Sports
Trainer listens to Derby winner Sovereignty, opts to skip Preakness
Jockey Junior Alvarado celebrated after riding Sovereignty to victory in the 151st Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. May 3, 2025 Preakness Stakes officials confirmed on Tuesday that Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty will not compete in the second leg of the Triple Crown.
“We received a call today from trainer Bill Mott that Sovereignty will not be competing in the Preakness,” said Mike Rogers, executive vice president of 1/ST, which operates Pimlico. “We extend our congratulations to the connections of Sovereignty and respect their decision. We continue to see the excitement building toward the milestone celebration of the 150th Preakness Stakes, and we look forward to an incredible weekend of world-class racing and entertainment.”
The decision means there won’t be a Triple Crown winner, which last occurred when Justify claimed all three races in 2018. Justify is also the most recent Kentucky Derby champion to win the Preakness, the middle leg of the three-race gauntlet.
Mott said after the call from Preakness officials on Sunday that the decision wouldn’t be taken lightly, ultimately following their perception of Sovereignty’s form and health in post-Derby sessions.
“We’ve got to consider all options with him. We certainly respect the Triple Crown and what it means,” Mott said, “but we’re not dead set on it. We’ll have to let the horse tell us how he’s doing in the next little while and then we’ll go from there.”
Second-place Derby finisher Journalism, who entered the 2025 Triple Crown as the favorite, and third-place Derby horse Baeza are not officially entered in the Preakness.
The Preakness is scheduled for May 17 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.
Sovereignty is expected to return for the Belmont Stakes on June 7 at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Ridden by Junior Alvarado and owned by Godolphin, Sovereignty won the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs last Saturday by 1 1/2 lengths over Journalism on a sloppy track.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Team Vitality, Team Spirit to clash in IEM Rio grand final
A backlit keyboard is part of the gear online video game streamer Jordan Woodruff uses in his Gilbert home.
Jordan Woodruff
Team Vitality and Team Spirit advanced to the grand final with semifinal victories Saturday at the $300,000 Intel Extreme Masters Rio event in Brazil.
Vitality blanked FURIA and Spirit did the same to Team Falcons. FURIA and Team Falcons will meet in the third-place match on Sunday before Vitality and Spirit face off in the grand final.
Sixteen Counter-Strike 2 teams have been competing this week for a top prize of $125,000.
The double-elimination group stage began with two groups of eight teams, with all matches best-of-three. The group winners advanced to the playoff semifinals, with the group runners-up entering the quarterfinals as high seeds and the third-place teams entering the quarterfinals as low seeds.
In the single-elimination playoffs, all matches have been best-of-three until Sunday’s best-of-five grand final.
On Saturday, Vitality took out FURIA 13-10 on both Overpass and Ancient. Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut of France paced the winning side with a 49-27 kill-death differential. For FURIA, Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato of Brazil posted a 36-28 K-D differential.
Spirit cruised past Team Falcons 13-7 on Dust II and 13-4 on Mirage, led by Russian Boris “magixx” Vorobiev’s K-D differential of 31-17. Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov of Russia led Falcons with a 28-27 K-D differential.
Play continues Sunday with the final two matches:
–Team Vitality vs. Team Spirit (grand final)
–FURIA vs. Team Falcons (third-place match)
IEM Rio prize pool:
1. $125,000
2. $50,000
3. $30,000
4. $20,000
5-6. $12,500 — MOUZ, Natus Vincere
7-8. $7,000 — G2 Esports, Aurora Gaming
9-12. $5,000 — RED Canids, 3DMAX, B8, HOTU
13-16. $4,000 — Gentle Mates, Team Liquid, Passion UA, Legacy
–Field Level Media
Sports
Team Falcons, BetBoom Team start fast at Wallachia Season 8
Xtreme Gaming, PARIVISION, Team Falcons and BetBoom Team won in sweeps as the PGL Wallachia Season 8 group stage opened on Saturday in Bucharest, Romania.
Other winners, by 2-1 scores, were Team Spirit, Team Liquid Aurora Gaming and HEROIC.
The $1 million Dota 2 tournament began Saturday with the 16-team group stage, which concludes Wednesday. Eight teams advance to the double-elimination playoffs on April 23-26. All matches are best-of-three until the best-of-five grand final.
Xtreme Gaming knocked off Natus Vincere in 44 and 34 minutes, both on green. PARIVISION took down MOUZ in 26 and 43 minutes, both on green.
