Kentucky Derby 2026: Golden Tempo Wins at 23-1 Odds and Makes History With the First Female Trainer Ever to Win the Derby
It was the kind of finish horse racing fans talk about for decades.
With just under half a mile to go in the 152nd Kentucky Derby, Golden Tempo was dead last, trailing the pack by more than 20 lengths, nowhere to be seen by the roaring crowd at Churchill Downs. And then, in one of the most breathtaking stretches in Derby history, jockey Jose Ortiz asked the 23-1 longshot for everything he had.
What happened next made history.
Golden Tempo surged through the field, weaved past horse after horse, swung wide on the outside, and with a furious burst of speed caught the favorite Renegade right at the wire, winning the 2026 Kentucky Derby by a neck and completing one of the most dramatic come-from-behind runs the race has ever seen.
But the story didn’t end with a horse. It ended with a woman in tears, climbing over the wall of her box, baby in her arms, running onto the track at Churchill Downs.
Cherie DeVaux, 44, had just become the first female trainer in the 152-year history of the Kentucky Derby to win the Run for the Roses.
The Race: From Dead Last to Derby Champion
The 152nd Kentucky Derby got off to a dramatic start even before the horses left the gate. Great White, one of the most physically imposing horses in the field, began bucking as the horses loaded and tossed his jockey, forcing officials to scratch him from the race. The field was trimmed to 18.
For the first three-quarters of a mile, Golden Tempo was invisible. He wasn’t just trailing the pack, he was off the back entirely, letting the leaders do the hard work while Ortiz waited patiently for the right moment to strike.
That moment came at the final turn.
Ortiz guided Golden Tempo wide, 10 paths outside the rail, and unleashed a devastating closing kick. The horse covered his final quarter-mile in 24.52 seconds and his final eighth of a mile in 12.08 seconds, exceptional closing fractions for a 3-year-old running 1¼ miles. As the crowd surged to its feet, Renegade, ridden by Jose’s own brother Irad Ortiz Jr., tried to hold on, but couldn’t.
Golden Tempo crossed the finish line first, winning in a time of 2:02.27 and paying $48.24 on a $2 bet.
“He’s a dead closer,” DeVaux said afterward, explaining her horse’s patient style. “He just doesn’t have a lot of speed early, but he has a lot of stamina, and towards the end of the race, he has what we call a quick turn of foot.”
Ortiz, who had also won the Kentucky Oaks, the top race for 3-year-old fillies, just the night before, found the words a little harder to come by.
“We always knew this horse had a lot of ability, but he’s very lazy,” the jockey told reporters afterward with a grin. “The credit for winning the race goes to Jose because he had to time that perfectly,” DeVaux added. “He had all of the faith in the horse that he had it.”
Who Is Cherie DeVaux? The Woman Who Just Made History
Before Saturday, 18 women had saddled horses in the Kentucky Derby. None had ever won.
The closest anyone came was Shelley Riley, whose horse Casual Lies finished second in 1992. That glass ceiling held for 134 years, until Cherie DeVaux shattered it in front of 150,000 people at Churchill Downs.
DeVaux’s path to history was anything but conventional. Born in Saratoga Springs, New York, the heartbeat of American horse racing, and raised in southwest Florida, DeVaux enrolled at Florida Gulf Coast University as a pre-med student. Then, during a summer job walking horses at a racetrack in college, everything changed.
“My mother says, ‘Well, there’s a farm across, and all you have to do is walk the horses,'” DeVaux told reporters after the race. “And that’s how I started. And then I thought, ‘Well, I can ride them.'”
She abandoned pre-med and never looked back.
DeVaux spent six years working under renowned trainer Chuck Simon at Saratoga Race Course, then moved to the powerhouse barn of Chad Brown, one of the most successful trainers in the sport. In the summer of 2017, at a crossroads in her career, her husband David Ingordo gave her the push she needed.
“He told me that I owed it to myself to at least try,” she told NBC after the race. “He said, ‘Just give it three years. Let’s just give it three years and see if it works out.'”
In 2018, DeVaux launched her own stable with just eight horses. She won her first race on her 29th start. By 2024, her horses had won more than $10 million on the racetrack, and top owner Daisy Phipps Pulito, whose family runs one of the most storied stables in the sport, entrusted her with some of their best bloodstock.
Golden Tempo was the product of that trust.
A Family Affair at the Finish Line
For Cherie DeVaux, the Kentucky Derby finish wasn’t just a professional triumph, it was deeply personal.
As Golden Tempo crossed the wire, DeVaux vaulted over the wall of her box, holding her young nephew Maverick in her arms. Her sister Adrianne, also a thoroughbred trainer, was shaking with disbelief. Her mother, Janet DeVaux, watched from the crowd. Friends and family who had driven down from Saratoga Springs, New York, in a van erupted in screams of joy.
“Out of all of us horsemen, she made it. She did it,” her mother told Yahoo Sports.
On the NBC broadcast, DeVaux held Maverick tightly and spoke about what the moment meant.
