Magnitude was seen as the only conceivable danger to the favourite in the market as he came into this race on the back of a victory in the Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows. He helped to set the race up, running the fastest opening 2-furlongs in 12.42 and 11.07s, but all he really did was ensure this race was run at a good pace and once headed with 4-furlongs to run, he was quickly beaten. Bracket Buster took over, briefly, but this was akin to watching an athletics trial where the various pacemakers lead the Gold medal winner into the closing stages and once Junior Alvarado got into Sovereignty, the champion responded almost instantly. He was the fastest horse over each of the final 5-furlongs of the race, which included an “eased down” final furlong of 12.68s, 1.13s faster than any of his 4 rivals. Much like his earlier victories in the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes, his top speed figure of 40.89 mph (ranked 5th of 5) was some way behind his rivals, but Sovereignty is not a sprinter and his ability to gallop on relentlessly is the key to his success. There aren’t many horses who win Travers’ Stakes eased down, by 10-lengths, let alone in times of 2:00.84. When his racing career comes to an end, there will be those who point to the fact that the runner-up, Bracket Buster, was a similar distance behind Journalism in the Haskell Stakes and as such this performance may be treated with some caution. However, the time and the data would suggest that this was an exceptional performance from the winner given the fact that he has largely had to produce a performance like this without the support of another top-class performer to tow him into the contest. Despite running the fastest individual splits over the final 5-furlongs, Sovereignty had enough left in the tank to increase his average stride frequency to 2.31 per second in the penultimate furlong, a race peak outside the opening 2-furlongs and it is obvious from the replay and the data, that he had more to give had it been required. Even if we allow for the fact that he has beaten inferior opposition, a point perhaps emphasised by the fact that he still had the fastest run-out speed in the field (31.09 mph) despite Alvarado easing down in the final furlong, he was still 0.86s faster than Fierceness was in 2024 over the final quarter of a mile. 

There have been a couple of times this year when I have been keen to take on Sovereignty, mainly because of the top speed data, but that now looks foolish at best. This horse simply doesn’t stop. There are some tougher tasks ahead. Sierra Leone is probably the best horse that Sovereignty will ever meet on the racecourse and it looks like we might have one of the best Breeders’ Cup Classics that we have seen, if they all make it to Del Mar in November. However, the data from this years Travers Stakes would suggest that there is still more to come from Sovereignty and if Sierra Leone can help to take him to another level, Sovereignty will have the chance to produce a performance that will make him an all time great at Del Mar.