There will be no Triple Crown winner in horse racing this year. Kentucky Derby champion Sovereignty will not run in the Preakness Stakes, ending any chance of a sweep of the sport’s most prestigious trio of races.
Sovereignty’s connections informed Preakness organizers on Tuesday that the horse will bypass the second leg of the Triple Crown and instead focus on the Belmont Stakes in June. The decision was announced by 1/ST Racing, which operates Pimlico Race Course, home of the Preakness.
Sovereignty, trained by Bill Mott, earned a hard-fought victory in the Kentucky Derby on a rainy afternoon, overcoming 7-2 favorite Journalism. Entering the Derby with 7-1 odds, Sovereignty’s win marked Mott’s second Derby triumph and the first for jockey Junior Alvarado.
The Preakness Stakes, scheduled for May 17 in Baltimore, comes just two weeks after the Kentucky Derby—a tight turnaround in a sport that demands careful management of a horse’s physical condition. Sovereignty becomes the second Derby winner in four years to opt out of the Preakness, following Rich Strike in 2022.
Only 13 horses have captured the Triple Crown, with Justify being the most recent in 2018. American Pharoah ended a 37-year drought in 2015 with his historic win.
Source: Yahoo Sports