Maybe a touch earlier than expected, the rematch that the horse racing world pined for has arrived as reigning Horse of the Year Sovereignty (Into Mischief) will once again square off against the 2025 GI Preakness Stakes winner Journalism (Curlin) in the GII Oaklawn Handicap on Saturday.
Both colts will be making their much-anticipated 4-year-old debuts in Hot Springs.
Sovereignty turned in a spectacular season last year when he won the GI Kentucky Derby, GI Belmont Stakes and GI DK Travers Stakes.
The Bill Mott trainee came down with a temperature at Del Mar and unfortunately had to miss the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic, but the Godolphin homebred garnered 201 out of a possible 220 first-place Eclipse votes to take home Horse of the Year honors.
“The thing is we were fit and ready to run in November, the same as Journalism,” Mott told Robert Yates on Wednesday morning. “He ran; we didn't. But we were still a fit horse at that time. It's not like we had been idle since August.”
Mott, who was Oaklawn's leading trainer in 1986 and won the Oaklawn Handicap in 1995 with future two-time Horse of the Year Cigar and again in 1996 with Geri, said that the Hot Springs race fit with Sovereignty's schedule.
“I suppose the timing made this the right spot for his comeback,” said Mott. “We felt like we had enough works in him. It was a mile and an eighth. We could have waited two weeks and run in the [GII] Alysheba [at Churchill Downs May 1]. It's a mile and a sixteenth. Godolphin has another one they want to run in the Alysheba and we just kind of worked it out. We announced early that we thought we would run here, but it didn't scare anybody off.”
Mott, who was voted Outstanding Trainer for the fifth time last year, added that Sovereignty hasn't necessarily changed physically since his the Travers win.
“He was looking pretty damn good then,” Mott said. “He was pretty well filled out at that point. He's probably come a ways, but it's difficult for me to see it because I see him every day. To me he looks great, but I thought he went into the Travers looking great. Actually, we went into the Travers and Breeders' Cup looking like he was gaining weight. He looked like he had a belly on him because he's such a good doer. He eats really good and keeps himself in good fettle.”
According to Mott, the Oaklawn Handicap field–a race in which Sovereignty carries the highest weight at 123–makes for an intriguing race because it lacks a speed horse.
“Looking at that race, we can talk about the way it looks on paper,” the Hall of Fame conditioner said. “There's no horse in there that has '1, 1, 1, 1' beside his name. I don't think there's, like, any really, really fast early horse in there. Somebody's going to see that and they're going to do it.”
Journalism in the early stages before his Haskell Stakes rally | Sarah Andrew
Ready to do battle with his foe once more, Journalism has drilled for trainer Michael McCarthy at his Santa Anita base since late February.
Last year, the colt was the only horse to race in every leg of the Triple Crown. The results were a Preakness win and a pair of runner-up finishes to Sovereignty in the Derby and the Belmont.
Owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Bridlewood, Don Alberto, Robert LaPenta, Elayne Stables Five, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael B. Tabor and Derrick Smith, the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling grad captured the GI NYRA Bets Haskell Stakes at Monmouth, was the runner-up in the GI Pacific Classic Stakes at Del Mar in late August and finished fourth in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic over the same surface in November.
The Oaklawn Handicap isn't a two-horse race by any means. Breeders' Cup Classic and GI Pegasus World Cup winner White Abarrio (Race Day) comes to town for C2 Racing, Gary Barber and La Milagrosa. Trained by Saffie Joseph and out of a sire who won the Oaklawn Handicap in 2015, the 7-year-old was the runner-up to stablemate Skippylongstocking (Exaggerator) in the Pegasus Jan. 24.
“We're not scared of competition,” White Abarrio's co-owner, Mark Cornett, said Wednesday morning. “This is what this sport needs. When's the last time you saw three good horses like this match up? It's been a while. I can't remember the last time. It's good to see. Oaklawn does a heck of a job and with a $1.25 million purse, you're going to attract horses like this, you would think.”
Representing owners Gus King and the Estate of Brereton C. Jones is GISP Publisher (American Pharoah). After finally breaking his maiden over the local strip Feb. 15, the Steve Asmussen trainee has show steady improvement by delivering wins in an allowance race Mar. 7 and in the restricted American Pharoah Overnight Stakes Mar. 28.
Rounding out the field are a pair by the late, great Arrogate–Liberal Arts and Duke of Duval.
KEENELAND & SANTA ANITA
At Keeneland on Saturday, a pair of graded races make the card.
Juddmonte homebred and Mott trainee Batten Down (Tapit) will look to make it two stakes wins in a row when he heads to the post in the GIII Ben Ali Stakes. A pair of Kentucky Derby alums in Burnham Square (Liam's Map) and Tawny Port (Pioneerof the Nile) plan to contest 12 furlongs over the grass in the GII VisitLEX Elkhorn Stakes.
Over the weekend, GISW King of Gosford (GB) (Zoustar {Aus}) makes his first start of 2025 in the GIII American Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday and GSW Nafisa (Quality Road) leads a group of four others in the GIII Santa Maria Stakes at 'The Great Race Place' on Sunday.
The post Bout Time Come Saturday: Sovereignty V. Journalism In Oaklawn H. appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
