Jim Dandy Stakes Presented by Mohegan Sun (G2)

The drop back to 9-furlongs proved to be little more than a slight inconvenience for Sovereignty, who continued his domination of the 2025 generation with a relatively comfortable success in the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga. At a peak average of 24.61 ft, his long stride was more than enough to dispatch the game Baeza in 2nd and the yawning gap back to the others only served to emphasise the exceptional talent on show amongst the best of this years 3-year-old crop. Once again Sovereignty has bumped into faster horses, with his top speed figure of 38.63 mph ranked last of the 5-runner field, but his ability to maintain his cruising speed for such long periods is the key to his success. Despite being caught 3-wide around the turn, Junior Alvarado had no reason to panic and once into the straight, Sovereignty picked up again to run the fastest final 2-furlongs in the race, closing with splits of 12.08 and 12.71s. A winning time of 1:49.52 is only par for the course for this race, ranked 6th in the last 10 renewals, but with a tilt at the Travers Stakes clearly in mind, there was a definite sense that Sovereignty was being minded for another day. A fact backed up by the fact that he was eased with a run-out speed of 31.88 mph, ranked 4th of 5.

This was close to a career best from the runner-up Baeza, and in time, being just 0.21s slower than Sovereignty over the final quarter of a mile may well be seen as a superb performance. However, Hector Berrios enjoyed the run of the race for the opening 6-furlongs and with his stick in his left hand, he drove his mount and subsequently Sovereignty, wider into the straight. At 39.19 mph, Baeza had the highest top speed figure in the field and having run 11.62s for the 4th furlong, the fastest individual split in the race, there is little more that he could have done. A run-out speed of 34.19 mph was another “race best” figure and in any other year, Baeza’s performance may well have been enough to be an impressive winner of this race. After all, he did put 9-lengths between himself and the pair of G3 winners that finished 3rd and 4th, Hill Road and Mo Plex. There’s every chance that Baeza will be able to add a Grade 1 success to his CV when the likes of Sovereignty and Journalism aren’t around, but in an exceptional year, he seems unlikely to reverse this form. 

Journalism was an exceptional winner of the Haskell Stakes, but as good as he is, Sovereignty has put him in his place on 2 occasions and did nothing to raise any doubts over that form when winning this year’s Jim Dandy Stakes. At this stage, he would appear to be the world’s best 3-year-old.