New York (AFP) – Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty and Preakness winner Journalism renew their rivalry Saturday in the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of US racing’s Triple Crown being held this year at Saratoga Race Course. Sovereignty out-dueled Journalism in the final straight to give the Godolphin stable a first Kentucky Derby victory in May, but was held out of the Preakness — won by Journalism in a gritty performance at Pimlico, where he was bottled up on the turn for home but bulled through under jockey Umberto Rispoli to reel in Gosger and claim a sensational win.
Despite coming back on less rest — and as the only horse in the Belmont field this year to contest all three Triple Crown races — Journalism was installed as the early 8-5 favorite after drawing the seventh post for the $2 million race — which will be run at 1 1/4 miles rather than the traditional 1 1/2 as Saratoga hosts for a second straight year because of ongoing renovations at Belmont Park. Sovereignty drew the second post and was priced at 2-1, but Rispoli said he wouldn’t be counting on a two-horse race in a quality field of eight.
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“Obviously we are the two that won the first two legs (of the Triple Crown) and people want to see a rematch, but I think Baeza will be there as well,” Rispoli said. Baeza, trained by John Shirreffs and ridden by Flavien Prat, finished third in the Kentucky Derby and skipped the Preakness. Rodriguez, trained by Bob Baffert, is expected to set the early pace and will have Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith, a three-time Belmont winner, in the irons. The colt missed both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness with a hoof injury.
“We don’t need to disrespect any other horse in this field,” Rispoli said. “If they are here, there’s a reason.” Journalism trainer Mike McCarthy said the colt appears unfazed by the busy schedule. “Good horses just do things that much easier,” McCarthy said. “He seems like his energy is back where it was five weeks ago leading up to the Kentucky Derby.” He’s giving us a lot of good signals,” McCarthy added.
Trainer Bill Mott said Sovereignty, who will again be ridden by Junior Alvarado, has continued to progress since the Derby. “He’s improved, as many of these horses have,” Mott said. “This entire group, if you look at their form and the way they’ve developed over the course of this year, I think they’ve made steady progress. It should be an interesting race on Saturday.”
The decision of Sovereignty’s connections to skip the Preakness reignited debate over the traditional scheduling of the Triple Crown races, and whether they should be spaced further apart. Since Justify won the Triple Crown in 2018, four of seven Kentucky Derby winners have skipped the Preakness. Michael Banahan, Godolphin USA’s director of bloodstock, told the Lexington Herald-Leader that he thought the host racetracks were probably best placed to decide “if and how they need to evolve.”
“There have been probably plenty of debates about it, but we were pretty confident that it was the right thing to do for our horse and with the spacing of his races so far he’s responded very well with that.”
© 2024 AFP
