Horse trainer Bill Mott no longer needs an asterisk next to his Kentucky Derby victory. The Mott-trained Sovereignty rallied down the stretch to win Saturday’s $5 million, Grade 1 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs by an impressive 1 ½ lengths.
It was a cool and rainy evening, and the track was muddy, even referred to as “sloppy” by commentators, but that didn’t seem to be a problem for Sovereignty. In front of 147,406 fans, Sovereignty ran away with it and Mott picked up his second Kentucky Derby victory. As the Courier-Journal reports, his first came in 2019, when 65-1 shot Country House was put up following the disqualification of Maximum Security.
“This is better,” the 71-year-old Mott said with his customary dry delivery. “This one got here the right way. I mean, he’s done well. He’s a great horse. He comes from a great organization.”
According to the Courier-Journal, Sovereignty, a bay colt by Into Mischief, improved to 3-2-0 in six career starts and entered the Kentucky Derby off a second-place finish in the Florida Derby. Fun fact: if you do a search of pedigrees, you’ll find that every horse that ran in the 151st Kentucky Derby is a descendant of the famed Secretariat.
Ridden by Venezuelan jockey Junior Alvarado, Sovereignty covered the 1 1/4 miles on a sloppy track in 2:02.31 and paid $17.96 on a $2 win wager. “Every move I was making, that horse was just there for me every single time,” said Alvarado, who got his first Kentucky Derby victory. “I made probably six to seven, eight little moves, and he was there for me each time. …I don’t think I’m going to be able to find the right word to describe this feeling right now.”
Journalism, which had been the odds-on favorite to win going into the race, finished a neck in front of Baeza for second place. Final Gambit rounded out the superfecta in fourth. The Bob Baffert-trained Citizen Bull led a quartet of early front-runners that also included Neoequos, Owen Almighty and American Promise.
As the leaders faded, Journalism took the lead off the final turn and dueled with Sovereignty down the stretch until the latter took over. “I could feel turning for home he was going to get there,” Alvarado said. “When we hit the eighth-pole, I knew there was no horse that was going to be coming.”
Journalism became the seventh straight post-time favorite to not win the Kentucky Derby. Justify (2018) was the last favorite to win the Run for the Roses and went on to capture the Triple Crown. “On the turn for home he opened up, but I saw the blue silks (of Sovereignty) coming at us,” Journalism trainer Michael McCarthy said. “I knew that was the one we were going to have to be concerned about. (Journalism) ran on the best he could, and he ran a very good race. But the winner ran a better race.”
Sovereignty earned $3.1 million for Godolphin, giving Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum his first Kentucky Derby winner in 13 tries. It came one day after the Godolphin-owned Good Cheer won the Kentucky Oaks.
Whether Sovereignty continues on the Triple Crown road — next up is the Preakness on May 17 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore — remains to be seen. Mott didn’t get that chance in 2019, as Country House contracted a virus following his Kentucky Derby victory and never raced again.
Michael Bahanan, Godolphin USA’s director of bloodstock, wasn’t ready to commit Saturday night to heading to the Preakness. “He ran really hard today,” Bahanan said. “Especially when you get a closer from off the pace, they have to lay their body on the line a little bit. We’ll see how he comes out of it. If he responds well, maybe we look at that.”
Mott wasn’t thinking much, either, about the Preakness on Saturday night. He recalled listening to the Kentucky Derby for the first time in 1967 on AM radio “in the front seat of a GMC pickup” as a teenager in Fort Pierre, South Dakota. “Churchill has really been special for me and my growth as a trainer,” Mott said. “I’ve trained for so many really good people from Kentucky that have supported me, and it carried over to today.
“This is the icing on the cake, but I still want to win more.”
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