For most 3-year-olds, winning the $485,000 Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) would be a huge accomplishment.
Yet there's a different perspective when you're a dual classic winner.
Then the Jim Dandy becomes a means to an end for a colt like Godolphin's Sovereignty.
The Kentucky Derby (G1) and Belmont Stakes (G1) winner showed no ill effect from the Triple Crown season as he turned in a splendid prep for the Aug. 23 Travers Stakes (G1) by powering to a length victory over a determined Baeza in the July 26 Jim Dandy at Saratoga Race Course.
"It was good. It was a winning trip, a winning ride, a winning run," Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott said. "Hopefully he comes back good and trains as well for the Travers. We're trying to get ready for the Travers and that's the main objective for everybody. The Travers is important to me. It's a race I've never won and I'd really like to win it before I check out."
The mile-and-an-eighth Jim Dandy was Sovereignty's first start since the June 7 Belmont Stakes at the Spa and with the Travers four weeks away, the homebred son of Into Mischief faced the challenge of not being 100% cranked up for a race in which his late-running style figured to work against him in a field of five with only one speed horse.
But Sovereignty's class bubbled to the top as he was closer to the pace than usual when third after a half-mile (he was 16th at that point in the Kentucky Derby) and still closed strongest in the stretch.
"It was nice to get that behind him," said Michael Banahan, Godolphin USA's director of bloodstock. "He trained well into it but obviously he wasn't cranked up all the way. So, go out there, get the win, and move on to the next one, just like a basketball tournament. Hopefully this will set us up nicely for the Travers. There are going to be new shooters in (the Travers) which you can't take lightly. So, we'll want to have our running shoes on that day as well."
While Journalism, Sovereignty's closest pursuer for the 3-year-old male championship, may not return to the East Coast for the Midsummer Derby, a very familiar face is expected to take another swing at the division leader. Though Saturday's runner-up finish left Baeza 0-for-3 versus Sovereignty, including third-place finishes behind Sovereignty and Journalism in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, the son of McKinzie showed he deserves mention among the very top members of the division.
"I think he could be the second- or third-best 3-year-old in North America," Mott said about Baeza. "Unfortunately, he's been behind Sovereignty three times. So, I guess the form is true to form."
The Jim Dandy unfolded as expected with New York-bred Mo Plex setting the pace with fractions of :24.54 and :48.49 with Baeza and Sovereignty alternating between second and third.
Turning for home, Mo Plex was gassed as Baeza and Sovereignty rallied wide to take charge and pull away. Sovereignty ($3), the 1-2 favorite, grabbed a short lead at the top of the stretch and then fended off Baeza.
"It looked like Baeza came back at him, but 70 yards from the wire we were pulling away again," Mott said.
Sovereignty crossed the wire in 1:49.52 with a final furlong in :12.70.
"It's been amazing. This what dreams are made of," jockey Junior Alvarado said after Sovereignty's third straight win. "You wake up every morning and you come to work hoping one day one of those horses comes across you and you get to ride it. For me, this is a dream horse."
C R K Stable and breeder Grandview Equine's Baeza, trained by John Shirreffs, finished 9 1/4 lengths ahead of third-place finisher Hill Road, the Peter Pan Stakes (G3) winner.
"My horse," jockey Hector Berrios said about Baeza, "he just didn't focus on the race. He's green. He needs more distance."
Though the $1.2 million Keeneland September Yearling Sale buy has won just one of seven career starts, he has now placed in four grade 1 or 2 stakes.
Mo Plex and Sandman rounded out the order of finish.
The victory was the fifth in eight starts for Sovereignty and pushed his earnings past the $5 million mark to $5,147,800.
He is the third of four foals from the Bernardini mare Crowned and her lone stakes winner. She also has a Nyquist yearling colt.
Attendance for the Saturday card at the Spa was 36,481 and all-sources wagering checked in at $33,574,677.
