SARATOGA SPRINGS — The horses have reached the starting gate for the 2025 Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, the second to be conducted at the historic Saratoga Race Course during the $455 million renovation of Belmont Park.
From the first post at 12:40 p.m. Wednesday until the last go-round is declared official late Sunday afternoon, there will be five days of racing — up one from last year — with the signature event being Saturday’s 157th running of the Belmont Stakes.
There are no sure things in this meet or in horse racing in general, except this: There will not be a 14th Triple Crown winner for the sports world to celebrate at the end of this third jewel.
Racing fans will be treated to a showdown between Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty and Preakness champion Journalism.
But the prospective Triple Crown went by the wayside May 6, the Tuesday after the Derby, when Sovereignty’s trainer Bill Mott informed Preakness officials his horse would not be appearing in Baltimore.
Mott subsequently explained that he and Sovereignty’s owner, Godolphin Racing, were never interested in running the horse twice in 15 days, according to the Daily Racing Form.
“If there ever would be a horse you could have tried the Triple Crown with, he might have been it. [He’s] big, sturdy, came out [of the Derby] good,” Mott said, per DRF. “There was no reason physically why we couldn’t have run in the Preakness. We had no other excuse than we didn’t feel like it. The word ‘Preakness’ I don’t think ever came up in our conversation.”
When the sport endured a gap of 37 years between Triple Crown winners — from Affirmed in 1978 to American Pharoah in 2015 — there was much debate about whether the demanding traditional schedule that places two weeks between the Derby and Preakness, and three weeks between the Preakness and normally mile-and-a-half Belmont Stakes, was the culprit.
After Justify won in 2018, making it two Triple Crowns in four years, the noise abated. But the question is being asked again, not because of performance, but due to choice.
On a cool early Tuesday morning of workouts, The Post asked several prominent horsemen if the Triple Crown is a thing of the past given the current circumstances.
“We had two in four years, so I don’t believe that,” said Michael McCarthy, trainer of Journalism, who indeed is running in all three events after coming in second at Churchill Downs and first at Pimlico. “These races are tough. They’re meant to be tough. The Belmont’s a special race in its own right. I can’t speak for any of the other connections skipping races, not making races. I just pay attention to my horse and make sure he’s doing as well as he can be doing.”
Jockey Umberto Rispoli, on hand to watch Journalism take a stroll through the paddock and a cruise around the main track, told The Post his horse was built for the attempt.
“Michael from the beginning always thought [Journalism] could make the three legs because of the way he’s built and how good looking he is,” Rispoli said. “It’s all about keeping them healthy. Sometimes you have to go for it and sometimes you have to pull out of it.”
At his barn near the Oklahoma training track across Union Avenue, four-time Belmont Stakes-winning trainer Todd Pletcher delved into the discussion of tradition versus progress.
“In order for the sport to move forward long term, we have to continue to make adjustments. Other sports make adjustments,” he said, pointing to MLB, the NBA and the always busy NFL Competition Committee.
Pletcher doesn’t sound concerned that a change in the schedule would cheapen the accomplishment of a Triple Crown.
“I think whoever [were to win it] would still be proud of it even if there were four weeks between each, or whatever it’s determined to be,” he said. “Who knows? It might be a little more difficult because each of those races might have a larger field and all the major competitors would be in there. You can make that argument as well. So I hate to change the tradition of it, but at the same time I hate to see racing not make improvements.”