SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Mid-morning Sunday, with Bill Mott preparing to do yet another round of interviews, he took a peek into Sovereignty’s stall and noticed the colt was lying down sleeping. “That’s interesting,” Mott said. “I guess maybe he’s starting to feel it. I’m starting to feel it, I can tell you that.” Both Sovereignty and Mott had reason to feel a little tired Sunday, the day after Sovereignty asserted his powerful stride in the stretch to roll to a decisive three-length victory over Journalism in the $2 million Belmont Stakes at Saratoga. The win came five weeks after Sovereignty beat Journalism by 1 1/2 lengths in the Kentucky Derby. Sovereignty will have 12 weeks until his next major target, the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes, at Saratoga on Aug. 23. If Sovereignty shows he wants to run before then - and Mott expects that to be the case - then Sovereignty would most likely run in the Grade 2, $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes here on July 26. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. “If he were going to have a race before the Travers, it would be the Jim Dandy and I’m sure by the time the Jim Dandy rolls around, he’s going to be ready to do something,” Mott said. Sovereignty was certainly ready to do something on Saturday. Mott and the team from Godolphin, which owns and bred Sovereignty, purposely skipped the Preakness with Sovereignty with an eye on the Belmont and beyond. The 1 1/4-mile distance of the Belmont, being run at Saratoga while Belmont Park is being renovated, was part of the allure. So, too, was giving the horse ample time, in this case, five weeks between races. In the Belmont, Sovereignty, under Junior Alvarado, was up close going into the first turn, raced inside of Journalism down the backstretch. Into the far turn, a confident Alvarado let Journalism go first, so Sovereignty would have a target in the stretch. Once switched to the outside in the lane, Sovereignty swooped past Journalism inside the eighth pole and got his final quarter in under 24 seconds while drawing away. Sovereignty’s final time for the 1 1/4 miles was 2:00.69 and it resulted in a 109 Beyer Speed Figure. Comparatively speaking, it would rank as the fourth-fastest Travers Stakes behind only Arrogate (1:59.36), General Assembly (2:00) and Honest Pleasure (2:00.20). The Travers is the premier summer race for 3-year-olds run at Saratoga. Final time not withstanding, Mott said he wasn’t surprised Sovereignty delivered another powerful performance. “I never took it for granted, but I’m not surprised that’s what we saw,” Mott said. “That’s what we saw in the Derby. I couldn’t come up with any reasons why he couldn’t do it again and he showed up.” Mott said there was more a sense of relief than anything afterwards. “I think sometimes you get into a situation with a horse like this and there’s a lot of expectations not only from me, but everybody around him, so instead of a high it’s a relief that they showed up and they did what you thought they should do or could do and he did it,” Mott said. “Now I’m like ‘Phew! It’s like letting the air out of the balloon. Yesterday’s over.” Sovereignty has been based at Saratoga for a month and will get to stay here through his summer campaign, perhaps until he travels West for the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar in November. Meanwhile, Journalism and Baeza, who finished second and third, respectively, behind Sovereignty in both the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, were expected to ship to Southern California on Tuesday while their connections plot out their horse’s summer campaign. Journalism was the only horse to run in all three Triple Crown races and acquitted himself well with two runner-up finishes and a dramatic victory in the Preakness. Journalism will get at least a week of doing nothing when he gets back home and how quickly he bounces back when he resumes training will determine when he’ll return to the races. As Aron Wellman, whose Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners is part owner of Journalism, pointed out, it’s not that Journalism has had three races in five weeks, it’s that he’s had five races in 14 weeks, when you throw in victories in the San Felipe on March 1 and Santa Anita Derby on April 5. “I think we saw two amazing horses and both trainers delivered,” Wellman said. “For Michael [McCarthy] to have Journalism fire time and again - not just three races in five weeks, but five races in 14 weeks, travel, four different racetracks - Michael did his job and had this horse prepared to fire and he did. “Bill Mott,” Wellman continued, “he had that horse ready to the second for the Derby and the Belmont.” There are no prestigious 3-year-old races on the calendar in California, so Journalism would either have to run against older horses - potentially the emerging 4-year-old star Nysos - in races like the San Diego at Del Mar on July 26 and/or Pacific Classic on Aug. 30 if he stays home. On the East Coast, there are races such as the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell on July 19 at Monmouth Park or the Jim Dandy and Travers. Journalism will spend about a month at Santa Anita before moving to Del Mar in July. “I think he deserves to be in one place for an extended period of time,” McCarthy said. “Del Mar is just around the corner, he seemed to thrive there last summer.” John Shirreffs, the trainer of Baeza, said he was disappointed in his colt’s performance Saturday, especially coming off a late-closing third in the Kentucky Derby in which he was beaten 1 3/4 lengths. In the Belmont, Baeza was beaten 6 1/2 lengths. “I was hoping he’d run better than that,” Shirreffs said. “He ran a good race, he beat the Wood winner [Rodriguez], the Peter Pan winner [Hill Road] but I don’t think he had that kick that he had at Churchill Downs.” Certainly not the kick needed to keep up with a horse like Sovereignty, who, it’s starting to feel like, is a special horse. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.