Sovereignty returns to the racetrack after abscess

ELMONT, N.Y. - Sovereignty, forced to miss Friday’s Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup due to a foot abscess, returned to the track Wednesday in Saratoga, the first steps toward a potential start in the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic.

“He was jogging yesterday and today,” Mott said Thursday morning at Belmont Park. “Everything looked good. He might start galloping very soon. We’ll test it a little bit, test it a little and go on, do a little more, do a little more.”

Sovereignty, the 2025 Horse of the Year, was pointing to the Jockey Club Gold Cup following his dominant victory in the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 8. On Sept. 4, Mott said that Sovereignty had developed a foot abscess which ultimately kept him off the track for about 12 days.

Mott said if he is able to get Sovereignty in a steady training routine, he will attempt to train him up to the Breeders’ Cup Classic, a race he missed last year after developing a fever.

Mott on Thursday stopped by to greet Yoshito Yahagi, the trainer of Forever Young, who will be a heavy favorite in Friday’s Jockey Club Gold Cup, where Mott will run Baeza and Stars and Stripes.

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Mott, like everyone else, has been extremely impressed by Forever Young, who has raced all over the world winning in Japan, Dubai, twice in Saudi Arabia, and in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar. Forever Young has won 11 of 15 starts and earned more than $31 million.

“To do what he’s done traveling, amazing,” Mott said. “The different situations he’s been in, amazing horse. They haven’t been afraid to take him to Japan, Saudi, Dubai, America, he’s been all over. You can’t do that with all of them, just the trips wear them out. He’s a tough horse.”

Mott knows something about that. In 1995-96, Mott campaigned Cigar all over the country - New York, Maryland, Massachusetts, Arkansas. Florida, Illinois, California - and in Dubai where he won the inaugural Dubai World Cup in 1996.

“Champions are determined by the test of time,” Mott added. “In horse life, [Forever Young] is doing pretty good with it.”

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