There is no doubt Godolphin's Sovereignty was the star of the spring season.
Winning the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Belmont Stakes (G1) tends to do that.
Now he'll start his summer/fall quest to seal the deal as the champion 3-year-old male and possibly as Horse of the Year.
The second half of 2025 will begin for the son of Into Mischief July 26 when he faces four rivals in the $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) at Saratoga Race Course, a race for 3-year-olds with an important meaning attached to it.
While a win or loss in the mile-and-an-eighth stakes will not decide an Eclipse Award, it will be the first indication of how much Sovereignty has improved since the Triple Crown or how much it took out of him as he preps for a far more important test in the Aug. 23 Travers Stakes (G1).
"He's doing very well. He had a useful work Saturday," trainer Bill Mott said. "He's a little more relaxed going into this one especially with his works. But he's also been strong on the bridle."
The options for Mott were training up to the Travers or running in the Jim Dandy, and the Hall of Fame trainer believed the timing was right to run Saturday.
"We counted it up. It's been seven weeks since the Belmont," Mott said. "He's not that heavily raced this year. We spaced him out a bit. So this seems right for him."
As for what has come down to a two-horse race between the dual classic winner and Journalism for the 3-year-old title, Mott knows his horse has an edge over the Preakness Stakes (G1) winner who opened the second half of the year with a strong win in the July 19 Haskell Stakes (G1): Victories over him in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.
"We're 2-for-2 against him," Mott said.
Though short on rivals, the Jim Dandy could be a tough test with several familiar faces from the Triple Crown, topped by Baeza, who was third in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, and Sandman, who was third in the Preakness.
C R K Stable and breeder Grandview Equine's Baeza has just one win in six career starts but has placed in three grade 1 stakes. Second to Journalism in the Santa Anita Derby (G1), the son of McKinzie will get a chance to improve his status among the leading 3-year-olds Saturday.
"I didn't think he ran his best race in the Belmont. Talking to (jockey Flavien Prat) after the race, he said it took him a long time to engage down the backside. You can see that he had to ride pretty hard from maybe the half-mile pole all the way to the wire. I think he can run better than that," trainer John Shirreffs said. "This will be a tough race with Sovereignty in there, but this is a logical place for Baeza to run."
Sandman, owned by D. J. Stable, St. Elias Stable, West Point Thoroughbreds, and CJ Stables has not raced since he finished 2 3/4 lengths behind Journalism in the May 17 Preakness. Since then, trainer Mark Casse believes the son of Tapit has benefitted from the time off.
"He's put on a few pounds. He's big; 17 hands tall. I think he'll put in a big effort Saturday," Casse said. "The best race he ran at 2 was his maiden win at Saratoga, so I never thought about the Haskell for him. I always had this in mind with the hope that we can build on it."
Sandman, who is also owned by popular social media influencer Griffin Johnson, will run with blinkers for the first time in the Jim Dandy, which could keep him closer to the pace than usual in a race with only one legit speed horse.
"The blinkers make him a little more aggressive, which could be good or bad. We'll find out," Casse said.
Amo Racing USA's Hill Road, who was fifth in the Belmont Stakes, is the type of late closer who will be heavily pace dependent.
"He's faced some tough company and hung in there," trainer Chad Brown said about the son of Quality Road . "He's going to be at the mercy of the pace and how the track is playing on these big days, which is usually not good for closers. I just hope it's playing fair."
The speed will come from R and H Stable's New York-bred Mo Plex, who used that speed to take the Ohio Derby (G3) in his last start and has never finished worse than third in eight career starts for trainer Jeremiah Englehart.
"Now he has this test of taking on the top 3-year-olds in the game," Englehart said about the Complexity colt. "I'm confident that he can run his race and if he's good enough, then he's good enough. I don't look at it like 'we need this, or we need that to happen in order to win.' Let him run his race."
Insights from Thoro-Graph
- Baeza was wide in the Belmont, earning a figure better than it looked. Now he gets the rail, weight from Sovereignty worth a length and a half at this distance, and the last time Baeza caught a fast track he ran the best race of his life.
- Sandman is another that was wide last time, on both turns, in the Preakness. This colt would have to improve a couple of Thoro-Graph points to have a real shot here, but he has a great, healthy pattern of development that should yield a new top pretty soon, like in the Travers.
- Mo Plex is another that is a couple of points shy of what he would need against these, but he's done an awful lot of developing already, so we don't see him going forward again in the short term.
- Hill Road is a nice 3-year-old who could be coming up to a new top, but he would need a big jump just to get into the trifecta.
- Sovereignty has done nothing wrong, with every race this year a new or paired top, and there's no reason to think he won't run a big race again. But this time he's spotting weight to Baeza, and if he also loses some ground on the turns he will have his work cut out for him.
Thoro-Graph performance figures are calculated based on a race's time with adjustments for beaten lengths, track speed, ground loss, weight carried, and, when necessary, wind. The lower the number, the better the race. Complimentary sheets for this race can be found online at Thoro-Graph. Learn more about how to analyze Thoro-Graph data at www.thorograph.com/basics.
Saratoga Race Course, Saturday, July 26, 2025, Race 10Entries: Jim Dandy S. Presented by Mohegan Sun (G2)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Baeza (KY) Hector Isaac Berrios 120 John A. Shirreffs 3/1 2 2Sandman (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 124 Mark E. Casse 6/1 3 3Mo Plex (NY) Manuel Franco 122 Jeremiah C. Englehart 10/1 4 4Hill Road (KY) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 122 Chad C. Brown 12/1 5 5Sovereignty (KY) Junior Alvarado 124 William I. Mott 2/5
