Getting a perfect trip under Jose Ortiz, Klaravich Stables' Early Voting tracked pacesetter Armagnac, took command rounding the stretch turn and held off favored Kentucky Derby runner-up Epicenter to win the 147th running of the Grade 1, $1.5 million Preakness Stakes on Saturday at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md.
The winner is trained by Chad Brown, who opted to keep the Gun Runner colt out of the Kentucky Derby and point for the Triple Crown's middle jewel, which happened to fall on the 65th birthday of Seth Klarman, a Baltimore native who operates Klaravich Stables. Brown followed a similar pattern to the one he employed five years earlier when Cloud Computing won the 2017 Preakness for Klaravich and William Lawrence. Both horses came into the Preakness off non-winning efforts in the G2 Wood Memorial (Cloud Computing was third, Early Voting second), run six weeks prior.
“Winning once was like the dream of a lifetime and winning twice is beyond belief,” Klarman said during the Preakness trophy presentation. “It's an extraordinary experience. I give all the credit to Chad Brown for getting the horse here and ready to run a big race and, of course, Jose Ortiz did a masterful ride. It's just great to be back in Baltimore today.”
“We thought he needed a little more seasoning, the extra rest would help him,” Klarman said of the decision to bypass the Derby even though Early Voting had enough qualifying points to make the field. “He's pretty lightly raced, only three races before today. And as it turned out, that was the right call because the pace in the Derby was kind of suicidal, so he probably would not have done that well. We wanted to do right by the horse and we're so glad we waited.”
Klarman indicated the June 11 Belmont Stakes would be unlikely for Early Voting, though said it would be Brown's call.
Early Voting finished 1 1/4 lengths clear of Epicenter, the 6-5 favorite, with $150,000 supplemental entry Creative Minister another 2 1/4 lengths back in third. G1 Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Oath finished fourth after trailing the field early, with Skippylongstocking fifth, Simplification sixth, Armagnac seventh, Happy Jack eighth and Fenwick last in the field of nine 3-year-olds.
Early Voting, bred in Kentucky by Three Chimneys Farm, where Gun Runner stands at stud, was a $200,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase from the consignment of John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale Sales Agency. Produced from the Tiznow mare Amour d'Ete, Early Voting ran 1 3/16 miles in 1:54.54 and paid $13.40.
“It's a dream come true,” said an emotional Jose Ortiz, who was winning his first Preakness with his fifth attempt. “It's amazing to share this moment with my family, my mom, my dad, I know they're watching, and my wife and my kids are here.
“Chad and Seth have been very supporting of my career since day one,” Ortiz continued. They deserve all the credit. They had an option to run in the Derby and they passed. It's very hard to get a winner to pass on the Derby and they made the right choice by the horse. I don't think he was seasoned enough to run in a 20-horse field, and they proved that they were right today.
“I've been on him since he was a baby,” Ortiz added. “We always knew he was very talented but we knew he was going to be a late developer. He's always been very nice. We've always been very high on him.”
Rich Strike, the 80-1 upset winner of the Kentucky Derby, was not in the starting gate for the Preakness. Instead, he was 600 miles away, stabled at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., and preparing for the June 11 Belmont Stakes. In fact, on Preakness morning, Rich Strike breezed a half mile in :47.20.
Owner Rick Dawson and trainer Eric Reed announced five days after the Run for the Roses that the son of Keen Ice would skip the Triple Crown's middle jewel and point for the mile and one-half Belmont.
“Skipping the Preakness was still one of the toughest decisions I had to make as a trainer,” said Reed, who stood alongside owner Rick Dawson for Saturday's Churchill Downs breeze. “I just don't think he would've been mentally ready to run against those horses again.”
Rich Strike became the first healthy Kentucky Derby winner to bow out of the Preakness since 1985 when Spend A Buck's connections successfully chased a $2 million bonus for winning three races in New Jersey along with the Kentucky Derby. Spend A Buck bypassed both the Preakness and Belmont.
Three years before that, Gato Del Sol skipped the Preakness after winning the 1982 Derby because his trainer, Edwin Gregson, felt the race did not set up well for him. He would finish second in the Belmont to Conquistador Cielo.
Twenty-three years before Gato Del Sol, 1959 Derby winner Tomy Lee returned to California after the Derby and raced later in the year. He was the fifth Kentucky Derby in the 1950s to bypass the Triple Crown's middle jewel, following Count Turf (1951), Hill Gail (1952), Determine (1954) and Swaps (1955).
More recently, Country House, the 2019 Kentucky Derby winner via disqualification of Maximum Security, came out of that race with a physical ailment and never raced again. Grindstone, the 1996 Derby winner, was retired after coming out of the race with a knee fracture.
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