Sovereignty tops huge day for Into Mischief with Whitney S. (G1) score

Into Mischief’s 2025 Horse of the Year Sovereignty rolled to a 4 ¾-length victory against an all-star field in Saturday’s $1 million Whitney S. (G1) at Saratoga. The 4-year-old was seeking his first win in 2026 after placing in both the Oaklawn H. (G2) and Stephen Foster S. (G1).

Sovereignty’s Whitney win came shortly after Into Mischief’s 2-year-old colt Hughes crushed the competition in Del Mar’s Best Pal S. (G3). Into Mischief now has 21 stakes winners and 13 graded winner this year, both totals the most for any North American sire.

The filly Nitrogen and Antiquarian were the early pacesetters, with Magnitude close up as well. Sovereignty, meanwhile was unhurried and was near the back of the seven-horse field for six furlongs and was in last midway down the backstretch. He began to make up ground while four-wide on the turn and was within three lengths of Nitrogen at the top of the stretch.

With a relentless drive in the center of the track, Sovereignty powered to the lead with a furlong to go and drew off from there, finishing the 1 1/8-miles in 1:47.91, just a little more than a second off the track record.

“[Winning] doesn’t surprise me,” trainer Bill Mott said. “We had a good racetrack, I said last time, there was a concern about the racetrack. It was sealed, probably a little slippery, for whatever reason, he didn’t finish up, but today he was getting a hold of it, as you could see, coming through the stretch. You know what is special? You hear the crowd when he showed back up in front of the winner’s circle? I mean, it was crazy. You just don’t hear that very often. I’ve been here all afternoon, I didn’t hear it for any other races, but I heard it for him. They were glad to see him back.”

The Godolphin homebred is now four-time Grade 1 winner and is 7-3-1 in 12 starts, while earning $6,876,550.

Mott said that Sovereignty will likely make his next start in the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) at Belmont Park before taking on the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) at Keeneland.

“Well [it has] has always been on our calendar, so if things go well, the timing is good.”