The pre-race favorite at the Kentucky Derby, Journalism, fell just short of taking the crown as Sovereignty prevailed in the sloppy Churchill Downs track. While Journalism’s team took their sweet time, they finally decided to throw in the hat for the Preakness 150 on Sunday, May 11. The three-year-old opened as the Preakness Stakes favorite on Monday. While Journalism finally chose to run at the ‘Middle Jewel’ of the Triple Crown, Sovereignty didn’t.

Sovereignty’s trainer, Bill Mott, informed the vice president of 1/ST Racing, Mike Rogers, that the 2025 Derby winner won’t run at the Pimlico Race Course. The decision meant horse racing fans said goodbye to the possibility of getting a Triple Crown winner for the 7th year in a row. “We extend our congratulations to the connections of Sovereignty and respect their decision,” Rodgers said in his statement. For the second time in four years, a Derby winner had pulled out with concerns over a quick turnaround. It’s a debate that’s been raging on for decades.

At the center of this debate is a question: Is the two-week gap between the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes too short? Well, for Oaklawn Racing Track announcer and TV analyst Matt Dinerman, the answer is simple. On the day Journalism won the 150th edition of the Preakness crown after finishing as the Kentucky Derby runner-up, Dinerman posted a list looking back at over a decade of Derby and Preakness Stakes participants.

“Let’s analyze the last 15 years of horses who have come back in two weeks from the Kentucky Derby to the Preakness to run just fine,” the analyst wrote in the post. The list took a comprehensive look at some of the top horses who managed the two-week turnaround to win or place among the top of the pack in both races, and especially the Preakness. The list went back all the way to Preakness winner Lookin At Lucky (Trainer: Bob Baffert) in 2010.

Matt Dinerman gave his verdict. “Don’t think this list supports the notion that we need to change the spacing from the Kentucky Derby to the Preakness,” added the announcer. Yet, things are not so black and white. Like Steve Asmussen, the winningest trainer in North America, said as per NBC, “It’s a question that has more than one side to it.”

Another side of the Kentucky Derby-Preakness Stakes debate

The other side of the debate springs from a clash of tradition vs. modernity. On one hand, you have the old school of trainers, such as D. Wayne Lukas, Bob Baffert, and others. Baffert broke the 37-year Triple Crown drought with American Pharoah in 2015. What’s more? The legendary trainer did it again in 2018 with Justify. While those wins quieted down the debate, it’s raging again.

That’s because racing fans have not seen another Triple Crown winner in seven years. Meanwhile, Sovereignty became the second horse in four years to pull out, citing the quick turnaround. That’s because trainers like Bill Mott are putting their horses over the Triple Crown. The 2025 Kentucky Derby didn’t say anything concrete about the Preakness after winning the Kentucky Derby.

“Of course, you always think about a Triple Crown, and that’s not something we’re not going to think about,” Mott said after winning the race. He also said Sovereignty’s health would come first. “We want to do what’s best for the horse,” Bill Mott told the media at Churchill Downs. Later, Mott was quite blunt when explaining why he and the team decided to skip Preakness.

“I think over the years, people realize spacing these horses out a little bit gives you the opportunity to make them last a little longer, and I think we’re looking at a career. We want the career to last more than five weeks,” said the renowned trainer. That’s quite a different approach to what the more old-school trainers who have won, or at least made their horses run the Triple Crown, think.

In fact, stable owner Mike Repole recently suggested a complete revamp of the entire Triple Crown system. “The Preakness being run two weeks after the Kentucky Derby, in this new day and age in racing, shows the lack of vision and leadership needed to evolve this sport,” he posted on May 6. Repole’s solution? Move the Belmont Stakes to the middle leg and increase the gap to 4 weeks.

NBC Sports, Mike Tirico, Jerry Bailey, and Randy Moss debated the current system on Preakness Stakes Day. While Moss didn’t spell out a new system, he did say the current “broken” citing the lack of a Kentucky Derby runner showing up at the Preakness. “The one-two-three finishers of the Derby have only come back in the Preakness now twice in the last 17 years,” said the analyst. 

On the flip side, fellow panelists didn’t completely agree. “It is troubling…” said Jerry Bailey. “It’s completely flip-flopped from my generation when it was the rule that they would run back and the exception that they wouldn’t,” said the veteran analyst. So while it’s undeniable that horse racing is evolving, it’s also true that this debate of mentalities won’t die down easily, especially if we don’t get a Triple Crown winner soon.