SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY- Klaravich Stables's GI Preakness S. winner Early Voting (Gun Runner) was shipped from Belmont Park to Saratoga Race Course Sunday and will run in the GII Jim Dandy July 30.
Trainer Chad Brown announced that Early Voting will go in the Jim Dandy with stablemate Zandon (Upstart), rather than face another stablemate, unbeaten Jack Christopher (Munnings) in the GI Haskell S. July 23. Brown is aiming all three of his graded stakes-winning 3-year-old colts for Saratoga's signature race, the $1.25-million GI Runhappy Travers S. Aug. 27. He waited until after Early Voting's work Saturday at Belmont Park before deciding whether the colt would go to Monmouth Park with Jack Christopher in a Grade I contest or come to Saratoga and have a race over the track before the historic Travers.
“Jack Christopher looked great this morning, he looks ready to go for the Haskell and at the end of the day I'm going to run two horses in one race and one on the other,” Brown said. “I'd rather only run the one in the Haskell and I just didn't see the benefit of putting Early Voting in a larger field against a really fast horse, what it might do to him five weeks out from the Travers.”
In the Jim Dandy, for decades the local prep for the Travers, Jeff Drown's Zandon will be making his first start since finishing third in the GI Kentucky Derby May 7. He won the GI Toyota Blue Grass S. April 29.
Early Voting gave Brown his second Triple Crown race win in the Preakness May 21. In 2017, Brown brought his Preakness winner Cloud Computing back in the Jim Dandy.
Jack Christopher, co-owned by Jim Bakke, Gerald Ibister, Coolmore Stud and Peter Brant, extended his record to 4-0 with a smashing 10-length victory in the seven-furlong GI Woody Stephens June 11. The nine-furlong Haskell will be his first race beyond one mile and his first around two turns.
Creative Minister (Creative Cause), coming off a third-place effort in the GI Preakness S., tuned up for the June 11 GI Belmont S. with a four-furlong work in :48.33 (2/5) at Belmont Park Tuesday.
NYRA clockers caught Creative Minister marking off a quarter-mile in :24 over the fast track, rolling through without much urging from jockey Heman Harkie. Rounding the turn and heading for the wire, Harkie remained still aboard the grey colt who continued a steady rhythm down the stretch to complete the work in :48.33, galloping out five-eighths in 1:01 flat.
“This horse is all class. It was a nice little maintenance half-mile and wasn't anything complicated,” said trainer Kenny McPeek. “We just wanted to let him stretch his legs a little over the track. I think historically it's a track you've got to get used to. I had luck with Sarava training him up there immediately after the Preakness.”
Sarava won the 2002 Belmont for McPeek as a 70-1 outsider.
Creative Minister followed a maiden win at Keeneland in April with a Churchill allowance score May 7 and made his stakes debut when third behind Early Voting (Gun Runner) in the Preakness.
“It was another big step forward for him,” McPeek said of the Preakness effort. “He showed he fits in with some of the better 3-year-olds in the nation.”
The story is a familiar one. Seth Klarman, Chad Brown and Jose Ortiz teaming up for a win with a lightly-raced colt in the second jewel of the Triple Crown. In 2016, the duo entered the Classic with a fresh horse, and played the spoiler when Cloud Computing (Maclean's Music) upended Classic Empire to take the GI Preakness S. Fast forward to 2022, history repeated itself with the same connections snagging Pimlico's marquee race with Early Voting (Gun Runner). The colt's victory also provided a well-deserved birthday gift for his owner, who grew up three blocks from Pimlico.
“I just wanted to say how happy I am to deliver a Classic victory to one of my best friends, Seth Klarman, on his birthday,” said Brown. “It's really memorable for me.”
Klarman was also cognizant, and appreciative, of the forces propelling him back into the winner's circle on Preakness day.
“Cloud Computing was a once in a lifetime horse and now I have it twice in a lifetime which is really hard to believe it could happen again,” he said. “Only with Chad.”
Armagnac (Quality Road), a front-running winner in his most recent start at Santa Anita, didn't alter the script and went straight to the front as Ortiz opted to ease Early Voting back to second, rather than contending for supremacy, about two lengths behind. Meanwhile, favored Epicenter (Not This Time) broke cleanly but was soon pinched back by the converging duo of Happy Jack (Oxbow) and Skippylongstocking (Exaggerator), costing the favorite valuable ground. Also encountering issues early, Secret Oath (Arrogate) was also affected by the errant Happy Jack, forcing her to take up position at the back of the field going into the first turn. With the frontrunner gifted a soft :24.32 opening quarter, Ortiz opted to keep the 5-1 chance in close contact as they carved out a slightly faster half in :47.44. A motionless Ortiz, who peeked under his shoulder to see who might be coming along, finally nudging the colt into action, taking over from the fading leader turning for home. In control from there, the colt had plenty left in the tank despite drifting outward, and while Epicenter mounted a gallant run up along the inside late, he was unable to get closer than 1 1/4 lengths to the winner at the wire. Creative Minister (Creative Cause), who was supplemented to the race for $150,000, closed to be 2 1/4 lengths back in third. The filly, sent off at 5-1 facing the boys, crossed the wire in fourth.
