For Sovereignty jockey Junior Alvarado, the ride before winning the Kentucky Derby was the hardest part

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Less than two months before the Kentucky Derby, jockey Junior Alvarado was praying to god to heal him.

On March 23, Alvarado was riding the horse Term at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., when his thoroughbred suffered a heart attack, sending Alvarado off his saddle. He was clipped by another horse while on the ground tending to his own, resulting in a hairline fracture in his shoulder that would sideline him for three weeks.

Alvarado was heartbroken. His dream was winning the Derby, and he felt had a legitimate shot this year with his horse Sovereignty. Alvarado wasn’t sure if he would ever get an opportunity like this again if he didn’t return in time.

“I have a lot of faith in God,” Alvarado said Saturday about the mental challenge he faced. “Every day since I got the injury I kept telling God, ‘Please heal me, please heal me. If it’s meant to be, I know you’re going to put me right back in action before the Derby.’”

Alvarado’s prayers were answered.

The jockey recovered in plenty of time for the 151st Run for the Roses — and he rode Sovereignty to victory on a muddy track Saturday at Churchill Downs. It was Alvarado’s first career win in horse racing signature’s event after five previous losses.

Not only was Alvarado’s spot on Sovereignty in jeopardy after falling in March, he also ran the risk of being replaced by a different rider. But the day after Alvarado was released from the hospital, he received a call from Sovereignty trainer Bill Mott, who assured Alvarado the horse was his to ride once he recovered.

“When Mr. Mott called me the day after I got out of the hospital, he gave me a big peace of mind,” Alvarado said. “You don’t get that in the business often. This is the nature of the business: Somebody else gets to ride the horse, he’s riding good, and you get to keep him.

“But having the peace of mind and being able to do what I needed to do was something that I always will appreciate from Mr. Mott.”

Alvarado kept his calm even after a second fall on Thursday, two days before the Derby, when he tumbled off Caramel Chip during the ninth race of the day.

While Alvarado literally had to get himself back on the horse, Sovereignty was having a much smoother run-up to the Derby, according to Mott, even after finishing second in its most recent race under jockey Manny Franco in late March.

“I didn’t have any reservations about him,” Mott said in reference to Sovereignty. “You got to go out and run the race, but the way the horse was doing, I really couldn’t have asked for anything different in the last five weeks since his last race. Everything had gone smoothly. Ordinarily to win these kinds of races, you can’t have any hiccups in your training schedule or the way the horse is doing.”

Mott, who previously won the 2019 Kentucky Derby with horse Country House after a disqualification, said winning with his “regular rider” Alvarado made Saturday’s result particularly special.

Alvarado’s journey, of course, began long before his fracture in March or even his previous Derby appearances. It began in Venezuela, where his father was a jockey. He said growing up the only race he could watch on television was the one he just won at Churchill Downs.

He first told himself it would simply be nice to race in the event. Later on he wanted to win it.

“Today we did that,” Alvarado said. “I don’t know if I’m going to be able actually to find the right words that can describe this feeling that I have right now.”