Sometimes a rivalry falls short of the hype. But no such thing happened Saturday at Saratoga Race Course when in almost a repeat of the Kentucky Derby, Sovereignty ran past Journalism in mid-stretch to win the 157th running of the Belmont Stakes.

The conversation would have been quite different if Sovereignty had run in the Preakness Stakes and...Read more

Sovereignty closed horse racing’s 2025 Triple Crown season with a win in the 157th running of the Grade 1, $2 million Belmont Stakes on Saturday night at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Contested at a shortened distance of 1 1/4 miles at Saratoga, in comparison to the traditional distance of 1 1/2 miles when the race is ...Read more

Baeza has gone from a horse that barely made the Kentucky Derby starting gate to one of the trendy choices to win Saturday night’s 157th running of the Grade 1, $2 million Belmont Stakes.

The John Shirreffs trainee was an also-eligible entrant for the 2025 Derby, before drawing into the field after Bob Baffert’s Rodriguez scratched from the...Read more

Normally, the running of the Belmont Stakes without a chance at a Triple Crown winner makes the third leg of the series about as interesting as a television procedural — the Chicagos, FBIs or Law & Orders — in the last two minutes after the culprit has been identified and prosecuted.

But not this year. The 157th running of the Belmont ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Earlier this week, I got a call from a reporter at a publication that covers sports gambling. He was working on a story about what he perceived as an increase in interest in horse racing.

Tuesday, on the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s teleconference, a reporter asked Michael Banahan, Godolphin’s United States ...Read more

Michael Kipness, aka “The Wizard,” a professional horse racing handicapper since 1986, analyzes the eight-horse field for Saturday’s 157th Belmont Stakes, designating each horse as a contender or a pretender.

Visit Wizardraceandsports.com to purchase his full card selections, wagering strategies and best bets for Friday’s 14-race card ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — After several weeks of debate, the 2025 Kentucky Derby winner is back in horse racing’s spotlight.

Sovereignty, whose connections opted to not run him in the Preakness Stakes, is back for the final race of the 2025 Triple Crown season.

The Bill Mott trainee is one of eight horses that will run in Saturday night’s Grade ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — I never met Christophe Clement.

As far as I can tell, I never talked to the man. When his horse Tonalist won the 2014 Belmont Stakes, the big story that year was California Chrome’s unsuccessful bid for a Triple Crown. I remember talking to and writing about Chrome’s connections after the race. I didn’t pay much ...Read more

BALTIMORE — When I texted my family group chat that I’d be riding a horse for the sake of Preakness week content — pulling back the curtain of life as a jockey to see if I have what it takes — my mom replied with an iPhone photo of a grainy, printed out shot of her horseback riding 40 years ago.

That distant photo by association, and ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Trainer Bob Baffert loves to come to the Preakness. He loves the fact that all the top horses are in the same barn, so he can kibitz with his fellow trainers, such as an extended conversation with Mark Casse about the best crabcakes in town. He loves the casual atmosphere, in contrast to the high stakes, high pressure feeling at ...Read more

BALTIMORE — The connections around Kentucky Derby runner-up Journalism were rather coy about whether their horse would run in the 150th Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown. It was a game of wait and see until a pronouncement on social media Sunday night that the colt was coming to Pimlico.

Now that the 3-year-old Santa Anita ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Not that long ago, a transplant from Atlanta told me that back home her family owned horses in Georgia. She said her mother was coming to Lexington for a visit, so I suggested that they go to Keeneland to take in the races.

The next time I saw her I asked if her mother had a good time at Keeneland.

“To be honest,” she ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Jockey Junior Alvarado has been fined and suspended for whipping Sovereignty too many times during his Kentucky Derby-winning ride last Saturday at Churchill Downs.

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority on Friday ordered Alvarado to pay a $62,000 fine and suspended him for two Kentucky racing days, May 29 and May 30....Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — It was certainly no surprise Tuesday when news broke that Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty would not run in the Preakness Stakes in less than two weeks.

Anyone around Bill Mott’s barn at Churchill Downs on Sunday morning, less than 24 hours after Sovereignty beat the favorite Journalism, got the vibe that the Godolphin ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Horse racing will not have a Triple Crown winner this year.

Mike Rogers, executive vice president at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, announced Tuesday that Pimlico had received a call from trainer Bill Mott saying that Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty will not run in the May 17 Preakness Stakes.

Instead, Sovereignty will ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Poor Mike Tirico had to be scratched Saturday from the NBC Sports telecast of the 151st Kentucky Derby. The veteran broadcaster explained subsequently that he had been sidelined by “a significant reaction to my nut allergy.”

Tirico, 58, not only missed out on hosting the coverage of the hard-charging Sovereignty’s ...Read more

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — When Bill Mott rolled out of bed early Sunday morning, his wife asked the winning trainer of Kentucky Derby 151 if he believed it yet.

“I told her it’s starting to sink in,” Mott said Sunday morning as he stood in a light rain outside his barn at Churchill Downs.

One of the classiest and most respected trainers in the...Read more

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Twelve times Godolphin had attempted to win the Kentucky Derby.

Twelve times Goldophin had failed.

But it wasn’t just the lucky 13 that propelled the global racing outfit to its first Kentucky Derby victory on Saturday when the Godolphin homebred Sovereignty won the 151st running by 1 1/2 lengths on a sloppy track over ...Read more

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Bill Mott is in the Hall of Fame. He won the Kentucky Derby in 2019, but it was by disqualification. The trainer never got to see his horse cross the finish line first. Until now.

In an exciting stretch run Sovereignty and Journalism battled until the final strides when Sovereignty pulled ahead to win the 151st Kentucky ...Read more

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Back in 1967, Bill Mott was a 14-year-old boy sitting on the front seat of a GMC pickup truck in South Dakota listening to Proud Clarion with Bobby Ussery aboard win the Kentucky Derby.

“At that time I would never dreamed that I would come to Kentucky. I couldn’t even imagine being at Churchill Downs,” Mott said ...Read more