SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – None of the 26 3-year-olds Sovereignty defeated in winning four graded stakes this year, including the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, were entered against him for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga. In fact, just four 3-year-olds – only one who is a graded stakes winner – will challenge him in what is the smallest Travers lineup since 1994, when Holy Bull won.
Still, Bill Mott, the trainer of Sovereignty, is not taking anything for granted.
“I’m not happy, flattered, or anything that it’s a smaller field,” said Mott, who will be looking for his first Travers victory with his 14th runner in the race. “They don’t give anything away. There’s somebody in there that’s going to be running.”
The four challengers include Magnitude, winner of the Grade 2 Risen Star in February and, after an injury, winner of the Iowa Derby in July. Also entered were Strategic Focus, third in the Curlin Stakes here last month; Bracket Buster, winner of the listed Pegasus Stakes but fourth in the Grade 1 Haskell; and McAfee, second in the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby and a half-brother to Thorpedo Anna, the filly who ran second in the Travers last year but otherwise was unbeaten and was crowned 2024 Horse of the Year.
Sovereignty drew post 4 and was installed as the 2-5 morning-line favorite by New York Racing Association linemaker David Aragona when the Travers was drawn Sunday on “America’s Day at the Races.”
Going back 50 years, 10 of the 13 horses sent off as the odds-on choices have won the Travers, the outliers being 1978 Triple Crown winner Affirmed (who was disqualified from first), Conquistador Cielo (third in 1982), and 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (second).
Sovereignty, owned and bred by Godolphin, has been in Saratoga since five days after he won the Kentucky Derby on May 3 at Churchill Downs. He won the Belmont Stakes here by three lengths over Preakness winner Journalism on June 7 and the Grade 2 Jim Dandy by one length over Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes third-place finisher Baeza here on July 26.
Last Saturday, Sovereignty had his second workout since the Jim Dandy when he breezed five furlongs in 1:00.70 under regular exercise rider Neil Poznansky. Mott had Junior Alvarado, the regular rider of Sovereignty, on the workmate, Fort Nelson, who started two lengths behind Sovereignty and came up to him turning into the lane.
“I thought I might put up a little bit of a challenge today, but nah,” Alvarado said. “I tried but failed.”
Mott put Sovereignty in company on Saturday to make sure the horse got something significant out of the work.
“There’s a month in between races, right, so we don’t want to go into it thinking we haven’t done enough, so we had another horse with him to keep him honest,” Mott said. “He’s doing fine for me. I’m happy with what I saw today, I’ve been happy with what we’ve seen this past week; got another week to go.”
Magnitude drew the rail and was made the 2-1 second choice in the Travers. His 9-3/4-length victory in the Risen Star Stakes on Feb. 15 at Fair Grounds had many thinking he was a serious contender for the Kentucky Derby. But the following morning he was found to have an ankle chip that required surgery and knocked him off the Triple Crown trail.
Magnitude, a son of Not This Time owned by Ron Winchell, was able to return to the races in the Iowa Derby on July 5, a race he won by 9 1/4 lengths at Prairie Meadows. He earned triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures in both the Risen Star (108) and the Iowa Derby (105), competitive with the best figures Sovereignty has earned.
Mott said Magnitude “looks to be a very interesting horse. He was forced to bypass the Triple Crown races, nonetheless he’s had a couple of very good races under his belt. He’s certainly not what you’d call a sleeper because he’s won his last two races and he’s not somebody you can take lightly or take for granted.”
Steve Asmussen, the trainer of Magnitude, won the 2022 Travers with Epicenter and sent out Midnight Bourbon to within a neck of upsetting 2-5 favorite Essential Quality in the 2021 event.
Magnitude completed his preparations for the Travers with a half-mile workout in 50.19 seconds over the Oklahoma training track on Sunday.
Strategic Focus, who finished third in the Curlin Stakes after getting disqualified from an allowance win here in June, drew post 3 and was made the 6-1 third choice. Flavien Prat will ride for trainer Chad Brown, who is adding blinkers to his colt’s equipment.
On Saturday, Strategic Focus worked five furlongs over Saratoga’s main track in 1:01.55 in company with the 4-year-old maiden Duration. Strategic Focus pulled away from his workmate on the gallop-out.
“This morning is the best I’ve ever seen the horse work by far,” Brown said. “And he’s a well-bred horse, so he’s got a lot of things going for him, but he’s going to have to really get his act together mentally and improve a bit to make an impact in the race.”
Bracket Buster, seven-length winner of the Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park in June, drew post 2 and is one of two 20-1 morning-line shots. Bracket Buster, a son of Vekoma trained by Vicki Oliver, is the only member of this field to have previously run against Sovereignty, finishing nine lengths behind him in the Grade 3 Street Sense Stakes at Churchill Downs last November. Luis Saez rides.
McAfee, trained by Rick Dutrow, drew post 5. McAfee, who will be ridden by John Velazquez, is coming off a runner-up finish to Chunk of Gold in the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby on Aug. 3. He stretched his legs in what was not a timed workout Monday at Churchill Downs.
The Travers will go as race 13 on a 14-race card that begins at 11:10 a.m.
As of Monday, the forecast for Saturday calls for partly sunny skies with high temperatures in the low 80s.
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