SPILL COSTS MCCARRON ROLE AS MARLIN'S MARATHON MAN.

Byline: Kevin Modesti Daily News Staff Writer

Standing below a TV screen in the Santa Anita jockeys' room Sunday afternoon, Chris McCarron watched Marlin stretch his obvious talent over a 1-3/4-mile marathon to score a mild upset in the San Juan Capistrano Invitational Handicap.

Then the Hall of Fame rider declared, ``The result was as I fully expected.''

Well, not fully. If the day had gone as McCarron expected, he would have been aboard the winner of the $400,000 highlight of Santa Anita's closing weekend.

But McCarron went down in an accident an hour and a half earlier, and while he was at Arcadia Methodist Hospital, fellow Hall of Famer Eddie Delahoussaye was named to replace him on Marlin.

McCarron had X-rays, which showed no fractures in his sore right shoulder, and arrived back at Santa Anita three minutes before Marlin gave Delahoussaye and trainer D. Wayne Lukas their first San Juan Capistrano victories.

``I was disappointed. I wanted to be sitting where Mr. Delahoussaye was,'' said McCarron, an ice pack on his shoulder.

Marlin paid $7.60. He was clocked in a fast 2:44.56, not officially a record because the Capistrano distance varies.

Said Delahoussaye: ``It's unfortunate you have to pick up a mount that way. I'm glad to see Chris is all right. That's the main thing.''

McCarron, 42, crashed to the turf when Debutant Trick fell after clipping heels with Destiny's Venture an eighth of a mile from the finish of the San Simeon Handicap, won by Sandtrap.

Debutant Trick, who had been rallying between horses in the downhill sprint, rolled over the tumbling McCarron. The horse got up quickly and was reported uninjured. McCarron was carried off on a stretcher. He waved - left-handed - to show the Fan Appreciation Day crowd of 28,961 he wasn't badly hurt.

Corey Nakatani, whose mount Destiny's Venture took Debutant Trick's path, was so emotional when McCarron returned to the jockeys' room that he asked to skip a race. McCarron talked him into riding ``for me.''

Three weeks earlier, McCarron bruised three ribs when Inexcessivelygood suffered a fatal breakdown in the Jim Beam Stakes at Turfway Park in Kentucky. He returned in a week to ride Hello to third place in the Santa Anita Derby.

Though sore, McCarron said Sunday he didn't expect the latest fall to affect his plan to ride Hello in the May 3 Kentucky Derby.

``The (accident) in Kentucky, I was rolling and saw three horses coming, and I was right in their path. I said, `Uh oh,' '' he said. ``This one, I didn't have a lot of time to think.

``I was getting in tight and I started getting out of there. My last clear thought was, `I'm OK.' And boom, the next thing I knew I had grass stains all over me.''

Lukas and Marlin owner Michael Tabor, who were at Keeneland watching 3-year-old Deeds Not Words finish fourth in the Lexington Stakes, learned about McCarron's accident from TV.

``We were lucky to have Eddie available,'' said Lukas, who doesn't use Delahoussaye often. ``I love Eddie Delahoussaye and the way he rides, but we just can't seem to get lucky together. It was very gratifying to see us finally get over that hurdle in a very big and important race.''