LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- On Sunday, trainer Bill Mott talked like a man who was not determined to run Sovereignty, the Kentucky Derby 151 winner, in the Preakness Stakes.

On Tuesday, official word came that the colt will bypass the second race in the Triple Crown on May 17 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. Instead, Mott said the focus will be on preparing Sovereignty for the Belmont Stakes on June 7.

"We received a call today from trainer Bill Mott that Sovereignty will not be competing in the Preakness," Mike Rogers, executive vice president of 1/ST Racing, which owns Pimlico, said in a written statement Tuesday. "Bill informed us they would point toward the Belmont Stakes. "We extend our congratulations to the connections of Sovereignty and respect their decision. We continue to see the excitement building toward the milestone celebration of the 150th Preakness Stakes, and we look forward to an incredible weekend of world-class racing and entertainment."

The decision ensures there will not be a Triple Crown winner this year. Sovereignty is the first Derby winner to skip the Preakness since Rich Strike three years ago. In 2021, Mandaloun, a colt that won the Derby on a disqualification, also skipped the Preakness.

And Mott did not run Country House in the 2019 Preakness after the horse was sidelined with a virus. Country House was the first Derby winner to bypass the Preakness in 23 years.

In 2018, Justify became the 13th and last Triple Crown winner. But the decision by Godolphin and Mott is certain to reignite the discussion that the spacing of the Triple Crown series needs to be redesigned. A growing number of trainers are uncomfortable racing their 3-year-old horses three times in five weeks.

Mott has raced just two horses at the Preakness in his Hall of Fame career, and just one of those, Taylor's Special, also ran in the Derby. In 1984, Taylor's Special  finished 13th in the Derby and fourth in the Preakness. His other Preakness horse, Riley Tucker, skipped the 2008 Derby.

He has stables in Kentucky and New York. With the track at Belmont Park undergoing its second year of renovations, the Belmont will be run at Saratoga (N.Y.) Race Course this year, at a distance of 1 1/4 miles, not the traditional Belmont 1 1/2 miles.

Mott is a conservative horseman who wants his top runners to have long, successful careers. Asking a colt to run 1 3/16th miles only 14 days after the grind of the mile-and-a-quarter Derby was a plan that Mott questioned.

"I think, over the years, people realize that spacing these (horses') races out a little bit gives them the opportunity to make them last a little longer," Mott said. "We're looking at a career, a career to last more than five weeks."

Sovereignty raced three times last year as a 2-year-old with at least 30 days between starts. His races this winter and spring have been spaced from March 1 to March 29 to May 3.

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