By A Mobridge native trained the horse that won the 2025 Kentucky Derby.
It was the second Kentucky Derby victory for Bill Mott, 71, who started training horses when he was 15 and won the South Dakota Futurity before he graduated from high school.
Mott
His horse Sovereignty edged the favorite Journalism on Saturday, May 3 on a muddy track at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.
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He also trained 2019 Kentucky Derby winner Country House and 2010 Belmont Stakes winner Drosselmeyer, though most would consider Cigar the most popular and successful horse Mott has trained. Cigar was named American Horse of the Year in 1995 and 1996 and won 16 straight races starting in October 1994.
Both Sovereignty and Country House won in sloppy conditions at Churchill Downs, but in vastly different fashions. Country House was a 65-1 long shot and ascended into first after Maximum Security appeared to win, but was disqualified for interfering with other horses in the race. That came after a lengthy review by race officials.
Saturday, there was no doubt and no controversy. Sovereignty was not the favorite, but had reasonable 7-1 odds.
Mott was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1998 when he was 45 — the youngest thoroughbred trainer to ever be inducted. He’s the fourth-winningest trainer ever in terms of money earned and has won more than 5,400 races during his career.
Four times — in 1995, 1996, 2011 and 2023 — Mott has won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer.