Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty wins the Belmont Stakes, defeating Journalism again

Los Angeles Times

6 hours ago

Sometimes a rivalry falls short of the hype. But no such thing happened Saturday at Saratoga Race Course when in almost a repeat of the Kentucky Derby, Sovereignty ran past Journalism in mid-stretch to win the 157th running of the Belmont Stakes.
The conversation would have been quite different if Sovereignty had run in the Preakness Stakes and won. If that were the case he would have been the 14th winner of the Triple Crown.
Rodriguez and Crudo, as expected, were the front runners going into the first turn of the 1¼-mile race. But as the horses went down the backstretch Journalism started to get engaged with Sovereignty close by. Entering the homestretch, Journalism poked his head in front as Rodriguez began to fall back. Sovereignty was working his way to the outside of Journalism and with 200 yards to go moved swiftly to the front and won by three lengths.
The finish was exactly the same as the Kentucky Derby with Baeza finishing third. Rodriguez finished fourth. Sovereignty paid $7.00 to win.
'I think there are three really good horses and I'm glad he was able to come back and put in a race like he did in the Derby,' said winning trainer Bill Mott.
'If we wouldn't have won today, we would have taken a lot of criticism, but it turned out good. Sometimes you make the right decision and a lot of times you make the wrong ones, but today it really worked out well.'
It was the first time in 22 Triple Crown races that there was a repeat Triple Crown race winner, a streak going back to Justify in 2018.
It was also the first Belmont Stakes win for jockey Junior Alvarado.
'He's amazing and he taught me to keep going to put me in this place,' Alvarado said. 'My family has always been a big rock, my top supporters and helped me through tough moments in my life.'
Even though there was no Triple Crown on the line, racing had something that it desperately needed to help make it relevant again, a rivalry. It was the first time in 12 years that the top three finishers in the Kentucky Derby raced in the Belmont Stakes.
Adding to the intrigue is that the connections of Sovereignty, winner of the Derby, elected to not run in the Preakness because of the short turnaround of two weeks. It flew in the face of tradition where it's almost expected that the winner on the first Saturday in May must run in the Preakness to keep the Triple Crown buzz alive.
But Mott and Godolphin, the colt's ownership group, decided that running in Belmont was the better move. It allowed Journalism, second in the Derby, to win the Preakness in a race for the ages, where he bulled his way through horses at the top of the stretch and ate up incredible ground in the final furlong to win by half a length. And a rivalry was born. Journalism was the only horse to run in all three Triple Crown races.
Despite the historic performance of Sovereignty, the day was less than perfect from the start. Rain moved in overnight and the first race of what was supposed to be a 14-race card was run under a steady rain, which didn't let up for four races.
It forced officials to postpone two Grade 1 turf races, the $500,000 Jaipur and the $1 million Manhattan Stakes because the grass was deemed too dangerous to race safely on. Both races will be run on Sunday on the final day of the Belmont Stakes Festival.
Another turf race, the Grade 2 $300,000 Wonder Again was also moved off the grass and scratched own to just three horses. Not the kind of look you want on the biggest day of the meeting.
Rather than compacting the races to make up for the postponements, officials decided to stretch out the card so the Belmont would have its early evening time slot for television. It made for an excruciatingly long day with less than expected action.
The sun finally peeked out around the seventh race allowing the track to dry out a bit by Belmont post time. Track officials said the track received 2 1/2 inches of rain over the previous 24 hours. You can get water off a dirt track but not so much on a turf track. Before the big race, the track was harrowed, bringing it to a better and drier racing surface.
It wasn't a complete shutout for Southern California horses on Saturday as Doug O'Neill's Raging Torrent won the second-best race on the day, the $1-million Metropolitan Handicap, otherwise known as the Met Mile. The winner of the Godolphin Mile in April in Dubai broke on top and laid down modest fractions through the start of the race, leaving him plenty of gas for the race's finish.
He was neck and neck with Fierceness, the race favorite and former 2-year-old horse of the year, down the stretch and Fierceness had every opportunity to pass him. But Raging Torrent pulled away to win by 2½ lengths to give trainer Doug O'Neill his 2,996th lifetime win. White Abarrio, who won the Breeders' Cup Classic two years ago at Santa Anita, was fourth in the five-horse field.
'If he comes out of it good, the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile will be a logical goal and maybe a race between now and then,' O'Neill said. 'The plan is to take him to California on Tuesday and play it by ear.'
As for Sovereignty, the future is very bright and there's chance he could run in the Travers Stakes later this summer at Saratoga.