It was the second win on the afternoon for triumvirate after Technical Analysis (Ire) (Kingman {GB}) won the GIII Gallorette S.
“Yeah, he is a very good horse out of the gate,” explained Ortiz. “He always has been. He broke well, and that was the main thing. Break good and go forward. We knew that Armagnac had speed, and he never has passed a horse on his right, and we knew he was probably going to go into the lead, and he did, but we were ready for it. We executed the plan perfectly.”
“On the back side, it just felt like we had been drilling in the morning. We had been working him just next to a horse, and he was very relaxed. I was very confident passing the 5/8 pole. I knew I was in a good spot. I took a peek back. Nobody was there. I knew my horse was ready.
He added, “I had the trip I wanted. We planned it out, we executed it with perfection, and we came out top.”
Recipe for Success
In front for most of the way, Early Voting came home a 1 1/2-length winner in his Dec. 18 debut before returning to the South Ozone Park oval with a front-running score in the GIII Withers S. going nine furlongs in the mud Feb. 5. Well supported for the Apr. 9 GII Wood Memorial, the bay had to settle for second behind Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo), who got up in the nick of time to catch him at the wire.
“When we've been working the horse We give him a target, and he rates nice. He catches them and finishes them off well,” said Brown, explaining the colt's latest defeat. “I was convinced in the Wood that he was waiting on horses which is why he got beat. He got beat by a good horse, don't get me wrong, with a good trip, but when you are doing this long enough, you can tell a tired horse from a horse that's waiting on horses. And I can see it in his work sometimes as well.”
Explaining the decision to bypass the Kentucky Derby with both of his Preakness winners, Brown explained, “With both horses it's important to know that they were coming out of the Wood, so [we gave] them time. But they're lightly-raced horses. It's not like a horse that we gave time out of the Wood that also had three starts at two and it's their sixth or seventh [lifetime] start. This a lightly-raced horse. In both cases, the Wood was only their third start.”
He continued, “So when you start participating in the Kentucky Derby enough now, you realize what a tough race it is with 20 horses. As the trainer, you have to deal with the aftermath when it doesn't work out. And sometimes, it's not pretty. Those horses need time physically or mentally, and it can really cost a good part of your 3-year-old year if you swing and miss. You could ship all the way over there or draw terrible weather. You name it..I haven't won the [Derby], but we've had a couple of close calls, and I'm a student of it. I feel like you have to have a horse with some experience, and you have to be prepared for a bad post or a bump here or there or a wet track or something.
This horse just didn't have the experience. He is out there on loose leads. He didn't have dirt in his face really. A nice horse, but to throw him in a 20-horse field would not have worked out well for him, I don't believe. It really wasn't that hard of a decision.”
Looking down the road, Brown hopes to have the colt ready to add another Classic later this summer, this time in his neck of the woods.
“[We'll aim for] a race like the [GI] Travers S. [at Saratoga],” said Brown. “I know it's a tick farther, but I don't believe he will have any trouble getting the mile and a quarter. Growing up just 20 minutes from Saratoga, Baltimore native, that was his race today, the Travers would be for me, so that would be really at the top of the list. But there will be some racing before that. We'll get him back to Belmont, assess him, train him a bit, and then start to map out a campaign that, hopefully, leads us to the Midsummer Derby.”
New York, New York
While repeating a Preakness victory for his connections, Early Voting also mirrored the feat accomplished by Cloud Computing in the 2016 renewal of the Classic race. And both colts employed a similar road to victory. While Early Voting took his first two starts, including his initial graded appearance in the Withers, Cloud Computing won his Big A debut, but was runner-up in that season's GIII Gotham S. before finishing third in the Wood. However, despite the subtle differences, both colts sought a Preakness win through the Empire State.
“Cloud Computing was another horse that wintered up [in New York],” he said. “Not only did both of them run in the Wood, but they didn't even go to Florida. It can be done, and I think it just depends on the horse and always just being aware of your environment where you are training these horses, and New York is a good environment.”
