$ perl -MData::Dumper -e'
   $_="   56  1752.eps a b";
   print Dumper split " ", $_, 2;
'
$VAR1 = '56';
$VAR2 = '1752.eps a b';

$ perl -MData::Dumper -e'
   $_="   56  1752.eps a b";
   print Dumper split " ", $_, 3;
'
$VAR1 = '56';
$VAR2 = '1752.eps';
$VAR3 = 'a b';