A Little Warm out of Preakness

STANTON, Del. - A Little Warm, the Louisiana Derby runner-up, will not run in Saturday's $1 million Preakness Stakes after the horse bled in a workout Monday at Delaware Park.

A Little Warm worked five furlongs in 1:01.16 shortly after the renovation break at Delaware Park. Immediately after the work, trainer Tony Dutrow said he was happy with the work. But an endoscopic examination later in the morning showed that the horse had bled.

"Tony scoped the horse, and he bled a 2 out of 5," said Chris Baker, the racing and farm manager for owner Ed Evans. "The horse had no history of bleeding prior to that. Even though all other indicators showed the horse was recovering and seemed to be ready to compete at Pimlico, this showed us he wasn't as well recovered as he would need to be, so we've withdrawn him from consideration.''

A Little Warm had developed a temperature upon returning from south Florida on April 28 and missed about four days of training.

Baker said A Little Warm would be given some time off and he hoped the horse could compete in "some of the bigger races in the summer."