WINNER of his sole outing at two, Early Voting headed into last weekend’s Grade 1 Preakness Stakes with sound credentials.

In two sophomore starts he had won the Grade 3 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct, and run second in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at the same venue, beaten a neck. Now, on just his fourth run, he gave owner Seth Klarman, who races as Klaravich Stables, the perfect gift for his 65th birthday, an occasion he marked with celebrations at Pimlico.

His $200,000 Keeneland yearling purchase from breeders Three Chimneys Farm, took his winnings to in excess of $1.3 million, and his stallion value to many multiples of that.

Early Voting is from the first crop of Gun Runner, and what a start he has made to his stallion career. His initial crop of three-year-olds have yielded 11 stakes winners, five of which have won at Grade 1 level. Last year he got the champion Echo Zulu and Gunite, while this year’s winners include the Santa Anita Derby winner Taiba and the Arkansas Derby hero Cyberknife.

Get better

Gun Runner is standing this year at Three Chimneys Stud for $125,000, a tasty increase on the $50,000 fee breeders were charged in 2021. He is certainly not over-priced, given what he has achieved, and a further rise in on the cards. Last year Gunite won the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes, while Echo Zulu won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

All the signs are that Gun Runner’s stock will get better with time. Horse of the Year and six-time Grade 1 winner of almost $16 million, he himself won two of his three starts at two, a maiden special and an allowance race, was a Grade 1 winner at three, and at four and five he took on and beat the best runners about, suffering his only defeat at those ages when runner-up to Arrogate in the Group 1 Dubai World Cup.

On the dam side of his family, Early Voting is out of the unraced Amour D’Ete (Tiznow), but she is three for three with her runners to date. A full-sister to the Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes winner Irap (Tiznow) who was placed in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes (the next target for Early Voting), Amour D’Ete is a half-sister to the champion and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Speightstown (Gone West) who is sire of 25 Group/Grade 1 winners worldwide.