The top of the Derby points leaderboard remains unchanged, with Pappacap and Epicenter sharing top honors. Both the Mark Casse-trained Pappacap and the Steve Asmussen-trained Epicenter have 14 points thus far.

Early Voting, trained by Chad Brown for Klaravich Stables, was ridden to victory by Jose Ortiz and is now two-for-two in his brief career. The Gun Runner colt was a $200,000 yearling.

In the Withers, Early Voting was away sharply to take a clear early lead. He never looked back from there. The final time for the nine furlongs was 1:55.90 over the muddy and harrowed main track.

“The plan was to sit second behind the one-horse [Constitutionlawyer], but he broke sharply and I wasn’t taking that away from him,” said Ortiz. “He finished well on a tiring track. One step at a time, but we’re going the right way.”

With both of Early Voting’s victories occurring at the Big A, Dan Stupp, Brown’s assistant, said a trip to the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial on April 9 at Aqueduct may be on the table for the dark bay.

[Click here for our Triple Crown Video page with video of every North American points race.]

“He has two wins at the track and a win at the distance, so it’s logical. Chad will talk to Mr. Klarman and come up with a plan,” Stupp said.

In the Holy Bull, White Abarrio, a Race Day colt trained by Saffie Joseph, Jr. for C2 Racing LLC and La Milagrosa Stable LLC, pressed the early pace of longshot Galt before drawing away to the easy win.

Running time for the 1 1/16 miles on a fast main track was 1:42.80.

[Click here for our Triple Crown page with the latest news and info.]

White Abarrio now has three wins from four starts. His lone defeat – also his lone start away from Gulfstream – came when third in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs last November.

It was White Abarrio’s first win around two turns and came despite having missed two workouts because of illness.

“It was a big performance. We were ahead of schedule all the time and then he got sick and we missed two works,” Joseph said. “We ended up being ahead of schedule to behind. Quality horses overcome those things.”

Giant Game, who finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last November, faded to finish eighth in the Holy Bull.

KENTUCKY DERBY POINTS