Underscoring why remaining in New York over the winter was the right move for his colt, Brown was pragmatic.
“He stayed in New York because he is that kind of make-up,” he said. “He was lightly raced. I didn't want to interrupt his schedule. Sometimes you ship horses down to Florida that are just getting started, and then you have to adjust to ironically the humidity and heat and such when he is just getting going. The weather looked good, so I left him there.”
No 'I' in Team
The relationship between Ortiz and Brown goes far back, and is laden with victory. However, according to Brown, it is the work ethic between professionals that makes the partnership special.
“He rode Zandon [Upstart] in New Orleans [third in the GII Risen Star S. at the Fair Grounds Feb. 19], and he had ridden Early Voting, in the Withers. [They were both scheduled to run on the same day in the [GI Toyota] Blue Grass [S.] and the Wood Memorial [both Apr. 9], I just chose he is going to go ride Early Voting, and I made a change on Zandon [to Flavien Prat]. So I called him to tell him, and he never complained about it. He said, 'Boss, I'll go where you tell me to go.' That's it. He was happy to ride Early Voting. It's hard to be taken off Zandon when they're on the same day because we knew that horse was probably going to go win the Blue Grass and go to the [Kentucky] Derby as one of the favorites. That's how he is. He said, 'I'll go where you tell me to go.'”
Brown continued, “He didn't win the Wood, but it was our feeling that's his horse. He went there for us that day, and I felt that's going to remain his horse. It was never even a thought after the horse got beat to make a change. He went up there and rode him for us, and he rode him brilliantly. Talk about being a team player.”
“I saw the relationship developing with those two. I wasn't sure he was a Derby horse, but I was sure he was a good horse and a Grade I horse. I just know that's a partnership that I want to continue growing, developing that horse, and then I could figure out where I am with Zandon. That's really what it came down to.”
Pedigree Notes: Gun Runner, the runaway leading first-crop sire based at Three Chimneys, continued the same trend in 2022, leading his U.S.-based contemporaries in worldwide earnings. With Early Voting's Classic win at Pimlico Saturday, the colt became the fifth Grade I winner for the Three Chimneys stallion.
His unraced dam–a $1.75-million KEESEP yearling in 2013–is a full-sister to 2017 GII Blue Grass S. winner and MGISP Irap (Tiznow), as well as a half-sister to champion and leading sire Speightstown (Gone West). They all stem from Canadian champion Silken Cat, tracing back to 1950 Broodmare of the Year Hildene (Bubbling Over), Silken Cat's fifth dam. Amour d'Ete has a 2-year-old full-sister to Early Voting, a yearling filly by Constitution, and was bred back to Volatile. Amour d'Ete's pensioned sire, Tiznow, is the broodmare sire of 52 black-type winners, including 2020 Classic winner Tiz the Law (Constitution).
Saturday, Pimlico PREAKNESS S.-GI, $1,650,000, Pimlico, 5-21, 3yo, 1 3/16m, 1:54.54, ft.
1–EARLY VOTING, 126, c, 3, by Gun Runner 1st Dam: Amour d'Ete, by Tiznow 2nd Dam: Silken Cat, by Storm Cat 3rd Dam: Silken Doll, by Chieftain 1ST GRADE I WIN. ($200,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-Klaravich
Stables, Inc.; B-Three Chimneys Farm, LLC (KY); T-Chad C.
Brown; J-Jose L. Ortiz. $990,000. Lifetime Record: 4-3-1-0,
$1,311,500. Werk Nick Rating: A+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Epicenter, 126, c, 3, Not This Time–Silent Candy, by Candy
Ride (Arg). ($260,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-Winchell
Thoroughbreds LLC; B-Westwind Farms (KY); T-Steven M.
Asmussen. $330,000.
3–Creative Minister, 126, c, 3, Creative Cause–Tamboz, by Tapit. 1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE, 1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. ($180,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-Fern Circle
Stables, Back Racing, LLC and Magdalena Racing; B-Dell
Ridge Farm, LLC (KY); T-Kenneth G. McPeek. $181,500.
Margins: 1 1/4, 2 1/4, 2 3/4. Odds: 5.70, 1.20, 10.00.
Also Ran: Secret Oath, Skippylongstocking, Simplification, Armagnac, Happy Jack, Fenwick. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
When Crabs N Beer (Blofeld) goes postward against 10 foes in the James W. Murphy S. at Pimlico, he will carry the hopes of small breeders everywhere onto the big stage of the GI Preakness S. undercard Saturday. The 3-year-old gelding is owned by native Marylander Chas Blanford, who has been in the business just six years after taking over the Riders Up Farm of longtime breeder William Fossett. Blanford maintains a broodmare band of five and is dreaming of a first stakes win.
