Will Early Voting run in Derby? Decision likely on Sunday

ELMONT, N.Y. - Early Voting, the Grade 2 Wood Memorial runner-up, worked a half-mile in 49.97 seconds Saturday morning over the Belmont Park training track, with a decision on his Kentucky Derby participation expected by the end of the weekend.

Early Voting, under exercise rider Marino Garcia, worked outside of Southern District, a 4-year-old who won a first-level allowance on Feb. 5 by 6 3/4 lengths. The pair left the half-mile pole slowly - Daily Racing Form clocked the first eighth in 14.31 seconds. The two picked it up from there, going a quarter in 26.62 and then getting the last quarter-mile of the work in 23.35 seconds. They galloped out in 1:02.82.

“He went an easy half-mile, they broke off a little slow but they finished well,” trainer Chad Brown said from Kentucky, where he worked his definite Kentucky Derby starter Zandon at Keeneland. “It sounds like we got accomplished what we were looking to do, which was to give him a work. He had a hard race and I just wanted to go 49-and-change and that’s what he did. We’ll see how he comes out of it.”

Though Early Voting has enough points to make it into the body of the Kentucky Derby field, Brown has previously said he is 60-40 in favor of waiting until the Preakness on May 21. He said Saturday that he would like to make a final decision Sunday regarding Early Voting because if he were to run in the Derby, Brown would want to ship him to Kentucky on Monday.

Early Voting, owned by Seth Klarman, has two wins from three starts including a victory in the Grade 3 Withers at Aqueduct in February.

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