Jun 7, 2025; Saratoga, NY, USA; Junior Alvarado pulls flowers from the championship blanket while up on Sovereignty (2) after winning the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

Travers Stakes: Is Sovereignty just inevitable or can someone upset the Derby and Belmont winner?

Originally posted on Horse Racing on SI | By Mike Smith | Last updated Aug 21, 2025 10:17 AM ET

In a race that dates back to 1864, there have been just four horses to win the Kentucky Derby and Belmont, and then win the Travers at Saratoga. On Saturday, Sovereignty will be heavily favored to accomplish that feat, as he leads just a five-horse field in the $1 million race for 3-year-olds going 1 1/4 miles.

Sovereignty burst onto the Triple Crown scene with a fast-closing victory in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream in February. That was his first start of the year and came after he closed out his juvenile season with a victory in the Grade 3 Street Sense at Churchill Downs. The Street Sense was also his first career victory.

Trained by Bill Mott, who landed his first Derby win with Sovereignty and will look for his first Travers win Saturday, Sovereignty is owned by global powerhouse Godolphin.

“He trained very impressively in New York and it’s not the easiest thing to bring a horse into a stakes race to break their maiden,” said Michael Banahan, Godolphin’s Director of Bloodstock, after the Street Sense. “But we had the confidence from how he ran in the two maiden races that he’d run a top effort here. It’s very special for us all to win a race like this and hopefully get him some experience for some even bigger races as a 3-year-old next year here at Churchill Downs.”

After some perfect foreshadowing by Banahan, Sovereignty ran second in the Grade 1 Florida Derby, before winning the Kentucky Derby in impressive fashion. That victory was followed up by an equally impressive win in the Belmont. Sovereignty then kept it going in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy, the traditional prep for the Travers.

Now, Sovereignty, 2-5 on the morning line, will chase history but does deal with some interesting race dynamics, something that regular rider Junior Alvarado will have to sort out.

“Particularly in a short field, you don’t know much speed is going to show up,” Mott told Saratoga publicity. “I looked at the past performances for a couple of the horses that are going to run and there’s a couple in there that look like they have good, reasonable, honest type speed if they want to use it - Vicki Oliver (Bracket Buster) and Steve’s (Asmussen) horse (Magnitude) - they look like they have the ability to lay up there, and I think they probably will.”

Magnitude is drawing some attention as he appears to be the horse with the best early speed. At 43-1 in the Grade 2 Risen Star at Fair Grounds in February, Magnitude, trained by Steve Asmussen for Winchell Thoroughbreds, romped by 9 3/4 lengths. Magnitude then missed the rest of the Triple Crown season with an injury.

“We’ve got a nice horse and a big opportunity,” said David Fiske, racing manager for Winchell Thoroughbreds. “He missed the Kentucky Derby, so this is kind of like his Derby. Hopefully, he can do what he does best, which is win with a big speed figure.”

In his return race, Magnitude romped in the Iowa Derby. Magnitude’s competition has been questioned in both of those races, and while that’s a fair concern in the Iowa Derby, he beat some solid horses in the Risen Star.

In the Risen Star, Chunk of Gold finished second, who came back to win the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby. Fifth-place American Promise won the Virginia Derby and seventh-place Jolly Samurai won a restricted stakes in Texas. East Avenue, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, finished 10th in the Risen Star and returned to eventually win the Grade 3 Matt Winn. Last-place Giocoso, won the Grade 2 Secretariat at Colonial on turf. All that being said , none of those horses are anywhere close to Sovereignty.

Ben Curtis will be aboard Magnitude from the rail at 2-1.

Bracket Buster will be glued to Magnitude early and is really the only other speed. Bracket Buster won the Pegasus at Monmouth in the slop for his only stakes victory. Victoria Oliver trains Bracket Buster, who will break from post 2 at 20-1 on the morning line. Luis Saez will be aboard for the first time.

The biggest question mark in the field is Strategic Focus, who looked like a Travers contender before his last start. After a sharp maiden win, Strategic Focus was disqualified from a win in an allowance race in June. In his next start as the heavy favorite in the Curlin Stakes, Strategic Focus was beat in deep stretch. In that race, jockey Flavien Prat, aboard again Saturday, likely moved too early and even when he looked like the winner at the top of th e stretch, Strategic Focus looked like he lost focus a bit.

After the Curlin, there were some distance questions with Strategic Focus but it’s more likely that he got lost once he hit the front. By Gun Runner, out of the Curlin mare, Curlin’s Mistress, Strategic Focus is bred top and bottom to handle this distance but he may just not be good enough to tackle Sovereignty. Trainer Chad Brown will add blinkers Saturday, a move he hits with at 30 percent.

McAfee, who’s hit the board in his last three starts, all in graded stakes, completes the field for trainer Rick Dutrow and will be ridden by John Velazquez.

Sovereignty may not get an extremely fast pace to close into but his Jim Dandy victory proved that he can be a little more forward. Regardless of race flow, Sovereignty is clearly the best horse in the race and Saturday is likely to be just another step toward his inevitable Horse of the Year crown.

The Travers caps a loaded card on Saturday that also features five Grade 1 races. The Travers goes as race 13 with a post time of 6:14 p.m. Eastern.