Sovereignty Wins, Journalism Places, Baeza Shows

Laying fourth coming out of the clubhouse turn, Junior Alvarado skillfully pulled Sovereignty wide at the top of the stretch and, seeing his path, the horse brought a mighty run that saw him blaze by Journalism and keep going through the wire. When he hit the wire he had put three lengths between himself and the place horse, with Baeza toiling in show two lengths back. It was as exacting a replay of the 2025 Kentucky Derby as could have been staged — stretch run, order of finish, all of it save the June rain at Saratoga, which had paused earlier in the afternoon to let the track dry out slightly more than Churchill’s had, thus reducing the mud. But as in Kentucky, there had been rain.

As in the Derby, Sovereignty went off at Saratoga as a slight second-favorite at 5-2, behind Journalism, the (nominal) Belmont favorite who had gone off at 2-1. Sovereignty paid $7.20 on a $2 bet, Journalism paid $3.20 in place, and Baeza, who went off at 7-2, paid $2.60. Bob Baffert’s Rodriguez was not able to hold on to the lead and ran fourth.

The win puts Sovereignty in the history books as the only horse not to have competed in the Preakness who won the first and last legs of the Triple Crown series. Sovereignty takes home the victor’s $1.2-million cut of the $2 million purse.

Breaking cleanly from the second stall in the gate, jockey Junior Alvarado kept Sovereignty steady on the inside but up in contention, as Baffert’s Rodriguez, under Mike Smith, assumed the lead. At the top of the back stretch, with Rodriguez still in front, Umberto Rispoli worked Journalism past Sovereignty just before the horses entered the far turn, putting Journalism two off the lead, with Alvarado and Sovereignty laying fourth.

In the far turn it was possible to see Alvarado holding and then steadily collecting Sovereignty under him to prepare the horse to move wide as soon as he, Alvarado, could catch a bit of daylight as they worked free of the home turn. Their move wide out was natural and quite deft, taken at an oblique angle to the top of the stretch, as if Sovereignty just went a little straighter for a couple of strides out of the turn rather than veering left into the lane. He was moving well and so within himself that it didn’t even seem like it cost him much ground to cross the three lanes, and suddenly, there he was, poised in the stretch with a clear shot at the line.

He took that shot with bracing elan, passing Journalism handily and moving within the last furlong to a rock-solid three-length lead at the wire. He won going away, galloping out strongly, without a care in the world. If the 157th Belmont had been run at its old length of a mile-and-a-half, Sovereignty would have only added a few more lengths to his winning margin. He is a stallion built for distance, and we can only hope to see him mount these sorts of runs again.