Sovereignty, the leading 3-year-old in the country who will bid for Horse of the Year honors in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 1 at Del Mar, stepped up his preparations for that race by working five furlongs in 1:01.44 on Sunday morning over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga.
The move was Sovereignty’s fourth since his 10-length romp in the Travers Stakes on Aug. 23, but his first done in company. Sovereignty started behind a stablemate, Playa Del Mar, a last-out maiden winner at Ellis Park, and finished a few lengths in front of him. Playa Del Mar was credited with a half-mile in 50.34 seconds.
“I thought it was very good,” trainer Bill Mott said, adding that exercise rider Neil Poznanasky “was pleased. We put him behind another horse, he reeled that one in and went on.”
Mott said putting him behind another horse was intended to “be enough to just keep [Sovereignty] interested, give him a target, a reason to be out there.”
Sovereignty, a son of Into Mischief owned by Godolphin, is 5 for 6 this year with Grade 1 victories in the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Travers, and Grade 2 triumphs in the Jim Dandy and Fountain of Youth. His lone defeat this year was a second-place finish in the Grade 1 Florida Derby behind Tappan Street.
Mott said he is pleased with how Sovereignty has done since the Travers, a race from which runner-up Bracket Buster came back to win the Oklahoma Derby. Sovereignty will likely have two more works at Saratoga before shipping to California, where he’ll have his final workout at Del Mar.
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“He’s been doing great,” Mott said. “He looks good, carrying his flesh, we’ve been on schedule. Of course, a long way to go.”
Mott is not expected to have many horses for the Breeders’ Cup. Quiet Street, third in Saturday’s Grade 2 Miss Grillo Stakes at Aqueduct, remains under consideration for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. Mott was to run Scylla in Sunday’s Grade 1 Spinster at Keeneland, with the thought of cutting her back in distance in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
Mott said Ragtime, who at one time was under consideration for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, will pass that race and instead stay with her own 3-year-old age group and point to the Grade 2, $400,000 Raven Run Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 18.
Ragtime is 3 for 4, having won the Grade 3 Dogwood Stakes after getting beat a neck when finishing second in the Grade 1 Test.
“I think we’re going to keep her with the 3-year-olds as long as we can,” Mott said. “That’s a tough division, there are some good older, tough older mares out there. I’m happy enough to be a little more conservative and run in the Raven Run.”
Scotland, second in the Grade 1 Forego and third in the Grade 3 Vosburgh, will most likely point to the $250,000 Cherokee Mile, a race he won last year, at Churchill Downs on Nov. 30.
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