Pace Set to Benefit Sea Hero : Preakness: As many as five horses will contend for the lead, which should help Kentucky Derby winner.

Trainer Wayne Lukas was saying it before the Kentucky Derby, and he was still saying it before today’s Preakness: There is a good chance for a Triple Crown winner this year.

For Lukas to be right, Sea Hero will have to pick up where he left off in the Derby by adding a victory in the Preakness, and even Pimlico’s linemaker figures the bettors won’t support that idea. He has made Prairie Bayou, the Derby runner-up, the 3-1 favorite for today, with Sea Hero next at 7-2.

Lukas has had an unusual week. A winner of the Preakness with Codex in 1980 and Tank’s Prospect in 1985, the trainer was mistaken by a neophyte turf writer for Nick Zito, who conditions Strike The Gold; has been discounting reports that Jeff Lukas, his son and No. 1 assistant, will be forming his own stable, and has been talking about other Preakness horses instead of his own Union City, who finished 15th in the Derby.

After Union City had run second to Personal Hope in the Santa Anita Derby and trained brilliantly at Churchill Downs, Lukas swaggered into the Kentucky Derby. Before the horses were led over from their barns to the paddock for the race, Lukas turned to a couple of turf writers and said, “If the public could see how good this horse looks right now, they’d make him 1-9.”

Union City ran as if he should have been 100-1. He was beaten by 18 lengths, and Lukas still doesn’t know why. Union City has had a dull appetite since arriving at Pimlico, blunting Lukas’ usual confidence.

“I was a cheerleader for this horse for three weeks,” he said. “For three weeks before the Derby, I was on his bandwagon. Now I’m not nearly as high on him. . . . I hadn’t been as high on a Derby horse since we won it with Winning Colors (in 1988). But then he went into the tank. So the hell with him. He’ll be on his own Saturday.”

Today’s 12 Preakness starters have all been stabled in the same barn, giving Lukas a chance to watch them up close. His choices to win the race are Personal Hope, a colt he picked out as a yearling before the owners moved him to trainer Mark Hennig, and Sea Hero and Prairie Bayou.

“I still think there’s a strong chance that there might be a Triple Crown champ this year,” Lukas said.

Only 11 horses have swept the Derby, the Preakness and Belmont Stakes, none since Affirmed in 1978. And since Affirmed, only four horses--Spectacular Bid, Pleasant Colony, Alysheba and Sunday Silence--have put together the Derby-Preakness double.

“It’s too early to judge the crop, although I get the feeling that it might be a little lean,” Lukas said. “The reason I think Sea Hero might sweep the series is because he dominated the Derby (winning by 2 1/2 lengths).

“A horse that dominates his class has the best chance at the Triple Crown. And this year, there are no horses of any significance lurking in the woods for the Belmont. All of the main ones have been in Louisville and Baltimore. Those five straight years that (trainer) Woody Stephens won the Belmont (1982-86), he sat back and waited with some of those horses.

“If Sea Hero gets past this hurdle, he’s got an excellent chance at the Triple Crown, because he’s got the breeding to get the Belmont distance (1 1/2 miles on June 5).”

Sea Hero should benefit from what could turn into a blistering pace involving as many as five front-runners.

Zito, who is running a longshot, Too Wild, in the Preakness and will saddle Strike The Gold, the 1991 Derby winner, in today’s Pimlico Special, says that the Preakness speed will set the race up for a late runner.

“You’ve got the speed on the inside (Personal Hope and El Bakan) and the outside (Koluctoo Jimmy Al and Cherokee Run), and they’ll kill each other off,” he said. “There’s no way the speed’s going to last in this race.”

Breaking from the No. 1 post, which hasn’t produced a Preakness winner in 32 years, Personal Hope won’t necessarily be on the lead, according to Hennig.

“If the speed on the outside wants to go, we’ll be content to let them go,” said Hennig, a former assistant to Lukas. “The main thing I want Gary (Stevens) to do is keep our horse on the rail. He runs best when he’s against the fence.”

Hennig read in the Daily Racing Form about how unsuccessful the inside post has been in the Preakness.

“The odds are with us,” he said. “The inside’s going to win this race sooner or later.”

Lukas likes Hennig’s horse--Lukas’ former horse--but joked that it’s too soon for someone that young to be winning such an important race. Hennig is 28; the Derby went to owner-breeder Paul Mellon, 85, and trainer Mack Miller, 71.

“I see a lot of choirboys (training horses) around here,” said Lukas, who won the Preakness with Codex when he was 45. “They’re too young to win the Preakness. Why should we let them have that great experience this early?”

Pimlico Notes

Lure didn’t lead all the way this time, but still outfinished Star Of Cozzene through the stretch for a 1 1/2-length victory Friday in the $150,000 Early Times Dixie Stakes at Pimlico. In another stakes, Aztec Hill, another favorite, won the the $200,000 Black-Eyed Susan, beating Traverse City by half a length.

The temperature is supposed to be near 80 today, with partly cloudy skies and no chance of rain. . . . Based on $56,986 that was bet to win on Friday for the Preakness, Prairie Bayou is the 8-5 favorite, with Personal Hope the second choice at 3-1 and Sea Hero next at 6-1. The rest of the odds: Rockamundo, 8-1; Union City, Woods Of Windsor and Koluctoo Jimmy Al, all at 13-1; Cherokee Run, 15-1; Wild Gale, 25-1; El Bakan, 45-1; Too Wild, 60-1; and Hegar, 70-1.