John Clay: Sovereignty's connections soak in Kentucky Derby win, but undecided on Preakness

John Clay, Lexington Herald-Leader on May 4, 2025

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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 game, the 71-year-old Mott won his second Derby on Saturday, but the first in which his 3-year-old line crossed the finish line ahead of the field after Sovereignty, a tall and impressive-looking colt by the stellar stallion Into Mischief, ran down race favorite Journalism in the stretch for a length-and-a-half victory.

Mott is also considered a conservative, old-school type of trainer who, along with Godolphin’s USA director of bloodstock Michael Banahan, gave the distinct impression that it is far from a sure thing that Sovereignty will continue on to the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico in Baltimore on May 17.

“We want to do what’s best for the horse,” Mott said with Banahan standing at his side. “We’ve got to come to a conclusion probably in the next few days.”

Mott’s operation is based in New York and when asked about the fact that this year’s Belmont Stakes will be run at Saratoga at a mile-and-a-quarter, rather than the mile-and-a-half at Belmont Park, which is under renovation, the trainer’s eyes nearly lit up.

“That makes it very interesting to me,” he said. “I’d like to see (Sovereignty) at his best going into the Belmont.”

When asked if it would be hard to say no to the Preakness and a possible Triple Crown bid, Mott responded simply, “No.”

In the postrace press conference on Saturday night, Banahan said that winning the Kentucky Derby was Godolphin’s “goal.” Also, as a homebred, Sovereignty projects to be an excellent stallion prospect, which will no doubt figure into his future plans.

“He’s a well-bred horse,” Mott said. “We want him to have more than a five-week career.”

The colt did come out of Saturday’s race with a four-inch scrape on the outside of his right front pastern. The injury is not as serious as the infection that kept Mott’s 2019 Derby winner Country House out of the last two legs of that year’s Triple Crown. At 65-1 odds, Country House had finished second in that year’s Derby but was elevated to first place when Maximum Security was taken down for an in-race infraction. Country House never raced again.

Sovereignty had already won a race at Churchill Downs, taking the Street Sense Stakes as a 2-year-old last October. Though a staple at Churchill Downs, where he has occupied the same barn for 45 years, Mott wasn’t even in town that day. Assistant trainer Kenny McCarthy saddled Sovereignty for the Street Sense.

“But I think we were thinking about (the Kentucky Derby) from the time he ran his first race,” Mott said. “Even when he was fourth, I had so many people comment to me like, ‘Wow, he was coming like a freight train in the stretch.’ And he came like a freight train the first Saturday in May.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean he will be at Pimlico on the second Saturday in May.

“We want to be considerate, where we’re going to run him and get him in the right race that’s going to be beneficial for him, as well,” Banahan said. “It’s a long season. He’s had three hard races since the beginning of the March. That takes a lot out of those horses.”

Mott’s Hall of Fame career has included conditioning the great Cigar, a two-time Horse of the Year, as well as the emotional campaign and success of Cody’s Wish, the 2023 Horse of the Year, named after Richmond native Cody Dorman, who suffered from Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome and passed away one day after the colt’s win in the 2023 Breeders’ Cup.

Mott said his first outright Kentucky Derby win ranked “at the top of the memory bank” but stressed the importance of the team effort that goes into producing a Kentucky Derby winner.

“My biggest enjoyment in life, besides my grandkids, is coming out here and seeing the help and seeing the horses,” he said. “And watching the progression, if progression is what’s happening. There’s just a lot to reflect on.”

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