By the time jockey Junior Alvarado let the colt loose at the top of the stretch, there was nothing left to settle — only admiration to offer.

His passing leaves a gap that stretches from Belmont Park to Santa Anita from Gulfstream Park to any track or sales ring in Kentucky.

Seven older horses with more than $26 million in combined earnings are entered.

Sovereignty bested Journalism on Saturday in a Kentucky Derby rematch to win the 157th Belmont Stakes, and the second hosted at Saratoga.

Move the Preakness to Memorial Day weekend, creating a 3-to-4 week gap between the first and second legs of the Triple Crown.

On Sunday, trainer Bill Mott talked like a man who was not determined to run Sovereignty, the Kentucky Derby winner, in the Preakness Stakes.

Bill Mott said that he and the Godolphin racing braintrust will make their decision based on what is best for Sovereignty’s entire racing career, not simply what everybody will be talking about for the next five weeks.

For more than 23 minutes, the replay of Sovereignty’s rousing, splash through the mud romp to win Kentucky Derby 151 replayed on the TV monitors to Bill Mott’s left in the Churchill Downs interview room Saturday.