Plowing Through The Mud, Baby: Sovereignty flies across the line to win the 151st running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on Saturday, May 3, 2025, in Louisville. (Ryan C. Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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Up to his canon bones in the Churchill mud, Sovereignty delivered a stretch run of grand intensity to run down the favorite Journalism, snatching a commanding one-and-a-quarter length victory in the $5-million Kentucky Derby on Saturday in Louisville. His time was a, for this slop, fast 2:02.31 for the mile-a-and-quarter. Going off at 7-1, Sovereignty had not been especially loved by the money and thus delighted the players that had him, paying $17.96 on a $2 bet.
After being resoundingly passed by Sovereignty but before he got to the wire, Journalism found that he wasn’t quite done with his Kentucky Derby — there was one more battle to fight. Baeza had steamed away strongly from the sixteen runners swimming in the mud behind him and was blazing up outside, in the process of running Journalism down. Journalism was saved by the wire, with Baeza in show by a nose. If the race had been three strides longer, Baeza would have put the Derby favorite in show. On the gallop out past the finish, it was as if Baeza was looking to take on Sovereignty, just a length-and-a-half in front of him. He had nothing — not the distance, not the mud — bothering him. As an audition for the the Belmont Stakes, no run in the 151st Kentucky Derby brought the buzz of that late-running strength any better.
Baeza’s amazingly tough performance, remarkably resembling his early-April stretch duel with Journalism at Santa Anita, came as a sweet irony for trainer John Shirreffs, who had patiently brought his colt as required by their second-alternate status to Churchill to train in the week before the race. Until Thursday, when Bob Baffert scratched Rodriguez who had come up with a foot bruise, Baeza hadn’t been in the race.
After the race, the trainer noted the several difficulties Baeza had easily mastered, saying: “When Flavien (Prat) got him out, he made a really good run. All things considered, the fact that he shipped for the first time and ran on a wet track for the first time, we think he ran a fine, fine race. We are very proud of him.”
Baffert’s Citizen Bull led most of the first half of the race with East Avenue close on his heels, as Sovereignty and Journalism tucked into the middle of the pack. It had rained all day, which made for sloppy going, and it was clear that that affected some horses, but the slop did not for one second seem to bother Journalism or Sovereignty, who came out of the near turn laser-focused on their stretch duel.
Sovereignty’s famously-reserved South Dakota-born trainer, Bill Mott was clearly elated as he was mobbed by family and friends in the stands and began to work his way down to the winners’ circle, where he regained his Dakota reserve and graciously credited everyone around him. He said, “I’m so proud of the horse. I’m so proud of everybody that had anything to do with getting this horse to this point, and it takes a lot of people. It takes a family, and it takes a community to get him ready.”
A very similar sportsman’s grace was brought to the fore by Journalism’s trainer Michael McCarthy. Shortly after a fine break, Journalism had gotten forced toward the rail in the crush, but was deftly piloted out clear by jockey Umberto Rispoli. McCarthy said: “He made a nice middle move, then on the turn for home he opened up but I saw the blue silks coming at us and I knew that was the one we were going to have to be concerned about. He ran the best he could and he ran a very good race. But the winner ran a better race.”