Sovereignty will scratch from Breeders’ Cup Classic due to fever
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DEL MAR, Calif. - Sovereignty, the dual-classic winner and morning-line favorite for Saturday’s $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar, will be scratched from that race after the 3-year-old developed another fever, trainer Bill Mott said Wednesday morning.
“We’re going to scratch,” Mott said. “He developed a fever yesterday afternoon, his temp shot up again, we retreated him. That basically made our decision.”
Mott said Sovereignty initially developed a fever Monday night - two degrees above normal. The horse was treated with anti-inflammatories Tuesday which brought the temperature back to normal. Mott said Tuesday that if Sovereignty re-spiked a fever he would pull the plug on running.
“It’s disheartening,” Mott said. “You can’t believe the number of people who told me ‘fingers crossed,’ hoping to see him run. I think it takes something away from the race for sure.”
Sovereignty’s scratch reduces the Classic field to nine. The race still features the top three finishers from last year’s race - Sierra Leone, Fierceness, and Forever Young - as well as Grade 1-winning older horses Antiquarian and Mindframe and the Grade 1-winning 3-year-olds Journalism, Baeza, and Nevada Beach. Contrary Thinking, in the race as a pacemaker for Sierra Leone, rounds out the field.
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David Aragona, who made Sovereignty the 6-5 morning-line favorite, adjusted the line to make Fierceness the 5-2 morning-line choice. Aragona has Sierra Leone and Forever Young the co-second choices at 7-2.
Sovereignty is a son of Into Mischief owned and bred by Godolphin. Mott said it has not been decided whether Sovereignty will race again or be retired to stand at stud.
“I don’t think anything is official,” Mott said. “I really don’t know.”
Michael Banahan, the director of bloodstock for Godolphin USA, wrote in a text, “We will concentrate on getting him back to full health and then figure out his future.”
Mott said the team at Godolphin took the news in stride.
“Everybody involved is a professional, they’ve been around it, they’ve been through it, and that includes Sheikh Mohammed,” Mott said. “He’s a professional and a great horseman.”
Wrote Banahan: “Obviously, we are all extremely disappointed for Bill and his team who have done an extraordinary job with his season. We are so sorry for all the fans who are not going to be able to see the star of the BC.”
Sovereignty will go down as the best 3-year-old Mott has trained. Though Mott previously won a Kentucky Derby with Country House (via disqualification) and a Belmont Stakes with Drosselmeyer, Sovereignty won both of those races and accomplished even more.
Sovereignty, who won his maiden in his third career start in the Street Sense Stakes at Churchill Downs as a 2-year-old, kicked off his 3-year-old season with a victory in the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park on March 1. After finishing second to Tappan Street in the Florida Derby, Sovereignty came back five weeks later to win the Kentucky Derby by 1 1/2 lengths over Journalism.
The decision was made quickly by Godolphin and Mott to bypass the Preakness and point to the Belmont Stakes, a race Sovereignty won by three lengths while again beating Journalism. Baeza finished third in both of those races.
Sovereignty beat Baeza by one length in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga before demolishing an overmatched field in the Travers by 10 lengths. It was Mott’s first Travers victory.
“We’re so, so grateful for what he’s done for us,” Mott said. “Everything we’ve done, up until now, there’s been no setbacks, nothing that stood in our way, we had no issues. We went into each race in good order and he produced every time.”
Mott said the plan with Sovereignty was always for him to ship from California to Kentucky, either to Godolphin’s farm or a training center. He doesn’t expect those plans to change. Mott said that Sovereignty, if healthy enough to travel, will likely leave California on Monday or Tuesday.
Around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, Mott, who will still run Scylla in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff, walked over to see Sovereignty in his stall just as Mott’s son Riley was walking with his horse Argos, a contender in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
“Go Riley,” Mott said. “I still got some rooting interests here.”
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