SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Sovereignty (Into Mischief) stayed put at Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott's barn Saturday morning. His scheduled workout had been scrapped, and the 4-year-old colt passed the time surveying the scene from his stall on a perfect late summer day.After developing an abscess in a hind foot the day before, Sovereignty's training has grinded to a halt. His next start, a highly anticipated showdown with Japan's Forever Young (Jpn) ({Real Steel {Jpn}) in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup on Sept. 18 ,has suddenly become very much uncertain.“We might only be 50-50 to make the race,” Mott said outside his office at the Oklahoma Training Track Saturday morning. “He has a foot that will take a few days to calm down enough to where we can train him.”The Gold Cup would be Sovereignty's first start since winning the GI Whitney Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 8. That was the first win in three starts this year for the Godolphin homebred, who won the Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year in 2025.If Sovereignty can't make the Gold Cup, Mott said he has options on how to get the colt to the GI, $7- million Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland on Oct. 31. He could run in the GII Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs on Sept. 26.That race is contested at 1 1/8 miles, same distance as the Whitney. If Sovereignty did travel to Louisville for the Lukas Classic, there have been no discussions on if he would stay in Kentucky or come back to Saratoga before the Breeders' Cup.“Getting ahead of yourself here,” Mott said about that.Besides Sovereignty, Mott nominated two other horses for the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Baeza (McKinzie), fourth in the Whitney in his last start, and Stars and Stripes (Not This Time), who defeated stablemate Parchment Party (Constitution) by a nose in the Birdstone Stakes, are eligible for the Gold Cup.“I have not made any plans,” Mott said about Baeza and Stars and Stripes.And, there is also the possibility that Mott could train Sovereignty up to the Classic.The preferred distance for Sovereignty is 1 1/4 miles, the Classic distance. He is undefeated in three tries at the distance, all of them last year: GI Kentucky Derby, GI Belmont Stakes, GI Travers Stakes.Ted Noffey Continues on Comeback TrailIt was easy to spot Ted Noffey (Into Mischief) early Saturday morning. The big, grey 3-year-old made the walk from Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher's barn at the Oklahoma Training Track and crossed Union Avenue where he stepped onto the main track just after 7 a.m.Accompanied by exercise rider Carlos Quevedo, Ted Noffey had his fifth Saratoga work since rejoining the Pletcher barn last month. He zipped five furlongs–his first five-eighths breeze–in 1:00.50 (7/15) while working in company with stablemate Presidential Power (Constitution), another 3-year-old.Ted Noffey, named for Ned Toffey, the chief operating officer and general manager of Spendthrift Farm, which owns the colt, is on the comeback trail. After winning the 2025 Eclipse Award for champion 2-year-old colt following a four-for-four rookie season, Ted Noffey was knocked off the Triple Crown trail in January because of bone bruising.Now, here he is. And Pletcher says he is just as good now as he was during his championship season.“Yes,” Pletcher said at the barn when asked if he sees the same horse now that he saw when Ted Noffey won three Grade I races at three different tracks as a 2-year-old. “You never take anything for granted, but we expected him to come back as good as ever. I'm very happy with the way he has been training.”As the Saratoga summer meet is slowly grinding to a halt, there is the promise of fall racing and the expected return to the races for Ted Noffey.He has been nominated to races on Sept. 19 at Churchill Downs (Harrods Creek at seven furlongs) and Parx Racing (GIII Gallant Bob), but Pletcher mentioned the GIII Perryville Stakes at seven furlongs at Keeneland as a possible landing spot.“That could make some sense,” he said. “We are going to go work-to-work. Everything comes very easily to him. His fitness level has surprised me a little bit because he has put in some strong breezes and has done it so easily.”Life is Good for WinStar's WaldenIn Sunday's GI Hopeful Stakes, Elliott Walden, the CEO and Racing Manager of WinStar Farm, hopes life continues to be good.Life Is Good, one of the top stallions at WinStar, continues to sparkle in his freshman season. Two of his colts–The Good Life, from the barn of Brad Cox, and Lifesong, who is trained by Walden's son Will, will run in the Hopeful.WinStar owns both colts, along with First Go Racing and CHC, Inc.In his debut, The Good Life rolled to a gate-to-wire 3 1/2-length win at Saratoga on July 18. In that race, he defeated two colts sired by Flightline, another first-year sire: Powerline, who was second and Greenwell, who was fifth.Lifesong rallied to win his debut, also at six furlongs, at Ellis Park on July 26 by three quarters of a length.“Both of them ran very well the first time out,” Elliott Walden said Saturday morning on the Saratoga backstretch. “We have been targeting (the Hopeful) for both of them.”Life Is Good has been represented by 11 winners thus far, and if The Good Life (7-2 morning line in the Hopeful) or Lifesong (5-1) win Sunday, it would be the first Grade I win for Life Is Good as a stallion.Flightline's first crop also came into racing with high expectations. Thus far, he's responsible for six winners.As a runner Flightline won all six of his starts, several in breathtaking fashion. In his final race–the 2022 GI Breeders' Cup Classic–he won by 8 1/4 lengths. Life Is Good was fifth.“They are competing in the stud barn just like they did on the racetrack,” Elliott Walden said of Flightline and Life Is Good. “He got the better of us on the track, hopefully we can get the better of him in the stud barn.”The post Saratoga Notebook, Presented by NYRA Bets: Mott Says Sovereignty “50-50” to Make Gold Cup appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.