There will be no horse racing Triple Crown this year.
Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty will not compete in the Preakness Stakes.
Mike Rogers, the executive vice president of 1/ST Racing, which operates the Pimlico Race Course that hosts the Preakness, announced the decision Tuesday.
“We received a call today from trainer Bill Mott that Sovereignty will not be competing in the Preakness,” the statement reads. “Bill informed us they would point toward the Belmont Stakes.
“We extend our congratulations to the connections of Sovereignty and respect their decision. We continue to see the excitement building toward the milestone celebration of the 150th Preakness Stakes, and we look forward to an incredible weekend of world-class racing and entertainment.”
Mott has not addressed the decision publicly beyond the message shared by Rogers. The Preakness is run just two weeks after the Derby, a quick turnaround in a sport where significant physical stressors are placed on the horses that compete.
Sovereignty entered Saturday’s Kentucky Derby with 7-1 odds to win the race and beat out 7-2 favorite Journalism to win the race on a rainy, muddy day. Journalism finished second. The Derby win was the second for Mott and the first for jockey Junior Alvarado.
In total, 13 horses have won the Triple Crown, which consists of winning the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes in the same year. Justify was the most recent to win the Triple Crown in 2018. American Pharoah’s 2015 Triple Crown victory in 2015 broke a 37-year drought dating to Affirmed’s run in 1978.
Sovereignty is the second horse in four years to skip the Preakness Stakes after winning the Kentucky Derby. Rich Strike also skipped the Preakness after winning the Kentucky Derby in 2022.
The Preakness will run on May 17 in Baltimore.
