Sovereignty emerged from his come-from-behind victory in the May 3 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve in good condition, aside from what trainer Bill Mott believes to be a superficial scrape to the colt’s right foreleg.

Speaking May 4 outside his barn at Churchill Downs after Godolphin’s homebred Into Mischief colt captured the opening leg of the Triple Crown, Mott theorized the approximate four-inch scrape occurred when Sovereignty appeared to briefly clip rival Chunk of Gold’s heels in the opening strides of the Derby.

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The Hall of Fame trainer along with Godolphin USA director of bloodstock Michael Banahan were noncommittal about whether Sovereignty would race in the second leg of the Triple Crown, the May 17 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course.

“We’ve got to come to a conclusion probably in the next few days, but it’s not going to be this morning,” Mott said.

The 1 3/16-mile Preakness comes just two weeks after the 1 1/4-mile Derby, with the final race in the series, the Belmont Stakes, three weeks after that. The Belmont Stakes, customarily at 1 1/2 miles at Belmont Park, will be run at 1 1 1/4 miles this year at Saratoga Race Course, as it was in 2024, due to ongoing reconstruction at Belmont Park.

Only 13 horses have swept all three races to become Triple Crown winners, the most recent being the Bob Baffert trainees American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018.

With the potential for Triple Crown glory, most Derby winners return in the Preakness, but Mott and Banahan were in no rush to commit Sovereignty on Sunday morning.

Mott meeting with the media Sunday at Churchill. (BloodHorse/Heather C. Jackson)

“Over the years, I think people realized that spacing these horses out a little bit gives you the opportunity to make them last a little longer. ... You want the career to last more than five weeks,” Mott said.

Although American Pharoah was successful after the Triple Crown, taking the Breeders’ Cup Classic against older runners in the fall of 2015 in his final start, Justify never raced after the Triple Crown. Last year’s Derby winner Mystik Dan, trained by Kenny McPeek, competed in all three legs of the series last year, and after a second in the Preakness and an eighth in the Belmont, needed a break for much of the second half of 2024.

Mott acknowledged that those horses who accomplish the Triple Crown feat are remembered.

“We certainly respect the Triple Crown and what it means, but we’re not dead set on it,” he said.

Mott indicated his horses typically return to racetrack training a few days after a race, a schedule that would put Sovereignty on schedule to resume training early this week. Jogs and gallops once on track should give Mott a further barometer of Sovereignty’s readiness for a potential quick return. The trainer said Sovereignty jogged well by the barn Sunday morning, and his knees and ankles looked good.

Kentucky Derby winner's circle celebration. (Eclipse Sportswire)

“What we’ll do with the horse is the right thing for him. Give Bill a few days with his team to assess him, see how he’s doing, and, if he’s in great shape, we will certainly have a look at everything,” Banahan added. “What we want is to be considerate where we’re going to run him and get him in the right race that’s going to be beneficial for him as well. It’s a long season. You know, he’s had three hard races since the beginning of March ... and that takes a lot out of these horses.”

Besides the Derby, in which Sovereignty rallied past favored Journalism for a 1 1/2-length victory under Junior Alvarado, Sovereignty’s other starts this year included a runner-up finish in the March 29 Curlin Florida Derby Presented by Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms at Xalapa and a victory in the March 1 Coolmore Fountain of Youth Stakes, both at Gulfstream Park in South Florida.

That followed a three-race 2-year-old campaign that was capped by the Godolphin runner capturing the Street Sense Stakes by five lengths at Churchill Downs.

For Mott, his second victory in the Derby — his first came with Country House in 2019 via the disqualification of Maximum Security for interference — was one of the most memorable highlights of his career. Country House never raced after the Derby due to physical setbacks.

Mott in the paddock at Churchill Downs May 3. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Mott rose to prominence as a young trainer at Churchill Downs and has long maintained a presence at the Louisville, Ky., track, even as he shifted more horses toward racing in New York. The 71-year-old trainer is one of the winningest trainers in Churchill Downs’ history.

He said that when he began working with horses in 1967 in his native South Dakota with Steve Asmussen’s father, Keith, he never dreamed of competing at Churchill Downs, let alone in the Kentucky Derby.

“I’d never been to Kentucky before and Churchill Downs; I thought it was for someone else,” he said.

Less than two decades later, he had his first starter in the run for the roses when Taylor’s Special ran 13th in 1984. Sovereignty became his 14th runner in the legendary race.

Both Mott and Banahan credited all those involved with Sovereignty for the colt’s success. He was bred and raised by Godolphin and developed through multiple divisions of the trainer’s stable across the country.

“It was pretty special to do it with the people that you work with every day,” Mott said. “For me, my biggest enjoyment in life is probably — besides my grandkids coming out here — seeing the help and seeing the horses and just watching the progression.”