After watching the 2025 Belmont Stakes, we can say Sovereignty’s win at the Kentucky Derby was no fluke.
Advertisement Sovereignty isn’t the first Kentucky Derby winner to skip the Preakness, but he is the first horse to win both the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes without competing in the Preakness.
In a race of three favorites between Sovereignty, Journalism and Baeza, the trio of longshots Rodriguez, Uncaged and Crudo jumped out to an early lead.
2025 Belmont Stakes horse finishes, odds 1.
Rodriguez (6-1) Advertisement Also rans: Hill Road (14-1), Heart of Honor (20-1), Uncaged (19-1), Crudo (11-1) Here’s how the 2025 Belmont Stakes went down at Yahoo Sports:
We may conclude that Sovereignty’s victory at the Kentucky Derby was no accident after witnessing the 2025 Belmont Stakes.
In Saturday’s Triple Crown third leg, the horse defeated the favorite Journalism by a number of lengths after charging through the field in the second half of the race. Sovereignty’s owners receive $1.02 million of the $2 million prize money for the win, while Journalism receives $360,000 and Baeza, the third-place finisher, receiving $200,000.
At Churchill Downs last month, those three horses finished in precisely the same order.
A trifecta would have paid $13.80, a superfecta would have paid $40.50, and a correct $1 exacta would have paid $6.60.
This is the first time a single horse has won two of the three races since Justified won the Triple Crown in 2018. Naturally, Sovereignty did not compete in the Preakness Stakes, which Journalism brilliantly won to set up a matchup of the best 3-year-olds at Saratoga Race Course, which served as a stand-in for Belmont Park’s under renovation.
Trainer Bill Mott chose to skip the Preakness and devote more time to getting Sovereignty ready for Saturday’s race rather than putting him through a rapid two-week turnaround. It’s impossible to know for sure whether Sovereignty would have won at the Preakness or would have won at Belmont if he had run another race, but it instantly becomes a significant hypothetical scenario in the history of horse racing.
While Sovereignty is not the first horse to win the Kentucky Derby without attending the Preakness, he is the first to win the Belmont Stakes and the Kentucky Derby.
Sovereignty at least appeared to benefit from the additional sleep as he ran the race that his team obviously desired. The three longshots Rodriguez, Uncaged, and Crudo took an early lead in a race between Sovereignty, Journalism, and Baeza as the three favorites. Journalism came from the rear halfway to the front of the pack, just like he did in the Derby, but Sovereignty was right behind him and finished the race more quickly.
Belmont Stakes horse finishes and odds for 2025.
1. . Authority (5-2).
2. Journalism (2-1). .
3. . Baeza (7–2).
4. . Rodriguez’s score was 6.
Crudo (11-1), Heart of Honor (20-1), Uncaged (19-1), and Hill Road (14-1) also ran.
The 2025 Belmont Stakes at Yahoo Sports went as follows.
