Sovereignty wins 2025 Kentucky Derby for Bill Mott at Churchill Downs

Cameron Drummond, Lexington Herald-Leader on May 3, 2025

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Sovereignty won the 151st edition of the Grade 1, $5 million Kentucky Derby on Saturday night in Louisville, besting a field of 19 horses beneath the Twin Spires on a sloppy track at Churchill Downs.

Trained by Bill Mott and ridden by Junior Alvarado, Sovereignty went off at 7-1 odds.

The Churchill Downs main track was sloppy Saturday following significant rainfall in recent days. Friday’s Kentucky Oaks — won by Good Cheer — was also run on a sloppy track.

Sovereignty departed from post position No. 16 in the Derby, becoming the fifth horse from that starting spot to win the Derby. He’s the first winner from that post position since Animal Kingdom in 2011.

Mott, a 71-year-old from South Dakota, now has his second Kentucky Derby win. He won in 2019 with Country House (also on a sloppy track), but that win came following the postrace disqualification of Maximum Security.

The 38-year-old Alvarado, who is from Venezuela, now has his first Derby win in his sixth attempt.

Sovereignty is a Godolphin homebred. His sire is Into Mischief and his mare is Crowned, by Bernardini. Sovereignty is now 3-2-0 in six career starts.

Attendance for the 2025 Kentucky Derby was 147,406.

Sovereignty wins 2025 Kentucky Derby on a sloppy Churchill Downs track

Saturday’s running of the Kentucky Derby was the first to take place on an off track since 2019, when Country House won the race (following the disqualification of Maximum Security) on a sloppy track.

In fact, Saturday’s race was just the 10th running of the Derby (out of 151 of them) to take place on a sloppy track. Three of these have come in the last eight editions of the race.

The complete list of Kentucky Derby winners on a sloppy track is: Flying Ebony (1925), Citation (1948), Go for Gin (1994), Smarty Jones (2004), Mine That Bird (2009), Super Saver (2010), Orb (2013), Justify (2018) and Country House (2019), in addition to Sovereignty.

Additionally, seven runnings of the Derby have been contested on a muddy track. Those winners were: Riley (1890), Worth (1912), Exterminator (1918), Clyde Van Dusen (1929), Hoop Jr. (1945), Tim Tam (1958) and Sunday Silence (1989).

In 2017, Always Dreaming won the Derby over a track that was officially listed as “wet fast (sealed).”

Undefeated Good Cheer wins the 2025 Kentucky Oaks

On Friday, a star 3-year-old filly staked her claim with an impressive win in the Grade 1, $1.5 million Kentucky Oaks. Good Cheer — trained by Louisville native Brad Cox and ridden by Luis Saez — covered 1 1/8 miles on Churchill’s sloppy main track to win the 151st running of the Oaks.

A Godolphin homebred, Good Cheer topped a field of 13 3-year-old fillies in a winning time of 1:50.15. She won by 2 1/4 lengths.

After being set as the overwhelming 6-5 morning-line favorite, Good Cheer also left the Oaks starting gate at those odds. She’s now a perfect 7 for 7 in her racing career.

Good Cheer delivered Cox his third win in the Kentucky Oaks. He also won the race with Monomoy Girl in 2018 and with Shedaresthedevil in 2020. Saez, the jockey, now has two wins in the Oaks. He was aboard winner Secret Oath in 2022.

2024 Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan is also racing Saturday

Curious about what 2024 Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan is up to?

He’s still racing, but he’s yet to find the winner’s circle since his triumph in last year’s Run for the Roses.

After winning last year’s Kentucky Derby, Mystik Dan has failed to win in each of his last four starts.

This includes a second-place effort in last year’s Preakness Stakes, an eighth-place showing in last year’s Belmont Stakes, a sixth-place run in the Malibu Stakes in December and a ninth-place finish in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes in January.

And he’s still at it.

Mystik Dan is running a race on Saturday night, but it’s far removed from what he was up to a year ago.

The horse is entered as one of six runners in the Lake Ouachita Stakes at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas on Saturday night. The race is a $200,000, 1 1/16-mile contest for horses aged 4 and older.

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