Breeders' Cup Classic: Sovereignty keeps up the work, though not particularly fast
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Despite two workouts that are slower than what he’s typically done in his career, Sovereignty remains on course to start in the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, trainer Bill Mott said this week.
Sovereignty, the 2025 Horse of the Year, has not run since winning the Grade 1 Whitney on Aug. 8, his first win from three starts this year. An abscess in his left hind foot forced him to miss some training time as well as the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup on Sept. 18. Since resuming training following that issue, Sovereignty, who has been training in a bar shoe, has worked three times over the Oklahoma training track in Saratoga. On Oct. 2, Sovereignty worked a half-mile in 51.01 seconds. Last Sunday, he went five furlongs in 1:04.01.
Mott said the Oklahoma training track was deep on Sunday, in part because the track was not watered during either of the two renovation breaks.
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“That track can get pretty deep if it doesn’t have enough water,” Mott said. “I realize the time was slow. If you watch the work and gallop-out he was going well. It’s how they look doing it that’s important, it’s not about the time. He’s never been a horse to wow you in the mornings. He’s no Knightsbridge.”
Knightsbridge, like Sovereignty, is trained by Mott and owned by Godolphin. Knightsbridge, coming off dynamic wins in the Grade 3 Monmouth Cup and Grade 1 Pacific Classic, has been training very well at Saratoga. He will be pre-entered in both the Classic and Dirt Mile with the belief that if Sovereignty goes in the Classic, Knightsbridge will run in the Dirt Mile.
On Oct. 5, Knightsbridge worked six furlongs in 1:12.96 over the Oklahoma training track. Mott wasn’t planning on working Knightsbridge again until Friday.
“He had a pretty sharp work the other day. I don’t think he needs to work back that quickly,” Mott said.
Mott planned to work Sovereignty at Saratoga on Sunday, then shortly thereafter ship to Keeneland, where he will have his final work on the weekend of Oct. 24-25.
The Classic field lost one potential starter this week when trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said that Skippylongstocking, coincidentally also dealing with a hind foot abscess, would not make the race. The 7-year-old Skippylongstocking will resume training in South Florida with the idea of making the Harlan’s Holiday Stakes on Dec. 26 as a stepping-stone to the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 30, which is scheduled to be his final race before retires to stand at stud in New York.
Pre-entries for the Classic are due by Monday. Among those expected to be pre-entered for the race are Forever Young, last year’s BC Classic winner; Magnitude, the Dubai World Cup and Stephen Foster winner; Forged Steel, the Goodwood winner; Phileas Fogg, the Suburban winner; Golden Tempo, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes; Napoleon Solo, winner of the Preakness; The Puma, winner of the Pennsylvania Derby; and Further Ado, winner of the Blue Grass.
Napoleon Solo, The Puma, and Further Ado are all expected to also be pre-entered in the $1 million Dirt Mile.
On Wednesday, Ned Toffey, general manager of Spendthrift Farm, which owns Further Ado, said they are leaning more toward running in the Classic.
Dirt Mile
Chunk of Gold only has three wins on his résumé, but there hasn’t been a race yet among his 13 starts in which he has failed to give a top effort. That includes his ninth-place finish in the 2025 Kentucky Derby, where he was within 2 1/4 lengths of the lead at the top of the stretch before failing to persevere over a sloppy track.
Since then, Chunk of Gold has a win in the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby and a bushel of second-place finishes, including in all three of his starts this year. After losing by a neck to Bishops Bay in the Grade 3 Iselin at 1 1/16 miles and by 3 1/4 lengths to Dragoon Guard in the Lukas Classic at 1 1/8 miles, Chunk of Gold will shorten up to a mile in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Oct. 31 at Keeneland.
“We’re pretty confident in the mile,” owner Terry Stephens said Wednesday. “Don’t know exactly who we’ll be in against. I’m sure it’ll be the best in the country, but I think we can run with the best of them. . . . He’s doing great right now, we feel very good about his chances.”
Stephens noted that Chunk of Gold, trained by Ethan West, was only beaten a half-length in last year’s Grade 2 Clark Stakes behind Magnitude and Hit Show, the last two winners of the Dubai World Cup.
Bone bruising kept Chunk of Gold sidelined until June, when he finished second in an allowance race at Churchill.
Stephens noted that in the Lukas Classic, at 1 1/8 miles, Chunk of Gold got into a pace duel with Banishing and put that one away before giving way to Dragoon Guard.
“We used up a little too much horse there for the last eighth of a mile,” Stephens said. “Based on that race, the mile might be a little better fit for him.”
With several horses likely to be pre-entered in the Dirt Mile and Classic, or, in the case of Iron Mal Cal, the Sprint, the Dirt Mile field could remain in flux until entry day, Oct. 26.
Bishops Bay, who beat Chunk of Gold in the Iselin and then came back to win the Grade 3 Ack Ack, is not definite to go in the Dirt Mile, according to Pedro Lanz, bloodstock agent for KAS Stable, which owns the 6-year-old son of Uncle Mo. There is a chance Bishops Bay could be pointed to the Grade 2 Cigar Mile on Dec. 5 at Belmont, with that being a stepping-stone to races in Saudi Arabia next winter, Lanz said.
◗ Both Sovereignty and Knightsbridge were announced to be part of the Darley stallion roster for 2027, according to a press release from the farm on Wednesday. Stud fees will not be announced until after the Breeders’ Cup.
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