Tales from the Crib: Sovereignty

Mar 09, 2025 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

Baby Sovereignty jumps for joy next to mother Crowned

Baby Sovereignty jumps for joy next to mother Crowned (Photo courtesy of Godolphin)

Named in honor of one of the three principal foundation sires of the Thoroughbred, Godolphin is synonymous with excellence on a global scale. Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum’s elite operation has won prestigious races all over the world, from the original Derby (G1) at Epsom to Australia’s famed Melbourne Cup (G1) and 20 Breeders’ Cup titles, but the Kentucky Derby (G1) has so far eluded them.

If Sovereignty can break through at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May, the homebred would be an especially fitting Derby winner for Godolphin. He is out of a mare by homebred Bernardini, who gave Sheikh Mohammed his first victory in a U.S. Triple Crown race in the 2006 Preakness (G1). Voted champion three-year-old male for his winning streak including the Travers (G1) and Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1), Bernardini has left an enduring legacy at stud.

Bernardini was bred and campaigned in the name of Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley Stable, another entity named after a key Thoroughbred foundation sire. Interestingly, Bernardini was closely related to the dam (mother) of Godolphin’s promising Poster, who is also making noise on the Derby trail.

Godolphin was envisioned as an international enterprise from its beginnings in the 1990s. The original concept was to send select horses, owned by the Maktoum family and based in Great Britain, to winter in Dubai. The great filly Balanchine proved the viability of such a Dubai sojourn when she went on to capture the 1994 Oaks (G1) at Epsom and defeat males in the Irish Derby (G1).

In the ensuing years, the Godolphin project has expanded far beyond its initial idea. The worldwide operation is entrenched in Australia and Japan as well as Europe and the United States. The famed Godolphin blue silks also loom large during the Carnival season in Dubai, leading up to the all-star Dubai World Cup (G1) night extravaganza.

Sheikh Mohammed’s driving ambition to showcase Dubai has been a factor in his Kentucky Derby designs. Godolphin’s first seven runners in the Kentucky Derby wintered in Dubai, but none could pull a “Balanchine,” and all ended up unplaced at Churchill Downs – Worldly Manner (1999), China Visit and Curule (2000), Express Tour (2001), Essence of Dubai (2002), and Regal Ransom and Desert Party (2009).

Yet in fairness, the Dubai angle might have worked, if Godolphin’s best alumni of that program had any luck. Street Cry was knocked out of the 2001 Derby by an ankle injury. Judging by his scintillating 2002 campaign, including a rout of the Stephen Foster (G1) at Churchill, Street Cry poses a gnawing what-if about missing the Derby. (He would sire 2007 Derby champion Street Sense along with Hall of Famer Zenyatta and Australian wonder mare Winx.)

Thunder Snow offers a different kind of what-if. He competed on the European turf before switching to dirt in Dubai, and he did make it to the starting gate in the 2017 Derby. But his race was over in the initial strides, when he reacted to the wet surface and turned into a bucking bronco. Considering that Thunder Snow went on to win the Dubai World Cup twice – the only horse in history to do so – and placed in every other U.S. start including the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), he arguably would have been right there in the Derby finish on a dry track. If only it hadn’t rained!

The Godolphin brain trust has adjusted the strategy with their leading U.S. prospects, keeping them stateside instead of transferring them to Dubai. That didn’t improve the chances of Alpha (2012) and Enticed (2018), but Godolphin did get much better results with fourth-placer Frosted (2015) and champion Essential Quality, who was elevated to third in the 2021 Derby. Sovereignty fits that encouraging paradigm.

Sovereignty’s dam, Crowned, was a $1.2 million yearling purchase at Keeneland September in 2014. Although she never raced, Crowned proved to be a valuable addition to the Godolphin broodmare band because of her own deep female line.

Crowned is out of Mushka, a Grade 1-winning millionaire by 2003 Belmont (G1) star Empire Maker. Mushka romped in the 2007 Demoiselle (G2) on the dirt at Aqueduct, but she ended up being more productive on turf and synthetic surfaces. Awarded the 2009 Spinster (G1) via disqualification on Keeneland’s old Polytrack, Mushka went on to place second in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic (G1) (which subsequently reverted to its original name, the Distaff).

Mushka is in turn out of Sluice, a minor stakes winner on turf at old Arlington Park. Sluice was royally bred herself as a daughter of the influential Seeking the Gold and four-time Grade 1 queen Lakeway, who lost the 1994 Kentucky Oaks (G1) by a head.