BetBoom Team swept Virtus.pro in 34 and 40 minutes, both on green. Team Falcons dispatched Team Yandex in 49 minutes on green and 36 minutes on red.
Team Spirit dropped its opening map on green in 33 minutes to Vici Gaming, then rallied with wins in 58 minutes on red and 38 minutes on green.
Team Liquid won in 46 minutes, fell to GamerLegion in 39 minutes, then won the deciding map in 48 minutes — all winning teams on red.
Aurora Gaming took the opener in 41 minutes on red, then South America Rejects drew even with a 24-minute victory on green before Aurora triumphed in 32 minutes on red.
HEROIC started fast in 32 minutes on green, then Tundra Esports won a marathon of 65 minutes on green before HEROIC won in 39 minutes on red.
Sunday’s Round 2 schedule for 1-0 teams:
–Xtreme Gaming vs. Aurora Gaming
–Team Liquid vs. BetBoom Team
–Team Spirit vs. Team Falcons
–PARIVISION vs. HEROIC
Round 2 for 0-1 teams
–Vici Gaming vs. Natus Vincere
–MOUZ vs. GamerLegion
–Team Yandex vs. South America Rejects
–Tundra Esports vs. Virtus.pro
PGL Wallachia Season 8 prize pool:
1. $300,000 — TBD
2. $175,000 — TBD
3. $120,000 — TBD
4. $80,000 — TBDt
5-6. $60,000 — TBD
7-8. $40,000 — TBD
9-11. $20,000 — TBD
12-14. $15,000 — TBD
15-16. $10,000 — TBD
–Field Level Media
Sports
Surge, Gentle Mates unbeaten in CDL Stage 3 Major qualifying
A backlit keyboard is part of the gear online video game streamer Jordan Woodruff uses in his Gilbert home.
Jordan Woodruff
The Paris Gentle Mates and Vancouver Surge are atop the standings at 2-0 after Saturday, the second day of qualifying for the Call of Duty League’s Stage 3.
The Surge outlasted the Carolina Royal Ravens 3-2, while Paris topped G2 Minnesota 3-1.
FaZe Vegas swept Boston Breach 3-0 to open play, and Toronto KOI got the better of the Riyadh Falcons 3-1 in the other match of the day.
The 12 Call of Duty League teams are playing a full qualifying round robin to determine seeding for the third major of the season, to be held May 15-17 as part of the DreamHack Atlanta event.
On Saturday, FaZe Vegas dominated Boston Breach, winning 250-98 on Sake Hardpoint, 6-3 on Fringe Search and Destroy and 3-2 on Scar Overload.
Toronto KOI started strong, winning 250-183 on Den Hardpoint and 6-2 on Plaza Search and Destroy before the Riyadh Falcons notched a 4-3 decision on Exposure Overload. Toronto closed out the match with a 250-179 victory on Sake Hardpoint.
The Paris Gentle Mates opened with a narrow 250-230 win on Sake Hardpoint before G2 Minnesota responded with a 6-4 win on Scar Search and Destroy. Paris edged Minnesota 6-5 on Den Overload before taking Colossus Hardpoint 250-157.
The Vancouver Surge emerged from a back-and-forth battle with the Carolina Royal Ravens. The Surge won on Sake Hardpoint (250-233) and Fringe Search and Destroy (6-1), then the Royal Ravens drew even with victories on Scar Overload (3-2) and Gridlock Hardpoint (250-223). Vancouver secured the victory with a 6-1 triumph on Plaza Search and Destroy.
Sunday’s schedule:
–Toronto KOI vs. Boston Breach
–Riyadh Falcons vs. FaZe Vegas
–OpTic Texas vs. Cloud9 New York
Call of Duty League Stage 3 Major qualifying, with match record and map differential
T1. Paris Gentle Mates, 2-0, 6-2
T1. Vancouver Surge, 2-0, 6-2
3. FaZe Vegas, 1-0, 3-0
T4. Los Angeles Thieves, 1-0, 3-1
T4. Toronto KOI, 1-0, 3-1
T6. Cloud9 New York, 0-0, 0-0
T6. OpTic Texas, 0-0, 0-0
T8. Miami Heretics, 0-1, 1-3
T8. Riyadh Falcons, 0-1, 1-3
T10. Boston Breach, 0-1, 0-3
11. Carolina Royal Ravens, 0-2, 3-6
12. G2 Minnesota, 0-2, 1-6
–Field Level Media
Team Vitality, Team Spirit to clash in IEM Rio grand final
Team Falcons, BetBoom Team start fast at Wallachia Season 8
