Sometimes a rivalry falls short of the hype. But no such thing happened Saturday at Saratoga Race Course when in almost a repeat of the Kentucky Derby, Sovereignty ran past Journalism in mid-stretch to win the 157th running of the Belmont Stakes.

The conversation would have been quite different if Sovereignty had run in the Preakness Stakes and won. If that were the case he would have been the 14th winner of the Triple Crown.

Rodriguez and Crudo, as expected, were the front runners going into the first turn of the 1 1/4-mile race. But as the horses went down the backstretch Journalism started to get engaged with Sovereignty close by. Entering the homestretch, Journalism poked his head in front as Rodriguez began to fall back. Sovereignty was working his way to the outside of Journalism and with 200 yards to go moved swiftly to the front and won by three lengths.

Just like in the Kentucky Derby, Baeza was third. Rodriguez finished fourth. Sovereignty paid $7.00 to win.

“I think there are three really good horses and I’m glad he was able to come back and put in a race like he did in the Derby,” said winning trainer Bill Mott.

“If we wouldn’t have won today, we would have taken a lot of criticism, but it turned out good. Sometimes you make the right decision and a lot of times you make the wrong ones, but today it really worked out well.”

It was the first time in 22 Triple Crown races that there was a repeat Triple Crown race winner, a streak going back to Justify in 2018.

It was also the first Belmont Stakes win for jockey Junior Alvarado.

“He’s amazing and he taught me to keep going to put me in this place,” Alvarado said. “My family has always been a big rock, my top supporters and helped me through tough moments in my life.”

Even though there was no Triple Crown on the line, racing had something that it desperately needed to help make it relevant again, a rivalry. It was the first time in 12 years that the top three finishers in the Kentucky Derby raced in the Belmont Stakes.

Adding to the intrigue is that the connections of Sovereignty, winner of the Derby, elected to not run in the Preakness because of the short turnaround of two weeks. It flew in the face of tradition where it’s almost expected that the winner on the first Saturday in May must run in the Preakness to keep the Triple Crown buzz alive.

But Mott and Godolphin, the colt’s ownership group, decided that running in Belmont was the better move.