Saratoga Notebook, Presented by NYRA Bets: Sovereignty Gets Back to Work, has First Breeze Since Jim Dandy Win

Wandering Eyes · August 9

SARATOGA SPRINGS – As Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott watched Sovereignty (Into Mischief) gobble up ground on the Oklahoma Training Track from afar Saturday morning, his mind drifted back to maybe the best horse he ever trained.

Sovereignty, working for the first time since winning the GII Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga on July 26, went four furlongs in :48.99 (117/65) and galloped out in 1:02 2/5. Assistant trainer Neil Poznansky was on board.

Mott had accompanied Sovereignty to the Oklahoma aboard his pony, Rocky.

“Coming to the wire, from the backside, I could see him,” Mott said back at his barn. “He knows he is hitting the wire, and he is throttling down a little bit. That's how Cigar was. He worked in 1:02 and three every time you worked him five-eighths. That is all he would do.”

Cigar, who once won 16 straight races, was the 1995 and 1996 Horse of the Year for Mott.

Sovereignty, owned by Godolphin, is putting together quite the resume for himself this year. Before the Jim Dandy, he won the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont Stakes. He has four wins in five starts and is aiming at the $1.25-million GI Travers Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 23.

Sovereignty stepped onto the Oklahoma at 7:30 a.m. Like always, he did what he was supposed to do.

“He looked fine,” Mott said. “The main thing is how Neil liked it.”

Poznansky, the 1996 Eclipse Award winner for Apprentice Jockey, liked it just fine.

“He was perfect,” Poznansky, who has been working with Mott for just shy of 20 years, said after getting off Sovereignty. “If you look at his prior works leading up to all the other races, it's all the same: :48 and change and out in two and change. He loves his job. It's nerve racking with a lot of pressure because you don't want to mess up.”

Sovereignty will have one more work before the Midsummer Derby.

Mott wasn't looking for his stable star to break the bank on Saturday. He got what he wanted.

“I hate to use the word maintenance because everyone uses it,” Mott said. “We were just trying to maintain a little fitness, that is all. He was doing it easy … he's not at full speed, that is for sure.”

Pletcher Says Mindfame-Fierceness Matchup Could Happen

Although it's a long way off–three weeks in horse racing can be an eternity–there is a chance that Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher could have 'TDN Rising Stars' Mindframe (Constitution) and Fierceness (City of Light) run against each other before the GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

After Mindframe worked five furlongs in 1:01 (8/34) on the main track Saturday morning, Pletcher said it was not impossible to think his two older horse stalwarts could meet each other in the $1-million GI Jockey Club Gold Cup on Aug. 30 at Saratoga.

“Everything is in play,” Pletcher said outside his office at his barn on the Oklahoma Training Track. “We have to figure out the best way to get them both to the Classic.”

Mindframe outside Operation Overlord at Saratoga

Mindframe outside of Operation Overlord Saturday at Saratoga | Sarah Andrew

Mindframe hasn't raced since winning the GI Stephen Foster Stakes at Churchill Downs on June 28; his third win in as many starts this year. Fierceness is coming off a disappointing fifth-place finish in last weekend's GI Whitney Stakes at Saratoga.

Mindframe, owned by Repole Stable and St. Elias Stables LLC, is being pointed to the Jockey Club Gold Cup; Fierceness is going to be eligible for that race, too, Pletcher said. The $500,000 GII Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs on Sept. 27 is also a possibility as is the GII Woodward Stakes at Aqueduct next month. Pletcher said Fierceness could also train up to the Classic.

“All of those are options,” he said.

Fierceness, also owned by Repole Stable and Derrick Smith, Michael Tabor and Mrs. John Magnier, was the beaten favorite in the Whitney. In contention until the eighth pole, he tired and faded.

“We were disappointed in the outcome, obviously,” Pletcher said. “It's kind of similar to some of his other races. He gets roughed up a little bit and he doesn't respond quite as well. I thought he had a big chance at the top of the stretch and he just kind of flattened out a little bit.”

Pletcher turned the page and now it's Mindframe's turn. His work Saturday was in company with stablemate Operation Overlord (Into Mischief).

“Very pleased with him,” Pletcher said. “He finished up really well. What was really impressive was the way he galloped out around the turn after the breeze. You were watching the horse and thinking the time in your mind and then you look down at the stopwatch and you are like, 'whoa!' It's a little faster than it looked like he was going.”

Good Cheer Set to Rebound in Alabama

Some might say the pressure is off when a long winning streak ends.

Trainer Brad Cox is not one of them.

When his 3-year-old filly Good Cheer (Medaglia d'Oro) sputtered to a fifth-place finish–beaten by 9 1/4 lengths by La Cara (Street Sense)–in the GI Acorn at Saratoga on June 6, it was her first loss after starting her career with seven wins.

“I like pressure,” Cox said by phone from Kentucky Saturday afternoon. “If you have pressure on you, it probably means you are doing something right.”

Cox is hoping that Good Cheer starts another streak next Saturday when the $600,000 GI Alabama Stakes is run at Saratoga. It is the premier race of the meet for 3-year-old fillies.

Good Cheer under Luis Saez Saturday | Sarah Andrew

Good Cheer had her final tune-up for the Alabama Saturday morning. She and jockey Luis Saez stepped onto the track at 7 a.m. and worked four furlongs in :48.25 (5/105). Good Cheer has had six four-furlong works since July 5 at Saratoga.

The work on Saturday was supervised by Cox's son Blake, who serves as his dad's assistant.

The elder Cox saw the work remotely and liked what he saw.

He is confident that Godolphin's Good Cheer will be a big factor in the 1 1/4-mile Alabama.

“We would not be entering (Sunday) if we felt she was not going to put her best foot forward,” Brad Cox said. “I am excited about getting her going and getting another chance at Saratoga.”

When she lost the Acorn, she faced a sloppy track. She won the GI Kentucky Oaks on a Churchill Downs strip labeled “wet/fast.”

“I am looking for a reason why she didn't perform well (in the Acorn),” Cox said. “I am going to go with it wasn't a track she particularly cared for. Hopefully, we'll have a fast track.”