Citizen Bull, Sovereignty give Into Mischief a potent 1-2 Derby punch

Citizen Bull and Sovereignty will be in opposite ends of the Kentucky Derby (G1) starting gate Saturday at Churchill Downs, when both will attempt to become Into Mischief’s third winner of the Run for the Roses.

A victory by either would tie Into Mischief for the all-time record for Derby winners, and he would be the first sire in more than a half-century to accomplish the feat.

Citizen Bull, last year’s 2-year-old champion colt, drew post 1 with jockey Martin Garcia in the 20-horse field. The colt is trained by Bob Baffert, who also conditioned Into Mischief’s son Authentic to a Derby win in 2020.

Citizen Bull, who is a three-time graded winner of $1,451,000, is owned by SF Racing LLC (Gavin Murphy), Starlight Racing (Jack Wolf), Madaket Stables LLC (Sol Kumin), Stonestreet Stables LLC (Barbara Banke), Dianne Bashor, Determined Stables (Matt Dorman), Robert E. Masterson, Tom J. Ryan, Waves Edge Capital LLC (W. Gregg Slager) & Catherine Donovan.

Bred by Robert and Lawana Low, Citizen Bull sold to his owners for $675,000 at the 2023 Keeneland September sale.

Sovereignty drew near the far outside, in post 18, and will be ridden by Junior Alvarado. Trained by Bill Mott, the Godolphin homebred took the Florida route to Kentucky, winning the Fountain of Youth S. (G2) and finishing a fast-closing second to Tappan Street in the Florida Derby (G1).

The third foal out of the Bernardini mare Crowned, Sovereignty’s second dam is the Grade 1-winning millionaire Mushka.

Into Mischief, who leads the 2025 General Sire list in nearly every category, has a total of nine horses entered in graded stakes across the Kentucky Oaks (G1) and Derby cards.

Post time for the Derby, race 12 on the card, is 6:57 pm ET.