John Clay: Sovereignty goes beyond a trainer's wildest dreams by winning Kentucky Derby 151

John Clay, Lexington Herald-Leader on May 3, 2025

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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 Saturday. “It was a dream too far away. It was like going to outer space.”

Before a wet crowd of 147,406 at Churchill Downs, the 71-year-old Mott must have felt over the moon, watching his 3-year-old colt Sovereignty best favorite Journalism to win Kentucky Derby by 1 1/2 lengths on a sloppy track.

“I was silent until he hit the wire,” Mott said. “Then it kind of all came out.”

Sovereignty paid $17.96, $7.50 and $5.58. Runner-up Journalism paid $4.94 and $3.70. Third-place finisher Baeza, who entered the race from the also-eligible list when Rodriguez scratched on Thursday, paid $8.38 to to show. The Sovereignty-Journalism $2 exacta paid $48.32.

It was the second Kentucky Derby victory for Mott, a Hall of Fame trainer who has raced at Churchill for 45 years, and held the trainer’s title 32 times. It was the first Kentucky Derby in which his horse crossed the finish line first, however. His trainee Country House was elevated from second to first when Maximum Security was taken down for a in-race violation in 2019.

“You take them any way you can get them,” said Mott, who has raced out of the same barn at Churchill since 1980. “But this is special.”

It was the first Derby win for owner Godolphin Racing, founded by His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, which was previously 0 for 12 in the race. The Newmarket-based organization’s previous best was third last year with Essential Quality. Godolphin also won the Kentucky Oaks on Friday with the undefeated Good Cheer, trained by Brad Cox.

It was the first Derby victory for jockey Junior Alvarado, who was previously 0 for 5. Alvardo’s previous best was fourth on Mohaymen in the 2016 Derby. Alvarado had ridden Sovereignty in his Fountain of Youth win on March 1 at Gulfstream. Manny Franco rode the colt to a second-place finish in the Florida Derby after Alvarado suffered an injury.

It was the third Derby victory for sire Into Mischief, who produced Authentic in 2020 and Mandaloun in 2021 and has a $250,000 stud fee at Spendthrift Farm.

Trainer Bob Baffert’s Citizen Bull set what Mott called an “honest” pace, going 22.81 for the first quarter and 46.23 for the half mile, setting the race up for the closers. And Sovereignty’s reputation was one of being a horse that needed a quick pace.

The 7-2 favorite Journalism had shown he could handle traffic trouble in his Santa Anita Derby win last month. And with Umberto Rispoli aboard, Journalism worked his way to being four-wide at the top of the stretch, then to the lead.

But right behind him was Sovereignty, who had been eighth after the first quarter-mile in the middle of the track. He moved up to sixth, found a lane behind Journalism, pulled out five-wide at the top of the stretch, then easily passed trainer Mike McCarthy’s colt on the way to the wire.

“It makes you feel good when you beat a horse like that,” said Mott of Journalism’s talent.

Sovereignty was one of three horses with wins at Churchill Downs on the résumé, joining Owen Almighty and Render Judgment. (Owen Almighty ran fifth Saturday.) After he broke his maiden by five lengths in the Street Sense last Oct. 27, Sovereignty was put on the shelf until his win by a neck over River Thames in the Fountain of Youth.

And when Mott brought the colt to Louisville from Florida, Sovereignty trained beautifully over the familiar surface.

“I didn’t have any reservations about him,” Mott said. “You have to run the race, but I couldn’t have asked anything different from him.”

“Everyone who saw him work the last couple of weeks could see how well he was doing,” Godolphin racing manager Mike Banahan said. “He was ready to run.”

And run Sovereignty did, surpassing the dreams of that teenage boy from South Dakota who grew up to be one of the most respected trainers in the sport, and now a two-time Kentucky Derby winner.

“This was the icing on the cake,” Mott said. “But I want to win more.”

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