TabIndex Lost After Preloader

I have a preloader SWF and a mainmovie SWF. If I just render the mainmovie in the browser window with HTML I can access the tabIndex I issued to movieclips in the mainmovie.

My problem is that if I use a preloader with a moviecliploader after preload I lose all tabIndex ability. I think it has something to do with the depth of the target movieclips. using tabChildren doesn’t help.