Two weeks ago, the New York-based trainer solemnly stood in the Churchill Downs paddock lamenting Zandon’s third-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, after the race shape developed exactly as he drew it up before the race.

On Saturday on a hot, humid Baltimore afternoon, jockey Jose Ortiz executed Brown’s game plan for Early Voting to perfection winning the $1.5 million Grade 1 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course.

Knowing there wasn’t a lot of speed in the race, Ortiz had instructions to stay on or around the lead, but if someone took the lead, to stalk him. It was a repeat of the 2017 Preakness when Brown won with Cloud Computing coming out of the Wood Memorial for owner Seth Klarman.

“Similar game plan to come in here and Jose executed it beautifully,” said Brown. “Our Plan B was if somebody really wanted to go, we can stalk. I just want to say how happy I am to deliver a classic victory to one of my best friends, Seth Klarman, on his birthday today.”

The Post Time top selection returned $13.40 to his backers for the win, $4.60 to place and $3.60 to show. Race favorite Epicenter paid $2.80 to place and $2.40 to show. Longshot Creative Minister stayed on for third and paid $4.20 to show. The Post Time $2 cold exacta paid $25.80 and the $1 trifecta paid $66.50. The filly Secret Oath finished fourth and completed a $1 superfecta that paid $162.90.

Early Voting completed the 1 3/16-mile trek in 1:54.54 and collected the $990,000 first prize for Klarman, who joked that he’d be back in five years to win his next Preakness after the race. The temperature was one of the hottest days in Baltimore history for the date, flirting in the low 90s all afternoon.

When Armagnac went right to the early lead, Ortiz stayed right off his flank and pounced at the top of the stretch and never looked back, holding off a driving Epicenter coming up the rail by 1 1/4-lengths.

“Honestly, I was never worried,” said Brown. “Once we had a good target, I actually preferred that. We were fine to go to the lead but I thought down the backside it was going to take a good horse to beat us. And a good horse [Epicenter] did run up on us near the wire, and that was about the only one that could run with us.”

Ortiz who gave Early Voting a perfect ride winning his first career Preakness. He deflected all of the praise after the race to the trainer and owner for being patient by bypassing the Kentucky Derby to run in the Preakness as a fresh horse.

“They had an option to run in the Derby and they passed,” said Ortiz. “It’s very hard to get a winner to pass on the Derby and they made the right choice by the horse. I don’t think he was seasoned enough to run in a 20-horse field, and they proved that they were right today.”

Early Voting qualified for the Derby through his win in the Grade 3 Withers and a second-place finish behind Mo Donegal in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial. Brown decided the Derby wasn’t the path he wanted to take with the lightly raced son of Gun Runner.

“When you start participating in the Kentucky Derby enough now, you realize what a tough race it is with 20 horses,” said Brown. “As the trainer, you have to deal with the aftermath when it doesn’t work out.”

Brown was quick to note that it was an easy decision keeping Early Voting out of the Derby.

“This horse just didn’t have the experience,” said Brown. “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.”

It was a second straight back-breaking defeat for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen and Epicenter, the post time favorite in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

The disappointment was visible as he stood on the track after the race for the second time in two weeks explaining how the son of Not This Time was second best. Epicenter was jostled inside early in the first quarter by Skippylongstocking who came over from his outside post in front of the favorite.

“Disappointed, you know what I mean? He just left him way too much to do,” said a dejected Asmussen. “First time by, and you saw where he was, he just had too much to overcome to be right at a length at the wire.”

The only solace for Steve Asmussen, whose disappointment was momentarily paused on the track in front of a throng of media, was that he trained Gun Runner, the sire of the winner.

“Early Voting is the winner of the Preakness and deserves all the credit for doing so, and nothing but. The silver lining on that is Gun Runner is probably the greatest sire of all time. He’s incredible,” said Asmussen.

Similar to his sire Creative Cause’s third place finish in the 2012 Preakness, the improving Creative Minister ran a game third holding off super-filly Secret Oath to complete the trifecta at odds of 10-1.

Jockey Brian Hernandez, Jr. kept his horse close throughout working his way between horses in mid-stretch, but just couldn’t get to the top two.

“We were down on the inside the whole way,” said Hernandez, Jr. as he worked his way back to the jockey’s room. “I decided to tip out and try and make a run at them, but the 5-horse [Early Voting] just outsprinted us from the quarter pole on.”

It’s on to Belmont Park for the final leg of the Triple Crown where we’ll likely see the return of longshot Derby winner Rich Strike. Brown hedged on whether Early Voting will try and run the mile-and-a-half Test of a Champion in three weeks.

The division is still wide-open and it could likely be decided later in the summer at Saratoga in the Travers, a race Brown covets or in the Haskell at Monmouth Park. He’ll have to decide between Early Voting and Zandon on whether the Travers or Haskell makes more sense for his two top colts.

“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,” said Brown.

Gene Kershner, a Buffalo-based turf writer, is a member of the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters Association and tweets @EquiSpace.