This year, the Florida and Arkansas derbies are a bit more than just a Last Chance Saloon for Derby hopefuls looking to strike it big with a win-and-you’re-in ticket to Louisville on May 3. This Saturday’s two formidable Grade 1 preps, with purses of $1 million and $1.5 million respectively, dovetail perfectly with each other to test the rich, if more-than-slightly unknown, talents of the Triple Crown Class of 2025. That’s exactly what they’re meant to do.

The Oaklawn race has famously drawn Bob-Baffert-trained Cornucopian and the daunting Coal Battle as favorites; Gulfstream will answer that on Saturday with William Mott’s power-man hot favorite Sovereignty, and Bob Baffert’s Madaket Road. Ominously and entertainingly, lurking just behind those two in the morning line is the double-barreled threat of Todd Pletcher’s aptly-named Disruptor. Players will be delightfully challenged trying to box those three runners into workable exotics.

Update: Late in the racing day on 26 March, talented jockey Tyler Gaffalione unfortunately suffered a broken left ankle in a post parade incident prior to a race at Gulfstream. His mount in the fillies’ claiming race, China Blue, acted up, pinning Gaffalione’s leg against a barrier. The jockey’s return to active duty has not yet been announced, but it has been announced that he will not be riding Baffert’s Madaket Road in the Florida Derby. He has been replaced with Mike Smith.

Aside from his name and his winning trainer, Disruptor also literally bears the enormous threat of jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., in his tack. Ortiz has won the Florida Derby (pictured top, winning in 2023 aboard champion Forte) exactly twice before, as well as the track’s signature big-money race, the Pegasus World Cup, also twice. Not stopping there, Ortiz has also won the Pegasus Turf four times. Suffice it to say, he knows what Gulfstream, the track, requires tactically, and he knows that intimately, down on a molecular level.

This is what horsemen mean when they say that the Ortiz brothers are fearsome when mounted against them.

But before we dive into what Sovereignty and Madaket Road are going to have before them in a challenger like that with a jockey like that, herewith, a refresher on the talent, their post positions, trainers, jockeys and their position in the morning line.

Post Position, Horse, Jockey, Trainer, Morning Line Odds

1. Neoequos, Edgard Zayas, Saffie Joseph Jr., 10-1

2. Cool Intentions, Javier Castellano, Jorge Delgado, 20-1

3. Smoken Boy, Edgar Perez, Cheryl Winebaugh, 30-1

4. Disruptor, Irad Ortiz Jr., Todd Pletcher, 4-1

5. Indecisiveness, Jorge Ruiz, Ruben Sierra, 30-1

6. Jimmy’s Dailys, Joel Rosario, Brian Lynch, 12-1

7. Enterdadragon, Dylan Davis, Jose D’Angelo, 30-1

8. Madaket Road, Mike Smith*, Bob Baffert, 7-2

9. Tappan Street, Luis Saez, Brad Cox, 5-1

10. Sovereignty, Junior Alvarado, Bill Mott, 8-5

(Source: Gulfstream, 26.3.2025)

If there is a Hall of Fame trainer who wouldn’t flinch taking on Disruptor and Ortiz, the unflappable South Dakotan, William I. Mott, is prime among them. Mott brings an incomparable international 56-year career to Saturday’s race that cannot be reduced to mere numbers, although a couple of numbers do give us the flavor of the depth and breadth of his accomplishments. According to the National Museum of Racing, home of the Hall of Fame, his lifetime purse earnings through 2024 tally up at $353,068, 837, including 5475 outright victories, putting him at No. 4 in purses and No. 7 in number of victories of any Hall of Fame trainer stretching back to the 1830s.

For his part, Mott’s current white-hot athlete, Sovereignty, comes into Saturday’s contest in Hallandale already having won enough Kentucky Derby prep-race points, namely 60, so as not to need the 100-50-25-15-10 breakdown conferred on the top five finishers. Yes, as usual, a finish out of the money for the 8-5 contender would concern any trainer saddling him this close to the run for the blanket of roses, but generally speaking, for Sovereignty’s team, the pressure of having to “earn” the stall in the Churchill gate is off.

Sovereignty is hot because he’s hot, and to the extent that any three-year-old has raced enough to demonstrate preferences or what we might call a “style,” the colt is a deep closer. More precisely put, for a three-year-old, he put on an amazing deep close earlier this month in the March 1 Fountain of Youth under Junior Alvarado at Gulfstream, running most of the race in dead last behind the arguably too-hot pace set by Neoequos, who is very much in Saturday’s Florida Derby. Alvarado began their move in the far turn, threading up through the six-horse field until the top of the stretch, and then turned on the afterburners in the last couple of furlongs to sail past the front of the pack. Sovereignty looked like he ate the wire and galloped out looking for more distance with his commanding, one-length win. Neoequos managed to hold on to finish in a semi-game show.

As we know, the Fountain of Youth is run at a mile-and-a-sixteenth. It’s going to be tough to beat a Sovereignty run like that one at this Saturday’s mile-and-an-eighth.