“I’m glad that I could be a representative of all women everywhere, that we can do anything we set our minds to,” she said.
At the post-race press conference, she struck a different note, one of quiet confidence.
“Being a woman or my gender has never really crossed my mind in this journey of mine,” she said. “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 has become apparent to me is that not everyone has the same constitution as I have mentally. It really is an honor to be that person for other women, or other little girls to look up to. You can dream big, and you can pivot.”
She also had a telling quip for the question she had been answering all week about making history.
“I’m just glad I don’t have to answer that question anymore,” she said with a smile.
DeVaux is only the second woman to win any Triple Crown race, following Jena Antonucci, whose horse Arcangelo won the 2023 Belmont Stakes. But the Kentucky Derby, the first Saturday in May, the most famous horse race in America, is in a category of its own.
What About the Ortiz Brothers? An Epic Sibling Showdown
One of the more remarkable subplots of the 2026 Derby was the final half-furlong becoming a brotherly rivalry.
Jose Ortiz, aboard Golden Tempo, and his older brother Irad Ortiz Jr., aboard runner-up Renegade, raced neck-and-neck down the stretch in front of 150,000 spectators. Jose, competing in his 11th Kentucky Derby, had never won the race. Saturday changed that, just 24 hours after he had also won the Kentucky Oaks.
The Ortiz brothers are two of the most decorated jockeys in the sport, and watching them push each other to the wire at Churchill Downs gave the Derby a storybook quality that went beyond the history-making trainer.
Ocelli, a stunning 70-1 longshot trained by Bill Mott, finished third, and Chief Wallabee, ridden by last year’s winner Junior Alvarado, came in fourth.
The Horse: Golden Tempo’s Pedigree and Path to the Derby
Golden Tempo is a bay colt owned by Phipps Stable and St. Elias Stable, bred and owned by Daisy Phipps Pulito and Vincent Viola respectively. He is the first Kentucky Derby winner sired by Hall of Famer Curlin, a two-time Horse of the Year. His mother, Carrumba, was a Grade 3 winner at 1 1/8 miles by 2006 Preakness winner Bernardini, a pedigree purpose-built for classic distances.
His path to the Derby was not smooth. Earlier in his 3-year-old campaign, Golden Tempo had shown promise but disappointed with third-place finishes in both the Fasig-Tipton Risen Star Stakes and the Louisiana Derby. But his finishing kick, the ability to close from far back, was always there. In the Louisiana Derby, he blazed his final furlong in 12.37 seconds. In the Kentucky Derby, he did it in 12.08.
“I always knew if he had extra ground, he was going to make it,” DeVaux said.
Is a Triple Crown in the Cards? What’s Next for Golden Tempo
The victory has immediately ignited Triple Crown talk. A horse hasn’t won all three legs, the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes, since Justify in 2018. Four of the last seven Derby winners opted to skip the Preakness entirely, citing the two-week turnaround as too demanding.
The Preakness Stakes is scheduled for May 16, 2026, at Laurel Park in Laurel, Maryland, the first time the race has been held there, as Pimlico Race Course undergoes a $400 million renovation. The Belmont Stakes will follow at Saratoga Race Course, which would carry special significance for DeVaux, who was born and raised in Saratoga Springs.
As of Tuesday, DeVaux and Golden Tempo’s ownership have not confirmed whether the horse will run in the Preakness.
“We’re going to look and see how much energy he has when he’s on track, see how he’s moving, see his attitude,” DeVaux told reporters outside her Keeneland barn. “Other people’s opinions are not part of the conversation. I appreciate that there is history with the Triple Crown. I appreciate that everyone’s excited about it, however, the horse comes first.”
Owner Daisy Phipps Pulito was similarly non-committal right after the race.
“I don’t know yet,” she said. “We’re going to have to see how he comes out of the race, talk to Cherie, and just discuss that.”
If Golden Tempo does run, and win, in the Preakness, he would need just one more victory at Saratoga to become the 14th Triple Crown champion in history. His pedigree suggests he could handle the distance. His style, coming from way back, means he’ll need pace pressure to make his move. But this horse has now proven he can do the seemingly impossible.
A decision is expected by the end of this week.
Key Facts at a Glance
- Race: 152nd Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs, Louisville, Kentucky
- Date: Saturday, May 2, 2026
- Winner: Golden Tempo
- Odds: 23-1
- Jockey: Jose Ortiz
- Trainer: Cherie DeVaux (first female trainer to win the Kentucky Derby)
- Owners: Phipps Stable (Daisy Phipps Pulito) and St. Elias Stable (Vincent Viola)
- Winning time: 2:02.27
- Winning margin: Neck over Renegade (Irad Ortiz Jr.)
- Third place: Ocelli (70-1, Joseph Ramos)
- Purse: $5 million
- Payout: $48.24 on a $2 win bet
- Next race: Preakness Stakes, May 16, 2026, Laurel Park, Maryland (TBD if Golden Tempo runs)
Follow IAmericanTimes.com for updates on whether Golden Tempo will run in the Preakness Stakes and the latest news from the 2026 Triple Crown season.