\u201cI am sure the others will be concerned about (Sovereignty) as much as we will be concerned about everyone else,\u201d Mott said.<\/p>\n
Sovereignty has been feted by horse fans and horsemen and women alike since his victory in the Kentucky Derby. As each victory has followed, the superlatives have gotten larger.<\/p>\n
Mott, like everyone else, has heard the word great being used to describe his horse.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is pretty darn good,\u201d he said. \u201cGreatness is defined by the test of time. You think greatness, you look at Forego and horses like that, horses that lasted more than one season. If they want to say great, I am not going to argue with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thorpedo Anna Likely to Stay Away From the Big Boys<\/p>\n
After her popular\u2013but nerve racking\u2013victory in Saturday’s GI, $500,000 Personal Ensign Stakes, reigning Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) was bright and alert at trainer Kenny McPeek’s Saratoga barn early Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
Any time a peppermint wrapper was rustled near her stall, she stuck her head out looking for the sweet treat. And she got plenty of them, following her brave win by a nose over Dorth Vader (Girvin<\/a>), trained by George Weaver.<\/p>\n Thorpedo Anna and Danny Ramsey after her personal Ensign win | Sarah Andrew<\/p>\n The win was the 4-year-old Thorpedo Anna’s 12th in 15 career starts and improved her 2025 record to four wins in five starts.<\/p>\n \u201cShe’s doing super,\u201d trainer Kenny McPeek said in his office at his barn across from the Oklahoma Training Track. \u201cI just went through every horse I have here, and she’s probably the cleanest one right now. Her legs are clean. Cleaned the feed tub. Dragging her hotwalker around. Typical Thorpedo Anna.\u201d<\/p>\n Owned by Hill ‘n’ Dale Equine Holdings Inc., Magdalena Racing, Mark Edwards and Judy Hicks, Thorpedo Anna will have one more start before the Breeders’ Cup, either the GIII, $400,000 Delaware Handicap at Delaware Park on Sept. 28 or the GI, $650,000 Spinster Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 5.<\/p>\n From there, it will probably be the GI, $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff, a race she won last year to complete a season of six wins in seven starts (five Grade Is). In the Personal Ensign, she was ridden, as always, by Brian Hernandez Jr., who has been her partner in all 15 races.<\/p>\n McPeek came to that conclusion after watching Sovereignty (Into Mischief) chew up four other rivals in Saturday’s GI Travers Stakes.<\/p>\n \u201cYou’ve got to watch your competition, and that horse yesterday was ultra-impressive,\u201d he said. \u201cThe time he ran, the way he did it. Even if he doesn’t win the Classic, he’s probably Horse of the Year. He’s an amazing, amazing individual and for me to take him on..I’m a little intimidated by him. He’s getting better and better. For her to take him on, we’d hesitate on that right now. Not that we’re scared. We’re realistic.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Pletcher Makes it Official: Fierceness To Pacific Classic<\/p>\n Before making it official, Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher wanted to make sure things went well on Sunday. Things went well on Sunday. That means that 4-year-old Fierceness (City of Light<\/a>) is heading west to run in Saturday’s GI, $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar.<\/p>\n In order to make that happen, Pletcher had to like what he saw when 4-year-old Mindframe (Constitution<\/a>) worked four furlongs in company with 3-year-old stablemate Classicist (Curlin<\/a>). Mindframe\u00a0 was timed in 49.45 (52\/112) and is being pointed to the GI, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup next Sunday afternoon at Saratoga.<\/p>\n Fierceness (outside), White Abarrio and Sierra Leone in the Whitney | Sarah Andrew<\/p>\n Pletcher said he did not want to run the two against each other until the Nov. 1 GI, $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, so Fierceness is likely to be on a plane to California Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s obviously not an easy race by any means, assuming Nysos (Nyquist<\/a>) and Journalism (Curlin<\/a>) are in there,\u201d Pletcher, outside his office at the Oklahoma Training Track Sunday morning, said about the Pacific Classic. \u201cI think the timing for the Breeders’ Cup Classic is good; it gives us a little extra time.\u201d<\/p>\n Fierceness, owned by Repole Stable, Derrick Smith, Michael Tabor and Mrs. John Magnier, will be ridden by Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez in the Pacific Classic. Pletcher is not sure yet if he will fly west; his assistant Sophie Green will accompany Fierceness.<\/p>\n He said that Fierceness, fifth in the GI Whitney Stakes in his last start, will return to Saratoga after the race. Where he and the other Pletcher horses go after the Saratoga meet ends has yet to be determined.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year, we stayed here, and it seemed to work out fine,\u201d Pletcher said. \u201cWe will have to see what the weather does. We could go to Belmont, we could go to Keeneland.\u201d<\/p>\n Mindframe, owned by Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable, will be joined by stablemate Antiquarian (Preservationist) in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Owned by Centennial Farms, Antiquarian worked four furlongs in 48.65 (17\/112) in company with 3-year-old stablemate Endorse (Curlin<\/a>) Sunday on the main track.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. \u2013 At 6:30 Sunday morning, Sovereignty (Into Mischief), the hero of the 156h GI, $1.25…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[8089,45436,45437,45093,45438,44396,45439,30875,24061,42295,3004,33488,7563,36861,8092,101,37639,15324,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-91135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-bill-mott","tag-fieceness","tag-gi-breeders-cup-classic","tag-gi-pacific-classic","tag-gi-personal-ensign-stakes","tag-gi-travers-stakes","tag-judy-hicks","tag-junior-alvarado","tag-kenny-mcpeek","tag-mindframe","tag-racing","tag-repole-stable","tag-saratoga","tag-saratoga-notebook-presented-by-nyra","tag-sovereignty","tag-sports","tag-thorpedo-anna","tag-todd-pletcher","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Thorpedo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Thorpedo-Anna-with-Danny-Ramsey-morning-after-Personal-Ensign-win-08-24-2025-5SA_8877-PRINT-Sarah-An.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Fireceness](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Fierceness-White-Abarrio-Sierra-Leone-Whitney-start-SA6_3890-PRINT-Sarah-Andrew.jpg\")
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