Whitney Stakes: Sovereignty rallies from far back for dominating victory
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Bill Mott gave a leg up to Junior Alvarado on Sovereignty and Flavien Prat on Baeza, walked out of the paddock and headed to his box seat in the Saratoga grandstand to watch a stacked renewal of the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes.
Like the rest of the 40,422 in attendance on a sunny, then rainy, then sunny again afternoon, Mott was anxious about what he was going to witness, especially from Sovereignty, the 2025 Horse of the Year, who had gone winless in his first two starts.
“Naturally, anytime a horse is undefeated or has a winning streak going and then they got beat you wonder ‘what’s going to happen next time?’ " Mott said. “I must admit I think there’s always some concern that they’re going to fire their best shot, but he did today.”
Sovereignty sure did, turning back the clock to last year when he dominated the 3-year-old division with wins in the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes.
On Saturday, Sovereignty defeated the best group of older males - and one champion female in Nitrogen - assembled this year as he rallied from last under Junior Alvarado to win the $1 million Whitney by 4 3/4 lengths. Nitrogen, who stumbled at the start and grabbed herself - meaning she suffered a cut on her right front foot - held second by a neck over Antiquarian.
It was a length back to Baeza, who again broke poorly, in fourth. He was followed by Tiztastic, Magnitude - the 9-5 favorite - and White Abarrio. Forged Steel scratched.
Sovereignty won the Travers Stakes by 10 lengths here last August to cement his 3-year-old championship. A fever sidelined him from the Breeders’ Cup Classic last November, but his campaign still earned him Horse of the Year honors. Saturday's victory was a Win and You're In for the Breeders' Cup Classic.
Brought back with hopes of making it to the Breeders’ Cup, Sovereignty began this season with a second to White Abarrio in the Oaklawn Handicap, followed by a third to Magnitude over a sloppy Churchill Downs in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster. Questions lingered over whether Sovereignty had shown his best.
Alvarado said one of the keys to victory Saturday was not rushing Sovereignty into the race. Magnitude and Nitrogen, breaking from posts 1 and 2, respectively, went forward as expected and Antiquarian was there as well.
Jose Ortiz, on Magnitude, didn’t want to get into a prolonged pace duel with Nitrogen and John Velazquez, so he took Magnitude off the pace, leaving Antiquarian to pursue Nitrogen through a half-mile in 46.27 seconds and six furlongs in 1:09.65.
Sovereignty was fifth, about 8 1/2 lengths back, down the backside and then was last when Baeza and Tiztastic made a mid-race move in tandem. Alvarado waited until the seven-sixteenths pole to ask Sovereignty to run. When he did, Sovereignty gave him that familiar feeling.
“Last time, by the five-sixteenths pole when he made his move and he switched leads he kind of flattened,” Alvarado said, referring to the Stephen Foster. “The energy before we turned for home, it was a whole different energy today. I was very excited at that point how he was coming.”
Sovereignty kept coming and left the field in his wake. Sovereignty, a son of Into Mischief owned and bred by Godolphin Racing, covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:47.91 and returned $6.52 as the second choice. Sovereignty improved his record to 7 wins from 12 starts and increased his lifetime earnings to $6,876,550.
Nitrogen, last year’s 3-year-old filly champion, went faster early than Velazquez was hoping to go in the early stages of the race.
“I wish she would have had a clean break so she would have cleared [Magnitude] nice and easy,” Velazquez said. “Obviously, they went really fast, especially the first quarter-mile, we were running to the first turn, which was not the way I wanted to do it. But fast horses do their thing and she held on for second. What a game filly.”
Trainer Mark Casse said that Nitrogen cut her foot when she stumbled, but “it’s not bad,” he said. “She ran great. She did the dirty work. Got beat by a good horse, but she beat a lot of them.”
One of them was Magnitude, who when he couldn’t secure the early lead, found himself fourth down the backside and never really got involved.
“I feel like the other horse went too fast to the lead so I had to give him a shot, there was no way I was going to keep staying in there,” Ortiz said. “I gave him a shot, rode him with confidence right behind the speed. It didn’t work out.”
As relieved as Mott was to see Sovereignty back to the winner’s circle, he was amazed at how appreciative the crowd was to see him back as well. A loud roar went up when Alvarado brought Sovereignty back to the winner’s circle.
“Did you hear the crowd when he showed back up in front of the winner’s circle? It was crazy,” Mott said. “You just don’t hear that very often. I’ve been here all afternoon. I didn’t hear it for any of the other races. I heard it for him. They were glad to see him back.”
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