LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The day before the Kentucky Derby each year is known as Ladies’ Day, with several stakes races for fillies and mares, highlighted by the Kentucky Oaks.
The next day, Derby Day, belongs to the boys.
Someone forgot to tell Cherie DeVaux.
The 44-year-old native of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., made history Saturday as the first female trainer to win the world’s most famous horse race when Golden Tempo, a 23-1 long shot ridden by Jose Ortiz, rallied from last place to defeat Renegade by a neck.
Cherie DeVaux, trainer of Golden Tempo, celebrates after becoming the first female trainer to win the Kentucky Derby Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.
(Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
“I don’t even have any words right now,” DeVaux said on NBC. “So, so, so happy for Golden Tempo. Jose did a wonderful job, masterful job. He has had so much faith in this horse.
“I’m glad I could be representative of all women everywhere, that we can do anything we set our minds to.”
DeVaux was the 18th woman to saddle a Derby starter; the best finish had been a second by Shelley Riley’s Casual Lies in 1992. The only other woman trainer to win a Triple Crown race is Jena Antonucci, who captured the 2023 Belmont with Arcangelo.
But winning big races is nothing new for DeVaux, who captured the Breeders’ Cup Mile with More Than Looks in 2024 at Del Mar and was the trainer of She Feels Pretty, who won the Eclipse Award last year as best female turf horse.
“Being a woman, or my gender, has never really crossed my mind in this journey of mine,” DeVaux said more than an hour after the race. “I have to say the racetrack is a tough place. It’s a tough place if you’re a man. It’s a tough place if you’re a woman.
“The thing that really has become apparent to me is that not everyone has the same constitution as I have mentally. It really is an honor to be able to be that person for other women or other little girls to look up to. You can dream big and you can pivot. You can come from one place and make yourself a part of history.”
It was also the first Derby win for Ortiz, who lost his initial 10 tries and combined with older brother Irad Ortiz Jr. to go 0 for 19. Irad was aboard Renegade.
“I’m glad I get my lifetime dream achieved,” said Jose Ortiz, who also won the Kentucky Oaks on Friday with Always a Runner. “Hopefully [Irad] gets the opportunity to win it some day.”
Quipped DeVaux: “Today is not that day.”
Golden Tempo paid $48.24 for a $2 bet and earned $3.1 million after running 1 1/4 miles in 2 minutes, 2.27 seconds.
Ocelli was third at 70-1, followed by Chief Wallabee, who was trying to give jockey Junior Alvarado and trainer Bill Mott consecutive Kentucky Derby wins. Danon Bourbon, a Japanese-trained horse who had a clear lead with about 300 yards remaining, was fifth.
Jockey Jose Ortiz celebrates after riding Golden Tempo to a Kentucky Derby win at Churchill Downs Saturday in Louisville, Ky.
(Abbie Parr / Associated Press)
Incredibolt was sixth, then Commandment, Wonder Dean, Santa Anita Derby winner So Happy, Emerging Market, favored Further Ado (5-1), Potente, Six Speed, Robusta, Albus, Intrepido, Litmus Test and Pavlovian. Five of the last seven horses are based in Southern California.
Great White was scratched just before the race after he reared at the starting gate and rolled over on the ground (he did not appear to be seriously injured, but the track veterinarian ruled him out). The Puma was withdrawn early Saturday morning because of a skin infection. Three other horses were scratched during the week.
That left a field of 18, two fewer than the maximum, but it still featured the usual assortment of bumping and bouncing, with Renegade predictably taking some of the worst of it from his inside post position. Golden Tempo, breaking from the No. 16 post (same as Sovereignty), had no trouble as he dropped behind the field; as DeVaux said, “That’s how he runs.”
In this case, being far back turned out to be the place to be as Six Speed blazed through the first half-mile in 46.44 seconds and six furlongs in 1:10.9. The horses who wound up in the top three were 18th, 16th and 15th at that point.
Danon Bourbon and So Happy, who were stalking Six Speed, moved to challenge for the lead on the far turn, with the Japanese horse moving better. He appeared on his way to a historic victory of his own — no horse from Japan has won a Triple Crown race — but Ocelli, winless in six prior starts, went past him with about 100 yards remaining.
To the outside of Ocelli, however, Golden Tempo and Renegade were going even faster, and they flew past the maiden just before the wire.
It was the third win in five career starts for Golden Tempo, a son of Curlin and the Bernardini mare Carrumba. He was bred by his owners, Phipps Stable (Daisy Phipps Pulito) & St. Elias Stable (Vincent Viola, who also owns the NHL’s Florida Panthers).
Golden Tempo won his first two races this past winter at the Fair Grounds, a maiden race and the Lecomte Stakes. He turned in a clunker in the Risen Star in February, then finished third in the Louisiana Derby. He had not raced for the past six weeks, since March 21.
“The goal was not to win those races; the goal was to win this race,” DeVaux said.
The trainer said earlier this week Golden Tempo was dealing with cracked heels on his front feet but that she wasn’t worried about how he would run. Saturday, everyone found out why.
Golden Tempo’s team of owners and support staff in the winner’s circle at Churchill Downs on Saturday in Louisville, Ky.
(Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
Preakness status still up in the air
Two of the past four Derby winners skipped the Preakness, so of course DeVaux was asked about running Golden Tempo in the second leg of the Triple Crown on May 16 at Laurel Park. Of course she was noncommittal.
“We’re going to let him decide that,” she said of her horse. “We’re going to see how he looks tomorrow and subsequently the next couple days. But we’re going to have to allow him to tell us, because the horse is first. We’re not here for ourselves. We’re not here for our egos. We’re here for the horse.”
