He then placed second in the mile and one eighth Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack in early April.
In late July, he showed again to West Coast Scout in the Haskell Invitational Stakes at a mile and one sixteenth at Monmouth Park Racetrack in Long Branch, New Jersey.
In May 1971, Eastern Fleet's connections, trainer Reggie Cornell and owner Calumet Farm, entered him in the second jewel of the Triple Crown, the $200,000 Preakness Stakes, run at a mile and three sixteenths on dirt at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland.
Eastern Fleet was listed on the morning line as the fourth choice at almost 7–1 in a field of eleven colts.
[2] Eastern Fleet maintained his narrow lead down the backstretch, setting fast fractions on the front end completing the first quarter in :232/5 and the half in :47 seconds flat.