Derby Winner Sovereignty Skips Preakness, Tradition Shifts/ TezzBuzz/ WASHINGTON/ J. Mansour/ Morning Edition/ Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty will skip the Preakness Stakes, marking the fifth time in seven years the Triple Crown bid ends early. The decision highlights a broader trend in horse racing, where tradition gives way to caution and strategy. Experts and stakeholders are now debating changes to the sport’s historic race spacing.
For the fifth time in seven years, the Preakness Stakes will be run without its most compelling competitor—the Kentucky Derby winner. Sovereignty, who claimed victory at Churchill Downs just days ago, will not race at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, eliminating any chance of a Triple Crown winner in 2025 before the gates even open.
The decision by Sovereignty’s connections to bypass the second leg of the Triple Crown in favor of resting up for June’s Belmont Stakes has reignited long-standing debates within the horse racing world. While once a given that the Derby winner would pursue the crown, recent years suggest that assumption is quickly fading.
This isn’t an isolated case. In 2022, Rich Strike famously skipped the Preakness after his shocking 80-1 Derby win. In 2019, Country House never ran due to illness after inheriting the win via disqualification. The 2020 pandemic reshuffled the race order entirely, and in 2021, Medina Spirit ran but later had his Derby win stripped due to a failed drug test.
Historically, from 1986 to 2018, the Derby winner missed the Preakness just once—and that was due to injury. The contrast is stark.
The modern approach to horse racing, influenced by breeding priorities, equine health, and financial incentives, now often favors skipping the grueling five-week Triple Crown gauntlet in favor of spacing out races. This cautious mindset reflects a significant shift in how the industry treats its most valuable assets.
Yet that thinking now regularly leads to rest over risk.
The debate over spacing between the Triple Crown races isn’t new. During the 37-year drought between Affirmed’s 1978 Triple Crown and American Pharoah’s 2015 sweep, industry experts questioned whether the schedule was simply too punishing for modern horses.
American Pharoah and Justify both won the Triple Crown within four years, quieting critics for a time. But with Sovereignty joining a growing list of Derby winners choosing rest over history, discussions about reshaping the racing calendar have resurfaced.
Prominent owner Mike Repole has proposed changing the order and spacing of the Triple Crown. One idea: run the Belmont second and move the Preakness to June, or push the entire series deeper into summer to allow for more recovery time.
There’s no clear consensus on what adjustments—if any—should be made. While some stakeholders argue for a drastic overhaul akin to baseball’s pitch clock transformation, others believe the tradition still holds value.
Veteran trainers like Bob Baffert and D. Wayne Lukas have consistently chased the crown with little concern about the tight timeline. Lukas, now 89, plans to enter American Promise in the Preakness despite a 16th-place Derby finish—proof that not all in the industry are backing away from the old ways.
But the risk-averse model may become the norm. If more owners and trainers continue to skip the Preakness for strategic rest, the historic race’s prestige could fade.
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