SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Jockey Junior Alvarado, the constant companion of 2025 Horse of the Year Sovereignty (Into Mischief), still has confidence in the horse that took him to great heights a season ago.That being said, it's time for Sovereignty to put it all together very soon. Like in the GI, $1-million Whitney Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on Aug. 8.Sovereignty has come out of the gate in 2026 a little slow with a second (in the GII Oaklawn Handicap on Apr. 18) and a third (GI Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs on June 27).He was a good second in the Oaklawn race, which was his first start since winning the GI Travers Stakes eight months earlier. The Foster came on a sloppy track.“I told Bill (Hall of Fame trainer Mott) after the last race, it was the first time he has not finished the way I thought he would,” Alvarado said Saturday morning outside of Mott's barn at the Oklahoma Training Track. “It was a sealed track, a big guy like him, maybe not the best thing.”After those two races, coming off a spectacular 2025, there is no need to raise the red flag. Not yet, anyway.“Worried? No,” Alvarado said. “I will be worried after the Whitney if he doesn't run like the way I expect. If he doesn't run his race in the Whitney, I will definitely be scratching my head.”Alvarado, who has ridden Sovereignty in 10 of his 11 career starts, was talking after Sovereignty worked five furlongs on the Oklahoma in 1:00.25 (1/18) under assistant trainer Neil Poznansky. Alvarado got a good look at his partner as he was the pilot of 4-year-old maiden Thunder Roll (Hard Spun), who worked in company with Sovereignty.Thunder Roll, clocked in 1:00.65 (2/18), broke about three lengths in front of Sovereignty to give his stablemate a target.“I thought the pair of them put in a very good work,” Mott said. “That is why we give (Sovereignty) a horse to work with. If you worked him on his own, he would probably be going in 1:03 or 1:04.”Alvarado said this was the third time he has worked the other horse in company with Sovereignty.The Whitney will be run over a surface that Godolphin's Sovereignty has always liked. He has won all three of his starts on the main track at the Spa: last year's GI Belmont Stakes, the GII Jim Dandy and the Travers.In the Whitney, he is going to face the likes of Magnitude (Not This Time), who worked five furlongs in 1:03 (11/18) earlier on the Oklahoma, Baeza (McKinzie), White Abarrio (Race Day) and the filly Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro).“The Whitney is very important,” Mott said. “But the most important (race) will be the Breeders' Cup Classic. That is the end goal.”Travers? Albany? Talk to Me Jimmy's People Will Talk About itLast Monday, trainer Rudy Rodriguez and the owners of New York-bred Talk to Me Jimmy (Modernist), took a ride west on the New York State Thruway, stopped at Finger Lakes and won the $164,000 New York Derby.And that opened a whole lot of doors. Well, two of them.Talk to Me Jimmy | Mike KaneThe next start is either the GI, $1.25-million Travers Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 29 against the big boys or the division of the $200,000 Albany Stakes for New York breds on Aug. 23.Which way do we go?That depends on who you ask.“I want to keep him with New York breds and try to make some money,” Rodriguez said Saturday morning outside his barn at the Oklahoma Training Track.“Why wouldn't we think about the Travers?” said Libby Imperio, who owns part of the horse with her husband, Michael.“She has already sent him to the Travers,” Rodriguez, also a co-owner, said with a laugh as the two sat in a golf cart.“I think he is much more talented than Rudy likes to admit,” Libby Imperio said with a shrug.Wherever Talk to Me Jimmy ends up, it will be a well thought out plan with plenty of discussion by all the connections. SEI Thoroughbreds also co-owns the colt.Talk to Me Jimmy has had open company experience before. He won the Withers Stakes at Aqueduct by 11 lengths on Feb. 6, was eighth in the GII Wood Memorial on Apr. 4 at Aqueduct and then was second in the GII Peter Pan Stakes on May 9, also at Aqueduct.He only faced three others in the New York Derby and the final time of 1:46.67 for the 1 1/16 miles isn't going to scare any other Travers runners. Just being able to have to make a decision like this is what they are all in the game for.“It's never crazy to dream,” Libby Imperio said. “We will do what we think is best for the horse.”Ewing Resurfaces at Saratoga on a New SurfaceEven when he was sparkling on the dirt at Saratoga last summer, Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse thought the future for his promising 2-year-old and 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' Ewing (Knicks Go) might be on the grass.The future is here, and the grey colt owned by D J Stable, West Point Thoroughbreds and Kenneth Freirich is indeed going to try the turf.“I always kind of felt he moved like a grass horse,” Casse said outside his barn on the Saratoga backstretch. “A lot of the Knicks Gos have run pretty well on the grass.”Ewing, named for former New York Knick and NBA Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing, is entered to run in Sunday's GIII, $225,000 Quick Call Stakes, a 5 1/2-furlong sprint on the Mellon Turf Course. He is listed at 5-1 on the morning line and will leave from post position one with jockey Jose Ortiz.Ewing dazzled at Saratoga as a 2-year-old, breaking his maiden by a dozen lengths and then winning the GII Saratoga Special. Both races were won on the front end.His juvenile season was cut short because of a knee injury and Casse pointed him to 2026. Ewing's first start this year resulted in a sixth-place finish in the Ozark Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Feb. 16.“I think I might have rushed him back a little bit; you know, the old (Kentucky) Derby feel deal,” Casse said. “He never showed up at all at Oaklawn, so I took him home.”That would be Casse's training center in Ocala, Fla.“I said, 'you know what? I am going to let him tell me instead of me telling him,” Casse said. “We have taken our time with him and aimed for Saratoga. With these horses, especially these 3-year-olds that have won a stake already, there are so few opportunities.”The post Saratoga Notebook, presented by NYRA Bets: Alvarado Not Worried About Sovereignty … Yet appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.