Sovereignty won the Belmont Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga Race Course, taking the third jewel of horse racing’s Triple Crown by passing Journalism down the stretch at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in a finish that mirrored the Kentucky Derby.
The 1 1/4-mile race was set up as a rematch to the Run for the Roses on May 3 after Sovereignty was better than Journalism down the stretch at Churchill Downs. Sovereignty skipped the Preakness two weeks later while Journalism won.
Rodriguez, the winner of the Wood Memorial who missed the first two legs of the Triple Crown due to injury, set the pace in the Belmont, but the Bob Baffert-trained colt could not put much distance between him and the top two finishers as they stayed about a length behind heading into the final turn.
Journalism, the 2-1 betting favorite for the Belmont, broke first down the stretch on a track that had been muddy most of the day but was upgraded as fast just before the start of the Belmont. However, Sovereignty, with odds of 5-2, charged into the lead to become the first horse to win the Derby and Belmont while intentionally skipping the Preakness.
“I’m sure we would have taken some criticism that he’d gotten beat today and we hadn’t run in the Preakness,” trainer Bill Mott said in the post-race press conference. “But it worked out. The horse was good. Junior (Alvarado, the jockey) rode him well. He had a lot of confidence in him, and when he cut him loose, the horse responded and got the job done.”
Saturday’s winning margin was three lengths, twice the distance Sovereignty won by in Louisville last month.
With the win, there will be questions about whether Sovereignty could have become the 14th to win all three races. However, there were no second thoughts among the 3-year-old’s handlers in the victory celebration as they look to run their champion in premier races later this year.
“Who knows what would have happened, but you know that’s water under the bridge,” Michael Banahan, who manages Godolphin LLC’s U.S. stable. “We can’t dwell on that. All we can do is focus on our own horse and what we thought was the right thing to do. We made that decision a few days after the Derby, and I think with the performance we saw today, I feel it was justified.”
Journalism finished second and Baeza finished third in the Preakness to match the trifecta from the Kentucky Derby. Rodriguez wound up fourth.
Sovereignty completed the race in 2:00.69. The colt sired by Into Mischief paid $7.00 on a $2 bet to win, $3.20 to place and $2.30 to show. Journalism paid $3.20 and $2.30, and Baeza paid $2.60.
Saturday’s win was the second for Mott in the Belmont, who won with Drosselmeyer in 2010.
–Field Level Media
