The final Preakness Stakes at the old Pimlico Race Course will not have a Triple Crown on the line.

In a statement, Mike Rogers, executive vice president of 1/ST, said Bill Mott, the trainer of Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty, will point his colt to the Belmont Stakes in June.

“We extend our congratulations to the connections of Sovereignty and respect their decision,” Rogers said. “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 status of runner-up Journalism is also unclear.

In 2019, Mott decided to bypass Preakness with Country House after the colt came down with a respiratory infection. With that, the surprise 65-1 winner — elevated to first place through a disqualification — became the first Derby champion since Grindstone in 1996 to skip the middle leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown. He never raced again and was retired in 2020 after battling several ailments, including laminitis.

The connections of another Derby longshot, 2022 winner Rich Strike (80-1), also opted to target the Belmont, where he finished sixth. He did not reach the winner’s circle in his next five tries, all graded-stakes races, and was retired in 2023.

There was also no chance at a Triple Crown in 2020, when the races were run out of order due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And the record books will show that was the case the following year, when Derby winner Medina Spirit came to Pimlico under the cloud of a positive test for betamethasone. He ran in Preakness after passing additional drug tests and came in third. Eventually, Medina Spirit was stripped of his title and second-place finisher Mandaloun was named the victor. Mandaloun had not run in either Preakness or the Belmont.

Mott’s decision will no doubt fire up the debate over the spacing of the Triple Crown races and modern trainers’ preference for giving their runners — bred to be faster than their forebears, but not as sturdy — more rest between starts.

1/ST Racing and Gaming, the previous owner of the Maryland Jockey Club and Pimlico Race Course, proposed a discussion about reorienting the calendar in 2023. But the New York Racing Association, host of the Belmont Stakes, came out against moving the closing leg of the premiere series for 3-year-olds.

Now, a state-run nonprofit using the historic name of the Maryland Jockey Club is running thoroughbred racing, and 1/ST is on its way out.

The Canadian company will run the Preakness this year and next, when the event takes place at Laurel Park as a new Pimlico is built, before the nonprofit takes over operation of the Preakness.

Although the races in the Triple Crown date to the 19th century, the modern five-week configuration of the series was not established until 1969. Calls to space out the Derby and Preakness followed a few decades later.

One horse from the Derby field, 16th-place finisher American Promise, is opting to run at Pimlico. The Virginia Derby winner is trained by D. Wayne Lukas, who won the 2024 Preakness with Seize the Grey.

And Bob Baffert trainee Rodriguez, scratched from the Derby field with a foot bruise, is targeting the race.

Heart of Honor, runner-up in the Grade 2 UAE Derby last month, is also a possibility, according to organizers.

This story has been updated.