NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty won the 157th Belmont Stakes on Saturday, surging past favoured Journalism just as he did at Churchill Downs to finish with two legs of this year’s Triple Crown.

After sitting out the Preakness, which was won in scintillating fashion by Journalism, Sovereignty returned to win the anticipated rematch convincingly, pulling away in the final straight to relegate Journalism to second once again.

Baeza was third to complete the repeat of the Kentucky Derby one-two-three.

Italian jockey Umberto Rispoli guided the Michael McCarthy-trained Journalism to the front as they turned for home, closely tracked by Sovereignty who was taken wide by jockey Junior Alvarado and powered past to win by three lengths.

Sovereignty, who had given the Godolphin stables a long-awaited first Kentucky Derby victory, became the first horse two win two legs of the Triple Crown since Justify became the 13th horse to sweep all three in 2018.

“It’s about two great horses,” Venezuela’s Alvarado told broadcaster Fox Sports. “[Journalism] ran amazing again for coming back after the Preakness. He fought very hard, but he didn’t make it easy for my horse.

“It’s surreal, to be honest,” Alvarado said. “There was a point in my career, I think probably four or five years ago, when I kind of saw everything fading away, to be honest. And now, here I am.”

Michael Banahan, Godolphin USA’s director of bloodstock, said the decision to give Sovereignty the five weeks’ rest he has become used to paid off.

“It’s the most fantastic feeling in the world,” Banahan said, adding that trainer Bill Mott had Sovereignty prepared to the minute … to come in here off the five weeks”.

“We knew he was a very good horse going into the Kentucky Derby, and he showed it that day,” Banahan said. “And to come back here again and beat a really, really good horse like Journalism today — running one-two again like they did in the Derby — it was a fantastic result for us here.”

Mott said the result justified the decision — controversial in some quarters as it robbed the sport of a chance to see a Triple Crown tilt — to skip the Preakness.

“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,” Mott said.

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

For the second-straight year the grade one race, with a purse of US$2 million, was run at Saratoga because of ongoing renovations at Belmont Park, the distance again reduced from the Belmont’s traditional 1 1/2 miles to 1 1/4. Journalism was the only horse to run in all three Triple Crown races this year.