn. has a house rule that says a horse can’t run for 21 days there after he’s bled,” said Jim Gallagher, who heads racing operations at Belmont and the two other NYRA tracks. “But that’s only a house procedure. It’s possible that a first-time bleeder could run in the Belmont Stakes if the bleeding came at least two weeks before the race, which is the case here. New York state has nothing in its rules to cover the situation.”

A $1-million bonus is offered to the horse who runs in all three Triple Crown races and registers the most points on a 10-5-3-1 basis for finishing in the first four positions. After the Derby and the Preakness, Pine Bluff and Lil E. Tee are tied with 10 points apiece. The others eligible are Casual Lies, with eight points; Dance Floor with four and Conte Di Savoya with one.

Pine Bluff was a lukewarm favorite over Lil E. Tee Saturday and paid $9, $5.80 and $4.40 at Pimlico. Alydeed paid $7.60 and $3.80 and Casual Lies’ show price was $4.20. A $2 exacta on the first two finishers was worth $66.80. The time for 1 3/16 miles, over a drying-out track listed as good, was 1:55 3/5.

Pine Bluff, a son of Danzig and Rowdy Angel, a Halo mare, was bred and is owned by John Ed Anthony, a Hot Springs, Ark., lumber magnate who raced Temperence Hill, a 50-1 shot who won the Belmont Stakes in 1980.

Pine Bluff has won six times, with one second and two thirds, in 12 starts, and Saturday he became a millionaire. Winning $484,120 of the record $744,800 purse, he pushed his earnings past the $1.1-million mark.

Pine Bluff broke alertly from the No. 4 post, but he and McCarron were squeezed by Big Sur, who came in at the start. McCarron had to take hold of Pine Bluff to avoid clipping a horse’s heels. Pine Bluff also was squeezed by two other horses in the run to the first turn, and McCarron again had to adjust.

Speakerphone set the pace ahead of Alydeed, running the first half-mile in 46 1/5 seconds. The first six furlongs went by in 1:10 4/5, with Alydeed taking the lead.

Dance Floor, who had gained good position despite breaking from the outside post, was third then, followed by Technology, trapped on the rail. Pine Bluff was fifth, about four lengths off the lead. Lil E. Tee, who had gone off at 4-1, was in eighth place.

“Four or five jumps out of the gate, someone (Dash For Dotty) hit us on the rear end,” said Pat Day, the rider of Lil E. Tee. “He let loose of the bridle at the wire the first time, but he picked it up again. At the three-eighths pole, when Alydeed and Pine Bluff moved, (Lil E. Tee) couldn’t do it.”

Before Saturday, Lil E. Tee had never bled, and he has always raced without medication. Bleeding, which is believed to be stress-induced, can frighten horses when they experience it for the first time and discourage them from running.

Coming out of the far turn, Alydeed and Dance Floor were the only two horses up front, with Pine Bluff rolling from third place, about 2 1/2 lengths off the lead.

In mid-stretch, McCarron gave Pine Bluff five quick strikes with a whip on the left side. Then he switched to the right side and hit him three more times. He brushed Dance Floor slightly as he went by, and Pine Bluff got six more reminders, left-handed, before reaching the wire.

“I was back farther than I wanted to be, but he ran freely, anyway,” McCarron said. “Tom (Bohannan) said to ride him with confidence, that he felt we had the best horse.”

McCarron will ride Pine Bluff in the Belmont. This colt’s days of musical jockeys can be presumed to be over.