Chris Russo is never afraid to say exactly what is on his mind. But somehow, in the 17 years he has hosted Mad Dog Unleashed, he has never had a slip-up where he has dropped an F-bomb. That is, until Wednesday’s edition of the show, during a passionate conversation about the 2025 Kentucky Derby winner, Sovereignty.
After winning the Kentucky Derby this past Saturday, conversations naturally turned to the possibility of Sovereignty potentially competing for the illustrious Triple Crown of horse racing, a feat that only 13 horses have ever done by winning the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes in one calendar year.
Unfortunately, that possibility was taken off the table on Tuesday when Bill Mott, Sovereignty’s trainer, informed Mike Rogers, the executive VP of 1/ST Racing, which operates the Preakness Stakes, that Sovereignty would be skipping the Preakness and instead focusing on getting ready for the Belmont Stakes in June.
“We received a call today from trainer Bill Mott that Sovereignty will not be competing in the Preakness,” said Rogers in a statement retrieved by ESPN. “We extend our congratulations to the connections of Sovereignty and respect their decision.”
Mott’s decision frustrated Russo to no end, who opted to rant about the topic on Wednesday’s edition of Mad Dog Unleashed, declaring that he no longer plans to watch the Preakness later this month.
Really disappointed to hear #Sovereignty is skipping the Preakness.
“I will not watch the @PreaknessStakes because of this.”
For more Mad Dog Unleashed:https://t.co/xR8BRr4xEo pic.twitter.com/MAMIeqY67N
— Chris Mad Dog Russo (@MadDogUnleashed) May 7, 2025
Later in Wednesday’s show, Russo took callers to discuss the topic, where a caller named Art likened the decision from Mott to load management in the NBA.
“Okay, if you are going to use that tact, it’s no different in my opinion than the NBA players telling networks, TNT, NBC, ESPN, what have you, ‘Hey guys, we’re gonna load manage tonight.'”
This argument set Russo off, who began to yell that there was a difference between load management in the regular season in the NBA and skipping a prestigious event like the Preakness Stakes after winning the Kentucky Derby. And unfortunately, Russo’s response also featured an incidental F-bomb.
“But Art, that is a regular season game!” said Russo. “This is not a regular season game Artie! This is the f******… Excuse me. This is the playoffs, okay? This is the Conference Final at the Preakness. This is not a game in January with the Kings and the Clippers and (Kawhi) Leonard and (James) Harden take the day off. This is the Preakness when you have won the first leg of the Grand Slam. I mean the Triple Crown. That’s what this is about, don’t compare it.
“And I have to look at all the other horses. I know one you can’t count because Country House didn’t win the Derby. He got lucky because he won on a technicality. So eliminate that, that leaves you four. I’d have to look at the injury situation. I don’t follow it that carefully. Some of those horses may have actually had something wrong with them. Not a little cough or a scratch on his hind leg. My god almighty, run the race!”
BREAKING: For the first time in 17 years at SiriusXM, Mad Dog DROPS A (PARTIAL) F-BOMB!!! pic.twitter.com/QF1gGgKfSW
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) May 7, 2025
Russo has always been passionate when unleashing his wild takes over the years. But prior to Wednesday’s show, he has always been able to avoid the F-bomb in his passionate rant, which just goes to show just how irritated he seems to be about the fact that we won’t be seeing Sovereignty go for the Triple Crown.