DEL MAR — It was late Monday afternoon when Bill Mott’s assistant phoned with the news no trainer wants to hear.
Our horse has a fever.
Not just any horse, but the headline horse of 2025: Sovereignty, winner of the Kentucky Derby, Belmont and Travers, the heavy favorite for Horse of the Year and the 6-5 morning-line pick in Saturday’s $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar.
“As of right now, there’s a possibility that he won’t make the race on Saturday,” Mott said Tuesday morning.
Mott said the colt had a “slightly elevated temperature” through the night and into early Tuesday. He was given medication around 6 a.m. and by 8, Mott said Sovereignty’s temperature was normal.
Later Tuesday morning, after spending time observing Sovereignty at the barn, Mott added: “It’s really bad timing and the fact that there’s anything even (in) question is disappointing, but right now I’d say … by looking at him a little while ago, there’s a 50-50 shot that maybe we’re going to be OK.”
Of course, that also means there’s a 50-50 shot Sovereignty won’t be OK and what’s considered to be the deepest Classic in this century would lose its headliner and some of its cachet. Mott said he was awaiting results from blood tests. The good news, he added, was that Sovereignty was not acting like a sick horse.
“He’s eating everything. He looks fine. He seems to be sharp,” Mott said.
Mott’s horses have their temperature taken twice each day, though the trainer said he’d probably check Sovereignty more frequently. If the colt’s temperature remains normal and his blood work looks good, Mott said, “We’ll move forward.”
But if the fever comes back or there’s something amiss in the blood work, Mott said, “Then I think we’re probably looking at a situation where we’re probably not going to run in the Breeders’ Cup. If he doesn’t re-spike a fever, we’ll take him to the track, perhaps even (Wednesday) for a little jog and just see how he reacts to that, and we’ll go from there.
“But we’ll monitor him on a daily basis and I can assure you that if we don’t think that he’s 100%, he won’t run in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. I mean, I think if you see him over there (in the starting gate), you know, in my mind, right or wrong, he’ll be doing as good as he can do.”
Mott said other than a slight fever in January after first arriving in Florida, Sovereignty has been healthy all year.
“There hasn’t been anything that’s been a setback,” he said. “We’ve made our plans, we’ve moved forward from A to Z and everything’s gone perfectly well, no sickness, no anything.”
Sovereignty spent the summer and early fall at Saratoga before flying to Del Mar last week. He looked strong galloping here over the weekend and went through a half-mile workout Monday morning.
He has started six times this year, winning every race but the Florida Derby, where he was second. Saturday would be his first attempt against older horses, with the field including eight other Grade I winners: 4-year-olds Sierra Leone (the defending Classic champion), Fierceness, Forever Young, Mindframe and Antiquarian, plus fellow 3-year-olds Journalism, Baeza and Nevada Beach.
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Three horses scratched
Already with the smallest field of the 14 Cup races, the Juvenile was reduced to seven starters when Civil Liberty was withdrawn due to swelling in an upper tendon, according to trainer Doug O’Neill. Civil Liberty was the only maiden in the field and was listed at 30-1 on the morning line.
Also, the Japanese mare Fee Blanche was scratched by veterinarians from the Filly & Mare Sprint and one of the also-eligible horses, Should’ve, was withdrawn from consideration for the Juvenile Turf Sprint.
Fall meet opens
Del Mar’s 16-day fall meeting begins Thursday with a nine-race card starting at 12:30 p.m. After the two Breeders’ Cup cards, which have earlier post times Friday (11:35 a.m.) and Saturday (10:05 a.m.), racing resumes at 12:30 Sunday and continues at that time every Friday through Sunday until the end of November.
