Sovereignty heads loaded, compact field in Stephen Foster
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It would be difficult – very, very difficult – saying that the 4-year-old colt Sovereignty still has something to prove Saturday at Churchill Downs in the Stephen Foster Stakes.
Winner of the Kentucky Derby, hero of the Belmont, 10-length victor in the Travers, Horse of the Year in 2025.
And yet . . .
Sovereignty was meant to crown his championship season in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. He shipped to Del Mar, ran a temperature, and missed the race.
Soon, the news came. Godolphin, Sovereignty’s owner and breeder, likes to run horses past their 3-year-old season, not necessarily rush them off to stud. Sovereignty would race during 2026, but no one got in any hurry bringing him back. Extra time to fully recharge after illness and a long campaign extended a winter break planned before the Breeders’ Cup. Sovereignty never was considered for the Pegasus World Cup in January. Some trainers might’ve pushed to make the Dubai World Cup on March 28. Bill Mott’s not one of them.
Mott from the start targeted the Oaklawn Handicap on April 16. The trainer hit the target. His horse lost the race.
Sovereignty broke alertly and his longtime human partner, Junior Alvarado, let him roll to the lead. Sovereignty came from 16th in the Derby, went last to first in his lone 2-year-old stakes, and had been a first-call leader in exactly zero of nine starts – this was the horse seen setting a strong pace 10 weeks ago.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Mott said. “But it was hard for me to believe he got beat at all.”
Old rival Journalism pushed the tempo and softened up the champ. Older horse White Abarrio, a 7-year-old, the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, sat just behind the dueling duo. Journalism couldn’t keep up. White Abarrio pounced and wore Sovereignty down, winning by two lengths. Sovereignty won the gallop-out. Whoop-de-doo.
There you have it. One race in 10 months, zero wins over older rivals. The horse is ready to run. Racing fans are ready to watch him run again. And no one is more ready than Mott, who never was going to cut Sovereignty back in distance for the Met Mile, the only post-Oaklawn race worthy of Sovereignty’s presence.
“After Oaklawn, you think, Oh my gosh, I have to wait till the end of June? It seemed like such a long time from Oaklawn until now. But all of a sudden, here it is,” Mott said.
Here it is, the Grade 1, 1 1/8-mile Stephen Foster, its original purse doubled to $2 million owing to the magnitude of the contest. Magnitude, in fact, forms part of the Foster’s Big 4. He races for the first time since capturing the $12 million Dubai World Cup, while the White Abarrio people are out to demonstrate Oaklawn was no one-off upset. Baeza, a closing third in Sovereignty’s Derby, makes his second start for Mott, who inherited the colt after trainer John Shirreffs died in February.
Saffie Joseph Jr., White Abarrio’s trainer, entered two others, but neither Navajo Warrior nor Forged Steel shipped from Saratoga. Had Joseph run even two horses, Willy D’s would have been scratched, but instead he makes a Foster fifth, rail-drawn and at least a pace factor.
The scratches could leave Magnitude in an ideal spot pressing outside Willy D’s, an apparently inferior horse. White Abarrio, breaking from post 2, either ends up inside Sovereignty and behind Willy D’s – or jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. just goes for it and sends White Abarrio to the lead. Baeza almost certainly sits last. Baeza probably wins his 4-year-old bow, the Alysheba last month at Churchill, had he not spotted his rivals several lengths with a terrible break. That’s just Baeza.
“We’ve been working with him in the gate, and he’s one of those horses that doesn’t make a bad move in the morning,” Mott said. “He’s like a perfect angel in there. I think that changes in the afternoon. He trains like he could be quick from the gate if you wanted him to be, but he’s just not. He does not leave there rolling.”
Sovereignty finished more than 20 lengths ahead of Magnitude in the Travers. Baeza beat Magnitude 2 1/4 lengths in the Pennsylvania Derby, but while Sovereignty has gone dark and Baeza has yet to prove he’s improved, Magnitude has soared.
He won the Clark over older horses at Churchill in November, galloped to a World Cup prep win in the Razorback at Oaklawn, and then defeated 2025 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Forever Young in Dubai. All that, and Magnitude came back to America fresh as a daisy, still, apparently, coming forward. The horse uses his body now in a different, more focused manner than last summer. He has dangerous, rateable early pace, and is 3 for 3 under Jose Ortiz, who put Magnitude on the lead in Dubai.
“He’s obviously capable of jumping well and getting from point A to point B very fast,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “Jose has confidence in letting him do more early in a race.”
Ortiz just has confidence now, period. He won the World Cup, he won the Derby and the Belmont on Golden Tempo, and last weekend won the Ohio Derby for Asmussen with Chip Honcho.
“He expects to win,” Asmussen said.
White Abarrio got two pounds from Sovereignty in the Oaklawn Handicap and now picks up three, racing at level weights with a superstar three years his junior. Irad Ortiz Jr. worked out a perfect trip last time and faces a tricky one Saturday. Joseph, over the last two years, has gone 9 for 18 in Oaklawn stakes, 1 for 31 in Churchill stakes. White Abarrio in April turned in his best race since January 2025 and now faces the prospect of a sloppy track.
“Slop is not our preference,” Joseph said.
Joseph has done everything he can to engineer an Oaklawn repeat. He shipped White Abarrio from Gulfstream Park last weekend – and shipped a horse in top form.
“It’s hard to say his works have been better than before Oaklawn, but they might even be a little better,” Joseph said. “He shipped well. Everything has gone well.”
Slop might not be anyone’s preference, in the end, but Sovereignty? He won the Derby over a sloppy track.
Mott, anticipating this weekend, trained Sovereignty a few weeks at Churchill between Oaklawn and his major preparation back at Saratoga, just getting his charge totally comfortable with semi-familiar surroundings.
“I know he’s doing well. He’s coming into it good. We got a race under our belt, and I would have to believe he’s ready to go fitness-wise,” Mott said. “We’re just waiting to see. I’m anxious to see him run.”
Sovereignty, an absolutely grand specimen, never has blown anyone away in morning work – but he just might blow you away watching him gallop, or even doing something as simple as walking to and from the barn. That speed Sovereignty showed at Oaklawn? Seeing him breeze, you’d never imagine the horse could run like that – unless you caught the subtle sparks of utter superiority he emits during the brief flashes when Sovereignty fully applies himself. He has race-day fire. Something in Sovereignty burns strangely bright. Mott, genius horseman that he is, saw it long before anyone else.
What’s Sovereignty got to prove in the Stephen Foster? Something nearly no horse ever gets a chance to prove – true greatness.
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