Can anyone dethrone him?

Sovereignty established himself as the leading 3-year-old in the country by winning both the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes. He will remain based at Saratoga’s Oklahoma Training Track all summer for trainer Bill Mott, and his main goal will be August’s marquee race: the Grade 1 Travers Stakes. 

“I’d love to come back and take a crack at the Travers,” Mott said after the Belmont. “It’s a race that I’ve never won, and I think it’s a very important race for a 3-year-old like Sovereignty.”

Sovereignty may well next appear in the local prep for the Travers: the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes. 

Journalism, who sandwiched a Preakness Stakes win between runner-up finishes to Sovereignty in the Derby and Belmont, seems like the obvious choice to give the horse-to-beat a run for his money. But he returned to his California base following the close of the Triple Crown, and at press time, his summer plans were undetermined. 

That doesn’t necessarily mean Sovereignty’s in the clear to romp to the Jim Dandy and Travers finish lines unchallenged; three-year-olds who passed on parts of the Triple Crown or who are later developers are waiting to challenge the leaders. Among those who will be based here all summer is the popular Sandman, the third-place finisher in the Preakness Stakes. He skipped the Belmont to focus on freshening up for Saratoga. 

“I’m excited,” trainer Mark Casse says, “because he had a long campaign, and we’ve had some time to let him grow and strengthen up and be a better horse for the Jim Dandy.”

Who will come out on top?

Sovereignty is campaigned by Godolphin, and the filly divisions say even more about the depth of that stable. Immersive, Godolphin’s undefeated 2024 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and divisional champion, was sidelined early this year with bone bruising, a mild malady—but a stablemate was waiting in the wings. Good Cheer won her first seven career starts, including the Kentucky Oaks. Both are trained by Brad Cox.

Despite Good Cheer’s good start, she finished a flat fifth in the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes at Saratoga (Graveyard of Champions, anyone?). Winning the race was La Cara, who took her second Grade 1 of the year and is poised for another great Saratoga meet.  

“She loves it here,” Casse said of the filly, who won her maiden race at Saratoga last year.

Good Cheer and La Cara could meet in tests for 2025 divisional supremacy in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks in July and/or the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes in August. 

Meanwhile, keeping Good Cheer and Immersive (who returned to the races in June with a second-place finish at Churchill Downs) separate could be a nice problem for Godolphin and Cox to have. Immersive won the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes at seven furlongs last year at Saratoga, which could make her a candidate for a race like the Grade 1 Test Stakes at the same distance. 

Will they live up to their reputations?

Nitrogen and the older She Feels Pretty cemented their domination of their respective turf filly divisions on Belmont Stakes weekend, despite dealing with challenging courses.

She Feels Pretty has won four straight graded stakes dating to last October for Saratoga Springs native Cherie DeVaux. The most recent of those came in the Grade 1 New York Stakes on June 6, her class asserting itself despite running on a yielding turf course she didn’t care for. She will look to continue her winning streak in the Grade 1 Diana Stakes on July 12 at the Spa. 

Meanwhile, the 3-year-old Nitrogen has won five straight stakes—four of those on turf. When the Grade 3 Wonder Again Stakes on June 7 was rained off the turf, she rolled by 17 lengths on the sloppy, sealed dirt track. She will keep training toward the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks on the Saratoga turf. After that, she could move to the next race in the turf series—the Grade 2 Saratoga Oaks—or has the option of running on dirt again in a race like the Alabama for Casse. 

Can they do it again?

Fierceness is stabled at Saratoga for a third straight summer for Todd Pletcher. He was a dazzling debut winner here en route to a 2023 championship, then won both the 2024 Jim Dandy and Travers, handing eventual Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna her only loss on the season. 

Fierceness returned to action this year with a record-setting performance in the Grade 2 Alysheba Stakes at Churchill Downs, but then incurred his first loss at Saratoga when he was second in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap on the Belmont undercard. Fierceness will look to rebound in August at Saratoga. 

Says Pletcher of what’s next for the horse: “I’m sure we’ll point for the Whitney.”

White Abarrio, the 2023 Whitney and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, could also point to the Whitney in a deep older horse division that includes 2024 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Sierra Leone, trained by Mechanicville native Chad Brown. 

Meanwhile, after racing in Kentucky in June, Thorpedo Anna is expected to be stabled in Saratoga this summer, and could target the Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes.

What will happen is anyone’s guess. What we do know? We’ll be at Saratoga all summer long to watch it unfold.