“Bill Fossett is not my biological father, he was a neighbor and I was a kid who didn't have a steady father in my life,” Blanford recalled of his early interest in racing. “So he took me under his wing. He had lots of racehorses for over 50 years and he was thinking about selling the farm because he couldn't handle it anymore. He's 90 years old now. So I just picked it up and ran with it.”
Blanford spent his high school years working on Standardbred farms, but he admitted of having Thoroughbreds, “It was always somewhat of a dream for me to do it.”
While his professional life led him to found Blanford's Tree Service, his mentor made sure horses were still part of his protégé's life.
“Five or six years ago, Bill Fossett gave me Go Get'm Irish (Kitalpha) and I bred her to Jump Start the first time, which produced a horse called One Slick Chick,” Blanford said. “She was a 2-year-old maiden special weight winner and a 3-year-old winner. She was my first homebred.”
One Slick Chick may have been Blanford's first winner, but she was the latest in a long line of Fossett horses.
“The bloodlines that Fossett had go back to a horse named No Fat Chicks (Spring Double), which is three generations,” Blanford said. “These bloodlines have been on this farm forever.”
For all its longevity, Blanford noticed an omission in the family history and it's become his passion to rectify it.
“They are all winners,” he said of the family. “They have a stakes wis at Saratoga over steeplechase with a horse named You the Man (Lear Fan), but nothing on the flat yet. That's what I need to push for. I need to get black-type into these horses. They are capable of doing it.”
Crabs N Beer, who is out of a granddaughter of No Fat Chicks, Get'm Up Pronto, was bred by Blanford's friend Kyle Horlacher.
“Kyle bought Get'm Up Pronto when Bill Fossett was retiring,” Blanford said. “He sent some horses to the sale, so Kyle bought Get'm Up Pronto out of the sale for $1,000 and he bred her to Great Notion. The first foal had bad ankles, so he got cold feet. He had [the mare's second foal] Double Fireball (Imagining) and he had Crabs N Beer. Crabs N Beer was not a very good-looking baby. He was going every which way you could think of. I told him I would take the mare back if he would send me the two babies with her. I gave him $3,000 for the package.”
The transaction was part of Blanford's dream of improving the families he had been entrusted with.
“In the back of my mind, I was thinking I was trying to get these bloodlines proven,” he said. “And that's what I did. I got Double Fireball to the races. She won at Delaware Park on the turf second time. I put her in a claiming race and she was claimed, but she is doing really well, which I am happy about. It's helping me.”
A two-time allowance winner since being claimed in 2021, Double Fireball was sixth in the Apr. 23 Dahlia S. at Laurel Park for Little Man Farm and trainer Anthony Aguirre, Jr.
Crabs N Beer, meanwhile, grew out of his awkward stage and became Blofeld's first winner when he romped home a front-running 9 3/4-length victor while facing maiden-claimer company at Delaware Park last October in his fourth career start. But the win almost didn't happen in Blanford's colors.
“I was getting a little discouraged last year,” Blanford admitted. “Crabs N Beer wasn't doing any good at Delaware. I told [trainer] Jamie [Ness] to drop him in at Timonium for $10,000. And he told me no. It's a lot of money–I don't have deep pockets–but we waited five weeks and he went out and put up what I was told was the fastest maiden race last year at Delaware Park. He put up the fastest time and won it by nine lengths.”
Crabs N Beer has hit the board in six starts since breaking his maiden, including a late-running win against state-bred optional claimers at Laurel while making his turf debut Apr. 16. His lone off-the-board finish came when seventh in the Maryland Juvenile Championship last December.
The gelding, who is 12-1 on the morning line, faces a tough task against an accomplished field in the turfy one-mile James Murphy S. Should he happen to win, he wouldn't be just Blanford's first stakes winner.
“I have not had a stakes winner,” he confirmed. “I've not even had an open allowance or state-bred allowance winner. But I know someone who bred 20 horses and they only had one winner. Everything I've put into the races has won so far. I've bred five or six–One Slick Chick, One Slick Start, Double Fireball, Crabs n Beer, they have all won. They are all our bloodlines.”
The family already has a winner on Preakness weekend after Uncle Irish (Uncle Lino), a son of Go Get'm Irish, romped home a 6 1/4-length allowance winner at Pimlico Friday.
What would a stakes win on Maryland's biggest racing day mean to the 41-year-old native of Cecil County?
His voice filled with emotion, Blanford said, “Everybody is going to hear me.”
