Sovereignty's Preakness Snub Forces Reckoning on Triple Crown's Future

Key facts

• Only 13 horses have won the Triple Crown since 1875, with the last being Justify in 2018.
• Sovereignty won the 2025 Kentucky Derby but skipped the Preakness, then won the Belmont Stakes.
• Trainer Bill Mott said the decision was about preserving the horse for later races, not a statement on the Triple Crown.
• Churchill Downs Inc. acquired the intellectual property rights to the Preakness for $85 million.
• The Preakness is likely to move one week later in 2027 due to TV rights negotiations.
• Sovereignty later won the Jim Dandy and Travers Stakes at Saratoga and is still racing at age 4.
• Only three horses in the 2025 Derby field had run on three weeks' rest; none on two weeks' rest.
• Pimlico Race Course is being renovated and is set to reopen in 2027 under state control.

A Decision That Reverberated Beyond the Track

About 45 minutes after the Kentucky Derby ends on Saturday, the winning owner and trainer are escorted into a small room under the grandstand. They sit behind a table, watch a replay, and then face the inevitable question: Will the horse run in the Preakness Stakes in two weeks? For decades, the answer has been a variation of 'why not?' But last year, Bill Mott, trainer of Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty, gave a different response. Mott and Michael Banahan, director of bloodstock for Godolphin, were non-committal. 'We'll enjoy today; today was the goal,' Banahan said. 'I don't think we're dead set on it,' Mott added the next morning. It was no surprise when Sovereignty skipped the Preakness and instead waited five weeks for the Belmont Stakes, which he won impressively. Whether he would have become the sport's 14th Triple Crown winner is now a matter of conjecture.

Mott's Intentions and the Unintended Consequences

Bill Mott does not want to be remembered as the man who broke the Triple Crown. 'The Triple Crown, I think it's fine the way it is,' he says. 'But there's so many things after. You've got some big purses, you've got some important races. And I think if you use those horses up in the Triple Crown, a lot of times they can't make it to the end of the year.' His decision was about what he believed was best for his horse, not a sledgehammer to tradition. Yet the reverberations were immediate. Mott's Preakness snub reheated a long-simmering debate about the spacing of the Triple Crown. The Derby-Preakness-Belmont calendar, with all three races within five weeks in May and early June, was created in an era far removed from modern realities. The original Triple Crown winner, Sir Barton, won all three legs in 1919 in 32 days—and threw in a fourth victory between the Preakness and Belmont. Horses don't do anything remotely similar now.

The Numbers Behind the Debate

The workload decline is even more pronounced than starting pitchers in Major League Baseball. Only three entrants in this year's 20-horse Derby field had run back on three weeks' rest; none had done so in two weeks. The Preakness has followed the Derby by two weeks for 70 years, but that timeline looks increasingly anachronistic. When 2022 Derby winner Rich Strike skipped the Preakness, it was understandable—the 81-1 stunner never won another race. But Sovereignty was different. His subsequent victory in the Belmont underscored that he very well might have won all three races. Mott is unmoved by lamentations about cheating the sport out of a historic 14th Triple Crown. 'It wasn't that we dismissed the Preakness or were even talking about the spacing of the Preakness,' he says. 'I think it was just that's the races we picked out and we stuck to it and it worked out.' And it worked out extremely well: Sovereignty won the Jim Dandy and Travers Stakes at Saratoga later last summer and is still racing at age 4, a looming presence at Churchill Downs during Derby training hours.

The Politics of the Triple Crown: TV Rights and Track Ownership

in Sports Business Journal that the Preakness was likely to move a week later in 2027 as a result of negotiations for the race's television rights, Churchill Downs Inc. announced last week that it had acquired the intellectual property rights to the Preakness for $85 million. While Churchill chief executive Bill Carstanjen said on a subsequent quarterly earnings call that the state of Maryland 'is in control of the destiny of the Preakness,' the arrangement is complicated and somewhat opaque. The one thing that seems certain is the race staying in Baltimore—at least for the foreseeable future. Pimlico, the longtime home of the Preakness, is currently being renovated and is set to reopen in 2027 under the control of a state-run board after the track's previous ownership decided to exit the racing business in Maryland. Churchill's role has been further clarified: the industry leader in putting on profitable racing dates will help Pimlico maximize revenue from both the Preakness and the Black-Eyed Susan.

What Comes Next: A Shift in the Calendar?

The Preakness's TV partner, NBC, faces competition from Fox, which is believed to be interested in wresting the race away. Regardless of who gets the rights, the best way to rejuvenate the Preakness's place on the sporting calendar would be to move it back and ensure the best possible field—which would in turn push the Belmont later in the summer than its traditional early June date. While that might benefit the sport as a whole, the New York Racing Association would be forced into a move it doesn't necessarily want to make. Trainer Doug O'Neill, who won the Derby with I'll Have Another in 2012 and Nyquist in 2015, summed up the sentiment: 'I know the historians are rolling in their graves. But at the same time, it's just a different era. So I think eventually, probably sooner than later, we'll see that for sure.' The taboo has been lifted for horsemen to say publicly what they've been whispering for years—that five weeks simply isn't enough time for the modern Thoroughbred to run three long, demanding races.

A Tradition Under Pressure, but Not Broken

The Triple Crown remains one of the most highly coveted achievements in sports, with only 13 horses awarded the title in history and none since 2018. But the pressures of modern horse racing—bigger purses, more important races later in the year, and the physical demands on horses—are forcing a reckoning. Mott's decision, made for the well-being of his horse, may have inadvertently opened a floodgate. As the industry responds, the question is not whether the Triple Crown will change, but how. The Preakness moving a week later, the Belmont shifting deeper into summer, and the involvement of corporate interests like Churchill Downs all point to a schedule that may soon look very different. For now, the Kentucky Derby remains anchored on the first Saturday in May, but the rest of the Triple Crown is in flux.

The bottom line

• Bill Mott's decision to skip the Preakness with Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty has reignited debate over the Triple Crown's five-week schedule.
• Sovereignty's subsequent wins at the Belmont, Jim Dandy, and Travers suggest he could have been a Triple Crown contender, but Mott prioritized the horse's long-term career.
• Only 13 horses have won the Triple Crown since 1875; the last was Justify in 2018.
• Churchill Downs Inc. acquired the Preakness's intellectual property rights for $85 million, potentially influencing schedule changes.
• The Preakness is expected to move one week later in 2027 due to TV rights negotiations, which could push the Belmont later into summer.
• Modern Thoroughbreds race less frequently than in the past, with only three Derby entrants in 2025 having run on three weeks' rest.