Mike Brunker Horse racing editor • Profile • E-mail

BALTIMORE - It’s a jockey’s lot in life to be second guessed, and two riders are bound to have their split-second judgments in Saturday’s 132^nd running of the Preakness Stakes questioned in the days, weeks and even years to come.

Mario Pino, who rode Hard Spun to a third-place finish in the Preakness, and Calvin Borel, on runner-up Street Sense, both made moves in the heat of battle that may have affected the outcome.

Neither was a clear blunder of the sort that Bill Shoemaker made in the 1957 Kentucky Derby, when he misjudged the finish line and stopped riding Gallant Man for just a moment and handed the victory to Iron Liege and Bill Hartack. But it is possible — just possible — that they might have made a critical difference in a 1 3/16^th-mile race that was decided by inches.

In the case of Pino, it was his bold decision to roll Hard Spun past pace-setter Xchanger and close pursuer Flying First Class midway up the backstretch.

It’s dangerous to question the king of Maryland racing about racing tactics on his home court, but the decision to take the lead when his mount appeared to be relaxing nicely behind what were very fast fractions — :22.83 for the quarter mile and :45.75 for the half mile — certainly appeared to be premature.

On the replay, Pino can be seen looking back over his outside shoulder, which presumably yielded a glimpse of an oncoming C P West. There’s no way of saying for sure, but it looks as if he was worried about being boxed in behind the tiring leaders and decided he’d better move out for a clear path before it was too late.

Pino’s post-race comments lend support to this interpretation:

“When I made my move, I didn’t want to wait and let him get on top of me,” he said. “It could have really worked out for us right there. They were really coming hard and there was nothing I could have done about it.”

Unfortunately for Pino and Hard Spun, C P West was indeed making a serious mid-race move. Hard Spun quickly put away Xchanger and Flying First Class, but just as Pino tried to slow things down again, C P West and Edgar Prado came up and applied pressure. The result was that Hard Spun didn’t get a needed breather and didn’t show the same determination in the stretch that he did in Louisville.

Did it cost Hard Spun a better placing? Not in my estimation, but it’s hard to say what might have transpired if Pino had let C P West tackle the front runners and then launched his bid at the top of the stretch.

The move by Borel that raised eyebrows during repeated viewings of the replay occurred in the final yards of the race.

When Street Sense unleashed his patented rocket move at the top of the stretch, it appeared all but certain that he would roll on to a comfortable victory.

To his credit, Borel kept after the Derby winner, steadily using a left-handed whip to keep his horse’s mind on running.

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But inside the 1/16^th pole, Borel stopped whipping his mount for a moment and took an exaggerated look over his outside shoulder — turning so far that it almost looked like a cartoon character’s double take.

What he saw must have put the fear of God into him: Curlin, who he believed he had finished off at the top of the stretch, was less than a length behind him and slowly cutting into what was left of his lead.

Borel got busy with the whip again, but Street Sense appeared to lose focus just for an instant.

Borel’s post-race comments also lend support for this interpretation:

“He just got to gawking 40 yards from home and he just got outrun,” he said of Street Sense. “I went up on the inside of him and (Albarado) was riding already and I was sitting , so I thought he was finished. I kept hearing him, and I looked under my arm and saw him.”

Again, it’s impossible to say whether that would have made a difference in the outcome, but there are a lot of inches in 1 3/16ths of a mile, and Street Sense only got beaten by a few of them.

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