Sheikh Mohammed’s revered Godolphin racing and breeding operation have won Derbies all over the world, but until today the Kentucky Derby had proven elusive, but a three year-old colt called Sovereignty changed all that at Churchill Downs before a crowd in excess of 150,000.
Cold and wet conditions did little to dampen crowd enthusiasm buoyed by a rekindling of interest from the general public in the US thanks to Nextflix series Race for the Crown, which features all the key players in last year’s Triple Crown.
While several of them were back at Churchill Downs to try their luck with a new crop of three year-olds it was Godolphin that won the day capping an astonishing weekend in which they also won the Kentucky Oaks with Good Cheer (read about her here) and the Newmarket 2000 Guineas with Ruling Court (read about him here).
Trained by Bill Mott and ridden by Junior Alvarado, Sovereignty was well fancied after two good runs earlier this year at Gulfstream in Florida where he won the Group II Fountain of Youth Stakes and was second in the Group I Florida Derby.
He peaked in the Derby coming from back in the field with a withering run to beat the favourite Journalism by a length and a half.
For winning rider Junior Alvarado it was his first win in the race on a horse he knows inside and out having ridden Sovereignty in five of his six races to date.
For trainer Bill Mott it was a second Kentucky Derby victory following on from Country House, who won the race on protest back in 2019.
"This is special, they're all special ... but this is better," he said in the post-race press conference.
"I don't want to take anything away from Country House's effort because he actually ran a very good race that day," Mott said.
"He may have been second best on the day, but I guess it was our luck that the horse who crossed the finish wire first took out three to four other horses. They had to do something, they had to put us up.
"I said afterwards that I'd want to finish first, to cross the line first. We always take them any way we can get them, but this was pretty special.”
Mott has nurtured Sovereignty throughout his career with a G3 win at Churchill Downs at his third and final start last year as a two year-old proving the catalyst for a Derby campaign at three.
Bred and raced by Godolphin, Sovereignty is the 24th Group I winner for Spendthrift Farm’s champion sire Into Mischief and is his third Kentucky Derby winner joining Authentic and Mandaloun.
A six time Champion US Sire, Into Mischief stands at a fee of US$250,000 and has just turned 20.
Sovereignty is the best of two winners from unraced Bernardini mare Crowned, a daughter of Group I winner Mushka with his next two dams Sluice a stakes-winner and Lakeway a Group I winner.
