There will be no Triple Crown winner in horse racing this year.
Sovereignty, the three-year-old thoroughbred who won the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, will not race in the Preakness Stakes – the second leg of the three races that make up the Triple Crown – after it was announced the colt will instead focus on the Belmont Stakes.
“We received a call today from trainer Bill Mott that Sovereignty will not be competing in the Preakness,” Mike Rogers, executive vice president of 1/ST, which operates the Preakness, said in a statement Tuesday.
“We extend our congratulations to the connections of Sovereignty and respect their decision.”
The Preakness Stakes is set to run on May 17 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland.
Sovereignty won the 151st running of the Derby, finishing ahead of 18 other horses on a muddy track at the Churchill Downs Racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky.
On Sunday, Mott said that Sovereignty had a scrape on his right front pastern, which is above the hoof, but that it wasn’t serious. Mott said it likely was from clipping heels with another horse when exiting the gate.
“I believe we want to do what’s best for the horse,” Mott said to reporters Sunday, as options were continuing to be weighed. “Normally, of course, you always think about a Triple Crown, and that’s not something that we’re not going to think about.”
The last winner of the Triple Crown was Justify in 2018.
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