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Sovereignty conquered the sloppy track and the field in capturing the 151st Kentucky Derby on Saturday at rain-soaked Churchill Downs in Louisville.
The horse had just the 4th-best odds at 9-1 when the betting closed before post time. But the 3-year-old colt had enough to edge pre-race favorite Journalism in the first race of horse racing’s annual Triple Crown.
Jockey Junior Alvarado won his first Kentucky Derby and gave horse trainer Bill Mott his 2nd Derby win. Mott actually got to see his horse cross the finish line first for the first time in a Derby though, because when his horse Country House won the race in 2019, it was only after Maximum Security was disqualified because of a foul during the race.
Sovereignty’s win also completed the career Triple Crown for owner and Godolphin founder Sheikh Mohammed, whose horses won the Preakness in 2006 and the Belmont in 2021. Speaking of the Preakness, the 2nd leg of the Triple Crown will take place in 2 weeks on May 17 in Baltimore.
Horse racing fans will hope for a much nicer day in a few weeks at Pimlico, but on Saturday in Louisville there were still memories made despite the condition of the track.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
