“If I ever had a good horse like that, I would like to share him with everybody,” Bob Baffert had said to his brother when he first saw Cigar at Del Mar. That legendary colt put Bill Mott on a pedestal and was the benchmark for trainers like Bob Baffert when it came to a majestic thoroughbred. Now, decades later, Bill Mott has found another colt who is storming the tracks and lighting it up in a dominant fashion.

It won’t be wrong to say that 2025 has been Sovereignty’s year. He announced his arrival with a commanding win at the Kentucky Derby on May 3. And the three-year-old has not looked back since. Simply put, the Into Mischief colt has kept on winning any race he has entered. And not just any race. We are talking about America’s premier G1 races. And now, after his Travers Stakes win on August 23, the Bill Mott trainee is truly in a league of his own.

The news of the unbelievable achievement was shared by Darin Zoccali, a fellow racehorse owner himself, signifying the gravity of what Sovereignty has done. The tweet read, “Sovereignty is the first horse in horse racing history to win the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, Jim Dandy, Travers.” And then, Zoccali dropped a little prophecy of himself. “In two months, he’ll add the Breeders Cup Classic to that resume.”

Well, going by the season Sovereignty is having, it would be bold not to think that he would win. Just look at what he has achieved: Two Triple Crown race wins, the G2 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga, and now, he has gone and done something nobody has ever done, not even Secretariat, not even Bob Baffert’s 2 Triple Crown thoroughbreds, American Pharoah and Justify.

In light of this, one has to wonder what may have been the outcome if Bill Mott had entered his champion thoroughbred in the Preakness Stakes. Yes, Sovereignty was rested for the second Triple Crown race of the season—won by Journalism—but should he have been given the opportunity to vie for the Triple Crown? The other two times, too, it was Journalism who was the odds-on favorite, but Sovereignty made the season his own. Even his jockey, Junior Alvarado, has had to admit, “This is the horse of a lifetime.”

The Travers Stakes was a coveted G1 race with a first prize of $687,500. And the way Bill Mott’s colt has claimed it really doesn’t bode well for his competitors.

Can Bob Baffert stop Sovereignty from claiming the season?

Everyone likes to be a winner. And being a Breeders’ Cup Champion has a nice ring to it. But maybe Bob Baffert needs it more than any other renowned trainer out there. In contrast to Bill Mott and Sovereignty, Baffert’s 2025 has been subpar to say the least. If you leave out his Del Mar mojo, the season looks even worse.

Well, luckily enough, the 2025 Breeders’ Cup Championship is being hosted by the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. This is the racetrack where Bob Baffert has found the most success in his career. He sure will hope the good old times roll back and his stellar thoroughbred journey gets a second wind with the help of his lucky track and his 4-year-old colt Nysos.

The Nyquist-sired horse is Baffert’s bet to challenge every other Champion horse in the Breeders’ Cup Classic field come November 1. But at the end of the day, can he ignore the big obstacle that will be Bill Mott’s newest Champion? Winning a race like the Travers by 10 lengths is just a scary sight. Not just that, Sovereignty even clocked the third-fastest time in the race’s history – running home the final post in 2:00.84.

They say, to be the best, you have to beat the best. These words have never rung truer as Bob Baffert gets ready to challenge Sovereignty at his Del Mar.