HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - It’s official. Sovereignty will race again in 2026. Michael Banahan, Director of Bloodstock for Godolphin, broke the silence regarding Sovereignty’s immediate future Saturday at Gulfstream Park by confirming that the likely soon-to-be-named Horse of the Year will join trainer Bill Mott’s barn in early January to point to his highly anticipated 4-year-old campaign. “He’s at Keeneland at the moment, he’s galloping away up there and will probably be back down here at Payson in very early January,” Banahan said just minutes before Godolphin’s Knightsbridge proved a very popular and impressive winner of the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector Stakes at Gulfstream Park. As for when and where Sovereignty might make his seasonal debut, that has yet to be determined. “We don’t have a race picked out,” Banahan said. “We’ll get him down here, have Bill get about six weeks into him to see where he’s at, and then come up with a race plan for him.” :: Play Gulfstream Park with confidence! DRF Past Performances, Picks, and Clocker Reports are available now.  Sovereignty won five of his six starts in 2025; his lone setback was a second-place finish behind Tappan Street at Gulfstream in the Grade 1 Florida Derby on March 29. He bounced back with four consecutive victories: the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, Jim Dandy, and Travers, which he won by a sensational 10 lengths, while earning a 115 Beyer Speed Figure at Saratoga on August 23. Sovereignty did not race again after the Travers. His 3-year-old campaign came to a premature and very disappointing end when trainer Bill Mott was forced to scratch him from the Breeders’ Cup Classic after spiking a fever the week of the race. Mott, obviously, was delighted when finally given the news that Sovereignty would remain in training another year. “Just reading the tea leaves and looking at the crystal ball ... I figured when he wasn’t put into the stud barn and they weren’t advertising him and weren’t booking mares to him that there was probably a pretty good chance he was coming back to the races,” Mott said. “I’m happy with the decision and hopefully he comes back as good as he left off. It’s been since the end of August since he’s run now, so given that, it’s going to be a while in between races.”    Mott said Sovereignty would be the barn’s “New Year’s gift” when he arrives at Payson in the next week or so, when he will start preparing him for his comeback. “He’s been exercising up in Kentucky, we’ll just have to start where they left off and get him ready, although I wouldn’t anticipate, even with any luck, that he’s going to be ready until the end of March or April,” Mott said. “He’s certainly not going to be ready for Pegasus or the Saudi Cup. Maybe even Dubai, either. We’re just going to go through the process and it’s just too early to pick anything out right now.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.