Mo Donegal catches Early Voting for Wood Memorial victory

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - For two days, Jerry Crawford, the owner of Mo Donegal, watched the dirt races at Aqueduct be won by horses who were on or close to the pace.

In Saturday’s Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial, Mo Donegal, as is his wont, was at the back of the pack, while Early Voting was loose on the lead through solid, though not taxing, fractions. In upper stretch, Joel Rosario had moved Mo Donegal into second. At the eighth pole, Rosario tipped Mo Donegal to the outside, the colt lengthened his stride and he caught Early Voting to win the Wood by a neck.

“I think the performance he gave today is even better than it looked to the naked eye,” said Crawford, the head of Donegal Racing, which owns Mo Donegal and had 138 partners at the track Saturday. “I’ve been here for two days and not one horse has closed on the dirt in two days. … He had to be not just the best today, but much the best in order to prevail.”

The victory came over the same track and distance at which Mo Donegal won last December’s Grade 2 Remsen by a nose over Zandon. About 30 minutes after Mo Donegal won the Wood, Zandon overcame a tough trip to win the Grade 1, $1 million Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.

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Since the Remsen, Mo Donegal had made just one start, a third in the Grade 3 Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 5. The Holy Bull has now produced the winners of the Florida Derby (White Abarrio), Fountain of Youth (Simplification) and Jeff Ruby Steaks (Tiz the Bomb) and now the Wood.

The Wood victory earned Mo Donegal a spot next to those horses in the May 7 Kentucky Derby.

Mo Donegal missed the Fountain of Youth due to a temperature. He would have likely scratched anyway after drawing the outside post.

Crawford said he was not concerned about missing the race because his trainer, Todd Pletcher, was confident Mo Donegal was ready.

“If someone like Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher is confident it gives the owner great confidence,” Crawford said. “My only lack of confidence was based on the way the surface was playing for two days, that had me freaked out.”

For Pletcher, it was his seventh victory in the Wood Memorial, tying him with the legendary Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons for the most victories in this race. Pletcher watched the Wood on his cellphone at Keeneland, where he ran Emmanuel and Commandperformance in the Blue Grass.

"I was a little worried when the horse that finished second got loose on the lead in pretty comfortable fractions,” Pletcher said. “But I thought he ran very courageously, and happy to see him get up."

Rosario said Mo Donegal was comfortable where he was early on in the Wood and the jockey was just trying to save as much ground as possible. At the three-eighths pole, Rosario guided Mo Donegal around a fading Golden Code and then went back to the rail before tipping out at the eighth pole and wearing down Early Voting on the wire.

“The track was good inside, I tried to stay in there as much as I can, he handled everything well,” Rosario said. “He was the best horse in the race.”

Mo Donegal, a son of Uncle Mo, covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:47.96 and returned $6.30 as the second choice. He received a 96 Beyer Speed Figure.

Early Voting, making just his third career start, finished second by 3 1/2 lengths over Skippylongstocking. A.P’s Secret got up by a nose for fourth over Barese. Morello, the 9-5 favorite, finished sixth followed by Long Term and Golden Code.

Jose Lezcano, the rider of Morello, said his horse hit the side of the gate coming out and had some blood from a cut on his left hind leg.

“He broke sideways and he hit his back leg and never really ran after that,” Lezcano said.

Chad Brown, the trainer of Early Voting, said he was proud of the effort his horse put in to be second. While second was worth 40 points, probably enough to make it into the Kentucky Derby field, Brown said he would talk with owner Seth Klarman about it before making a decision.

“I’m not real interested in going unless I feel like any of our horses have a legitimate chance to win the race,” Brown said. “Based on his limited experience and such I’m not sure. I don’t want to make a decision until I evaluate everything.”

- additional reporting by Nicole Russo

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