SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Bill Mott said the decision to skip the Preakness with Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty doesn’t put any more pressure on him to win the Belmont Stakes than otherwise already exists.
“It would be the same,” Mott said Thursday morning outside his Saratoga barn. “I feel the normal pressure of wanting to win and just the pressure of keeping him out of trouble and keep him sound and hope he stays sound.”
Mott spoke after Sovereignty had a strong-looking gallop Thursday morning over Saratoga’s main track as he prepares to put him through his final workout this weekend leading up to the June 7 Belmont Stakes, where Sovereignty is expected to meet Preakness winner and Derby runner-up Journalism. Sovereignty on Thursday looked eager early in his gallop but then settled nicely the second time through the stretch under exercise rider Jimmy Quispe.
“Looked good,” Mott said. “Jimmy did a good job getting him around there.”
:: DRF's Belmont Stakes Headquarters: Contenders, latest news, and more
Weather permitting, Sovereignty will have his final work Saturday morning for the Belmont. But as with almost everything else involving the horse, Mott will adapt if forecasted wet weather forces the postponement of the work by a day or two.
Sovereignty won the Kentucky Derby on May 3 and arrived at Saratoga on May 8. Saratoga is where Sovereignty began his career with a fourth-place finish in a six-furlong maiden race that was far better than it looked on paper. Last of 10 down the backside, he closed a 10-length deficit to 3 1/4 lengths at the wire and he galloped out past the field.
“He was running over the top of them. It was a fantastic race,” Mott said. “I had more people comment on that race than they did when he came back and finished second. People that know how to watch races, they could see into the future a little bit.”
Mott has liked what he’s seen from Sovereignty each day since his 1 1/2-length win over Journalism in the Kentucky Derby. Mott and Sovereignty’s owner, Godolphin Racing, opted to skip the Preakness because, quite simply, they were never that interested in running the horse back in two weeks.
“If there ever would have been a horse you could have tried the Triple Crown with, he might have been it – big, sturdy, came out good,” Mott said. “There was no reason physically why we couldn’t have run in the Preakness. We had no excuse other than we didn’t feel like it. The word Preakness I don’t think ever came up into our conversation. When you have a horse like that, you talk about a lot of things. Preakness was not one of them.”
Mott said the Belmont Stakes, at Saratoga and at 1 1/4 miles for a second consecutive year, was attractive to him, as is the $1.25 million Travers on Aug. 23, run at the same track and distance. Mott has won 5,505 races in his career – seventh all-time. The Travers ranks at the top of the list of races Mott has yet to win.
“The Travers is something I’d love to win,” he said. “Just a personal thing. I think you’re getting an accumulation of some of the better 3-year-olds coming back together at that time, and if you can win it, it’s a pretty important race.”
The importance of the Belmont will be heightened if Journalism does indeed run, a decision his connections are expected to make following a workout at Saratoga, a day that could be determined by the weather. The connections of Journalism have expressed a desire to run in the Belmont, believing he is a horse built for the Triple Crown schedule of three races in five weeks. Journalism, who arrived in Saratoga on May 19, looked terrific galloping 1 3/8 miles on Thursday morning over the Oklahoma training track.
Mott, not one for social media, said it has been brought to his attention that Journalism’s connections have expressed a desire to meet Sovereignty again.
“It seems like the other connections are looking for a showdown,” Mott said. “If that’s what they want to do, we’ll be here.”
◗ Baeza, third in the Kentucky Derby, was expected to arrive in Saratoga on Thursday night and have a workout Sunday morning.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.