The presence of Seeking the Gold in his ancestry gives Sovereignty another poignant connection to Godolphin, for Seeking the Gold sired the all-time great Dubai Millennium. Himself a homebred for Sheikh Mohammed, Dubai Millennium was equally devastating at the highest level on both turf and dirt. His most iconic moment came in the 2000 Dubai World Cup, as he ran away with the race that had inspired his very name – a horse of destiny.

Sovereignty’s great-great grandmother, Lakeway, furnishes further American classic bloodlines. By 1977 Triple Crown legend Seattle Slew, Lakeway is out of a mare by Alydar, who missed narrowly to Affirmed in all three jewels in 1978.

Moreover, Lakeway comes from the immediate family of 1976 Kentucky Derby and Belmont champion Bold Forbes. The female line descends from Nellie Morse, who beat the boys in the 1924 Preakness.

Thus Crowned had plenty of genetic material to contribute as a broodmare. She appeared to be getting off to a fine start when her first foal, the Into Mischief filly Jane Grey, scored a good-looking debut win at Saratoga in 2020.

Unfortunately, Jane Grey was sidelined thereafter and ultimately didn’t fulfill her abundant promise.

But in the meantime, the Godolphin team sent Crowned back to Into Mischief again and again, and their persistence would reap rewards. Her second foal, Misintention, was unable to add to the family record, but her third foal turned out to be Sovereignty.

“I like to try matings multiple times if I feel it really is the right one for a particular mare,” Godolphin’s Director of Bloodstock, Michael Banahan, said. “Jane Grey certainly wouldn’t have dissuaded me from going back again from her looks or early two-year-old ability.”

Sovereignty was born Feb. 22, 2022, and the bay colt was a model youngster throughout every stage of development at Godolphin’s Gainsborough Farm near Versailles, Kentucky.

“From my perspective,” Banahan recalled, “he was straightforward and never had any bad days.”

Crowned stays aware of her surroundings as baby Sovereignty stands behind her

Crowned stays aware of her surroundings as Sovereignty stands behind (Photo courtesy of Godolphin)

Baby Sovereignty senses something in the air

Baby Sovereignty senses something in the air (Photo courtesy of Godolphin)

Danny Mulvihill, Gainsborough’s farm manager, elaborated upon Sovereignty’s smooth passage through early life.

“As a foal and yearling, Sovereignty was low maintenance all the way through. No issues along the way; he just did everything easily and grew up like we hope they all would – drama free,” Mulvihill said. “Looking back on notes and vet records, nothing stands out other than he was a nice foal and a very nice yearling.

Sovereignty as a foal in the paddock

Sovereignty was well made even as a foal (Photo courtesy of Godolphin)

“In the yearling barn, he really developed into a big solid colt and was a man amongst boys in his barn,” Mulvihill added. “Although he has a very good temperament, he was without a doubt, the Alpha male in his field group.”

Like fellow Godolphin homebred East Avenue, Sovereignty was sent to Bridlewood Farm in Ocala, Florida, for his early education under the tutelage of Joan “Meda” Murphy. Rival Derby hopeful Journalism also went to school at Bridlewood.

Last spring, Sovereignty graduated to the Saratoga barn of Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, who knows the family well. Mott trained not only Sovereignty’s sisters, but generations going back to grandma Mushka and great-grandma Sluice as well.

While Sovereignty took three starts to break his maiden, he ran well every time. He closed from last for an eye-catching fourth in his six-furlong debut at Saratoga, in the typically informative Travers Day maiden. Up to a one-turn mile at Aqueduct the next month, Sovereignty went much closer when his late rally came up just a head short of Praetor.

Sovereignty put it all together in resounding fashion in his first two-turn attempt in the Oct. 27 Street Sense (G3). Last entering the far turn at Churchill, the 1.43-1 favorite uncorked a sustained move out wide to strike the front in midstretch. Even better, Sovereignty rapidly opened up by five lengths in stakes-record time.

Not seen again until the March 1 Fountain of Youth (G2), Sovereignty might have been expected to find the short stretch going 1 1/16 miles at Gulfstream Park against him, especially off the bench. But the maturing three-year-old was sharper than he was at two, and Sovereignty went through his gears faster to nab River Thames in time.

Now Sovereignty is fueling hopes that he can score an historic Kentucky Derby victory for Godolphin, the culmination of a quest three decades in the making.

With special thanks to Jim Cox, head of marketing for Darley America, for his assistance

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