Jockey Junior Alvarado celebrates after riding Sovereignty to victory in the 151st running of the Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs Saturday, May 3, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty won’t run in the Preakness, dashing Triple Crown possibility
Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty will not run in the Preakness Stakes, officials announced Tuesday, meaning there won’t be a Triple Crown champion for a seventh consecutive year.
Jockey Junior Alvarado celebrates after riding Sovereignty to victory in the 151st running of the Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs Saturday, May 3, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty will not run in the Preakness Stakes, officials announced Tuesday, meaning there won’t be a Triple Crown champion for a seventh consecutive year.
鈥淲e received a call today from trainer Bill Mott that Sovereignty will not be competing in the Preakness,” said Mike Rogers, executive VP of 1/ST Racing, which operates the Preakness. 鈥淲e extend our congratulations to the connections of Sovereignty and respect their decision.”
Mott told Preakness officials the plan will be to enter Sovereignty in the Belmont Stakes, the third jewel of the Triple Crown, on June 7 at Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York. Mott on Sunday morning had in the name of long-term interests.
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鈥淲e want to do what鈥檚 best for the horse,鈥 he told reporters at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. 鈥淥f course, you always think about a Triple Crown, and that鈥檚 not something we鈥檙e not going to think about.鈥
Sovereignty won a muddy Derby with at odds of 7-1 by passing favorite Journalism down the stretch.
Owner Godolphin鈥檚 U.S. director of bloodstock, Michael Banahan, deferred an explanation to Mott in a text message sent to The Associated Press, calling it a team decision that 鈥渂oth feel it’s the right direction for the horse going forward.鈥 A message left for Mott was not immediately returned.
This is the fifth time since Justify won all three races in 2018 that the Preakness will go on without a true shot at a Triple Crown. Elevated winner Country House and Maximum Security, who was disqualified for interference, each did not participate in 2019, the races were run out of order in 2020, Bob Baffert-trained for a positive drug test in 2021 and long shot to rest him for the previously planned five weeks.
in the Preakness in 2023, and last year after his owner and trainer to run him. The two-week turnaround from the Kentucky Derby to the Preakness and changes in modern racing have sparked debate around the sport about spacing out the races.
Prominent owner Mike Repole earlier Tuesday a proposal to move the Belmont to second in the Triple Crown order, four weeks after the Kentucky Derby and sliding the Preakness back further with the aim of keeping more of the top horses involved.
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鈥淭he Preakness being run two weeks after the Kentucky Derby, in this new day and age in racing, shows the lack of vision and leadership needed to evolve this sport,鈥 Repole wrote. 鈥淚 expect the top three finishers of this year鈥檚 Derby to skip the Preakness and go right to the Belmont.鈥
No decision has been made on second-place finisher Journalism, who was the Derby favorite, or third-place Baeza for the 150th running of the Preakness, the last at Pimlico Race Course before . The plan is for the 2026 Preakness to take place at Laurel Park between Baltimore and Washington while Pimlico is under construction.
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