SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – When there is not a Triple Crown on the line, the next-best thing for the Belmont Stakes is a budding rivalry. Saturday’s 157th Belmont offers the potential for that and maybe more as a unique classic season comes to its conclusion at Saratoga. Sovereignty beat Journalism by 1 1/2 lengths when they finished one-two in the Kentucky Derby five weeks ago, and his connections made the rare decision to skip the Preakness to await this race. Rich Strike, the longshot winner of the 2022 Kentucky Derby, did that and finished sixth in the Belmont. Meanwhile, Journalism overcame a rough trip to win the Preakness in dramatic fashion, setting up this showdown for supremacy in the 3-year-old division. Lurking not far behind is Baeza, who finished a fast-closing third in the Derby before doing what most non-Derby winners do – skip the Preakness to prepare for the Belmont. Newcomers to the Triple Crown series in this year’s Belmont include Rodriguez and Hill Road, who had credentials to be in the Derby but were forced to miss that race due to injury or infirmity. :: DRF Belmont Stakes Packages: Save up to 52% on PPs, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and more. It all makes for an intriguing renewal of the Belmont, the second straight one to be contested at Saratoga – and at 1 1/4 miles not its traditional 1 1/2 miles – due to the ongoing renovations at Belmont Park, which is not expected to host the race again until 2027. Bill Mott, trainer of Sovereignty, and Michael McCarthy, conditioner of Journalism, have the same philosophy but have taken different approaches in bringing their horses to this Belmont. Mott said the Preakness was never a consideration by him or Sovereignty’s owner, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum’s Godolphin Racing, after winning the Derby. Races like the Belmont, the Travers in August, the Breeders’ Cup, and next year’s Dubai World Cup in Sheikh Mohammed’s home country interested the team more. “We all have to manage our own horse and do what we think is right for our horse,” Mott said. Journalism, conversely, is that rare modern-day animal who will contest all three Triple Crown races in five weeks. Since Justify swept the Triple Crown in 2018 – and excluding 2020 when the races were run over four months – only War of Will (Preakness winner of 2019) and Mystik Dan (Kentucky Derby winner 2024) have competed in all three legs of the Triple Crown. “He’s a horse we thought all along could handle a workload like this,” McCarthy said. “I don’t think there’s a whole lot of difference in what you’re seeing today than what you were seeing five weeks ago leading up to the Kentucky Derby. “I feel like we’ve done what is best for this horse,” McCarthy added. “He is not showing us any signs of maybe we shouldn’t [run]. It’s been very apparent the horse is acting, moving, training … like he has been.” :: DRF's Belmont Stakes Headquarters: Contenders, latest news, and more Though the circumstances surrounding this race are unique, the Preakness winner has held the upper hand over the Derby winner when meeting in the Belmont. Swale, in 1984, is the last Derby winner to beat the Preakness winner in the Belmont. Since then, five Preakness winners have beaten Derby winners in the Belmont, the most recent being Afleet Alex besting Giacomo in 2005. In each of those circumstances, the Derby winner competed in the Preakness. Journalism appears to have more tactical speed than Sovereignty, which will likely give him first run on the leaders Saturday. Journalism got squeezed some early in the Derby, which may have put him a little farther back than expected in that race. Still, he ran his race and was second best. In the Preakness, Journalism didn’t appear to be moving quite as easily down the backside, which led to his jockey, Umberto Rispoli, staying inside and thus creating a hole that was not readily apparent. He bumped with Goal Oriented and ran down a seemingly uncatchable Gosger. McCarthy is looking for a different trip Saturday from post 7. “We’ll bounce out of there, run into the first turn, and I’m sure we’ll find ourselves kind of sitting comfortably right behind the pace,” McCarthy said. Sovereignty is a closer who rallied from 16th in the Kentucky Derby and before that won the Street Sense last fall at Churchill Downs and the Fountain of Youth this winter at Gulfstream Park when rallying from last. Sovereignty will break from post 2 under Junior Alvarado. Since Justify won the Triple Crown in 2018, there have been 20 Triple Crown races run and a different horse has won each of them. Baeza, third in the Kentucky Derby, will be the one most supported at the windows to continue that trend. He is a half-brother to Dornoch, the 17-1 winner of last year’s Belmont Stakes, as well as Mage, the 16-1 winner of the 2023 Kentucky Derby. Baeza, second to Journalism in the Santa Anita Derby, had the worst trip of the top three finishers of the Kentucky Derby, finding some traffic trouble approaching the top of the lane before getting out and finishing well under Flavien Prat. He was beaten a neck by Journalism for second while 1 3/4 lengths behind Sovereignty. “It was a big test for Baeza. We were really pleased with his effort being in a big field, getting pinched a little bit and on an off track,” said John Shirreffs, trainer of Baeza. “He handled all that so well and showed a great deal of determination and maturity on his part. “Journalism, he’s going to be a very difficult horse to beat,” Shirreffs added. “Baeza is emerging, Baeza is developing. We were close to him at Santa Anita, we were making up a lot of ground at Churchill. Hopefully, we can turn the tables this time.” Last year, trainer Chad Brown came to the Belmont Stakes with the favorite in Sierra Leone, who was beaten a nose in the Kentucky Derby and skipped the Preakness. Sierra Leone could only manage a third-place finish in the Belmont. Saturday, Brown has Hill Road, who was second in the Tampa Bay Derby and missed the Wood Memorial – and thus his chance to make the Kentucky Derby – due to a fever. He comes into this race off a win in the Grade 3 Peter Pan on May 10 at Aqueduct. “He’s been looking for a mile and a quarter for some time. I hope that works in his favor,” Brown said. “The unfortunate thing is you already have proven mile-and-a-quarter horses in the race and they’re really good horses, so he certainly has his work cut out for him, but he’s custom made for a mile and a quarter.” The pace in the Belmont figures to come from Rodriguez and Crudo. Rodriguez, trained by three-time Belmont Stakes winner Bob Baffert, won the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct in front-running fashion and galloped out past the wire like 1 1/4 miles would be no problem. He was scratched from the Kentucky Derby due to a quarter crack that also forced him to miss the Preakness. Baffert has likened Rodriguez to Authentic, a later-developing type who won the COVID Derby of 2020 when it was held in September. His two wins have come when he’s made the lead and expect Mike Smith to put him there early. Crudo, one of two in here trained by four-time Belmont winner Todd Pletcher, won the Sir Barton Stakes on the lead on the Preakness undercard. While Pletcher gave the standard trainers-speak that the horse doesn’t need the lead, it seems likely he’ll be forward under John Velazquez. :: Get an edge with DRF Clocker Reports straight from the morning workouts. Pletcher’s other starter, Uncaged, comes out of a sixth-place finish in the Peter Pan and a win by him would be an upset along the lines of those recorded by Belmont winners Sarava (2002), Da’ Tara (2008), and Ruler On Ice (2011). Heart of Honor finished second in the U.A.E. Derby before running fifth in the Preakness. His trainer, Jamie Osborne, has said he hopes for a better break from the gate in the Belmont so he doesn’t have as much to do later in the race. The ever-changing forecast for the Belmont, as of Thursday, called for a 50 percent chance of showers in the morning with the same chance of scattered thunderstorms later in the day. The Belmont, broadcast on Fox, will go as race 13 (7:04 p.m.) on a 14-race card that begins at 10:45 a.m. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.