Bill Mott eyes Belmont at Saratoga, sidesteps Preakness with Chief Wallabee

Bill Mott gave the middle jewel of the Triple Crown a blunt diagnosis: “Nobody talks about the Preakness.” With Chief Wallabee coming off a fourth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, the Hall of Fame trainer said the conversation in his barn is already shifting to Saratoga, where the Belmont Stakes will be run this year.

Mott said, “The Belmont at Saratoga; we need to discuss that,” making clear that Chief Wallabee is likely to ship north rather than head to Maryland for the Preakness on May 16 at Laurel Park. That decision would keep one of the Derby’s more intriguing closers away from a race that has already been starved of star power in recent years.

Chief Wallabee ran fourth in the Derby in just his fourth career start, a sharp rise for a colt who entered Louisville with 50 qualifying points after finishing second in the Fountain of Youth Stakes and third in the Florida Derby. Mott called the Derby effort “very courageous,” saying the colt was bumped at mid-stretch, kept coming and was “still trying.” Owned by Michael Ball and Katherine Ball, Chief Wallabee has moved quickly enough to remain on the Belmont trail, and Mott said he was “thrilled with the way he ran” and with how much progress the colt has made since the start of the year.

The timing gives the move real weight. The Belmont Stakes Racing Festival will be held at Saratoga Race Course from June 3 through June 7, with the Belmont itself set for Saturday, June 6. That makes Saratoga the new center of gravity for the final leg of the Triple Crown, while the Preakness, because Pimlico Race Course is being rebuilt, will be staged away from Baltimore for the first time in 2026 at Laurel Park. Pimlico is expected to reopen in 2027 after demolition and redevelopment.

The broader problem is impossible to ignore. Since Justify swept the Triple Crown in 2018, the Preakness has repeatedly gone on without a horse with a real shot at the full sweep, and Sovereignty’s absence in 2025 was another year without a Triple Crown winner in play. After Mott passed on the Preakness with Sovereignty last year, 1/ST Racing said it respected the decision. Mike Repole has gone further, publicly arguing that the two-week Derby-to-Preakness turnaround reflects a lack of vision and leadership and suggesting the Belmont should move to second in the series.

For a race that once sat at the center of the spring calendar, the Preakness now faces a relevance test. Mott’s next move with Chief Wallabee only sharpens it, because Saratoga’s Belmont is starting to look like the more meaningful destination.