{"id":349920,"date":"2026-06-06T21:41:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T21:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/349920\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T21:41:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T21:41:17","slug":"kentucky-derby-star-cherie-devaux-hopes-golden-tempo-surprises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/349920\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky Derby star Cherie DeVaux hopes Golden Tempo surprises"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Belmont Stakes is less than 34 hours away, and Cherie DeVaux<\/a> is feeling stressed.<\/p>\n

Not about the race. DeVaux has done what she can do to prepare her 3-year-old colt, Golden Tempo<\/a>, for Saturday\u2019s third leg of the Triple Crown. Questions about post position, track bias, even the increasing threat of potentially severe thunderstorms before the evening post time (4:04 PDT, Fox) are brushed aside because, as she said, those are all out of a trainer\u2019s control.<\/p>\n

No, it\u2019s her makeup bag.<\/p>\n

She forgot to bring it with her to Saratoga Race Course and she has a Fox Sports TV interview scheduled right after she finishes speaking with a reporter inside her small office adjacent to Barn 83.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to be on national TV, and I have not a stitch of makeup on right now, all the while having to try to make sure I enter my horses and not forget and mess that up too badly,\u201d DeVaux said, smiling. \u201cSo it\u2019s been a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

But DeVaux is not complaining, because it\u2019s been a lot since 7:10 p.m. EDT on May 2, the exact time Golden Tempo crossed the finish line first in the Kentucky Derby<\/a>. And those 35 days have been filled with many great experiences.<\/p>\n

\"Golden <\/p>\n

Golden Tempo\u2019s trainer Cherie DeVaux kisses a trophy after winning the Kentucky Derby.<\/p>\n

(Michael Reaves \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The coolest?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won the Derby,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if there\u2019s anything cooler than that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been a lot of really neat opportunities,\u201d she added. \u201cA lot of different people have reached out. But you know, just the whole experience itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winning the Derby changes anyone\u2019s life, but it\u2019s magnified when you make history, as DeVaux did by becoming the first female trainer to win<\/a> the world\u2019s most famous horse race. It began a whirlwind that included more than 65 TV interviews and dozens upon dozens of text messages and phone calls.<\/p>\n

And, truthfully, there was one experience that, for a college softball player and lifelong New York Yankees fan, exceeded the others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did get to throw the first pitch out at a Yankees game, which I thought was amazing,\u201d DeVaux said as her assistant handed her the forgotten makeup bag. \u201cTo stand on the field and look at the cheap seats [where I sat] when I was a kid. \u2026 And I\u2019ve had much better seats in recent times, but to really sit there and have that dichotomy of that was where you started and this is where you are, was really a profound feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kentucky <\/p>\n

Kentucky Derby winning trainer Cherie DeVaux and jockey Jose Ortiz throw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium on May 7.<\/p>\n

(Ishika Samant \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Technically she\u2019s back home for the Belmont, which is being run at Saratoga for the third and final year while Belmont Park is rebuilt. But she has few memories of Saratoga as a child; the family moved to Florida when she was 9 and she lived there until she was 19. Much of her family, including her parents and several siblings, live in the area, though, and DeVaux, who spends most of the year in Kentucky, said she\u2019s been able to enjoy some time with them this week.<\/p>\n

The big question is whether her large cheering section will be able to celebrate another victory. Handicappers are more than a bit pessimistic. Saturday\u2019s Daily Racing Form has 1-2-3-4 selections by 19 experts, and not one selected Golden Tempo. Just two picked him second and five had him third. The consensus was he would not finish in the top four.<\/p>\n

His chances in Kentucky were aided by a fast pace that tired out the front-runners, and on paper the Belmont figures to be run at a more moderate pace, which doesn\u2019t always help a late-running horse. But he is a colt who relishes the distance and he has improved his Beyer Speed Figure with every start.<\/p>\n

DeVaux is excited for the race, obviously, but she\u2019s also eager for this \u201cseason\u201d to end. She knows life will never be the same as it was before May 2, but she\u2019d like to slow down a bit, in part, so she can enjoy the feeling of winning the Derby.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t prepare myself,\u201d said DeVaux, who had never had a Derby starter. \u201cI didn\u2019t really think about winning the race. I thought Golden Tempo was going to run really well. I thought he would hit the board, \u2026 but I never allowed myself to think that he would win and what that would look like.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019m one of those people I want to think about, you know, we win the race, what does that look like? But I was just so excited to be at the Derby and I wanted to just really be present, that it really didn\u2019t cross my mind what would happen if we won the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Golden <\/p>\n

Golden Tempo\u2019s trainer Cherie DeVaux holds her nephew while speaking to reporters after winning the Kentucky Derby on May 2.<\/p>\n

(Andy Lyons \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Others weren\u2019t prepared, either. DeVaux was carrying one of her nephews on her hip immediately after the Derby, and some people watching on TV immediately praised her for being a working mom. One problem: She doesn\u2019t have children of her own (her husband has full custody of a teenage girl).<\/p>\n

\u201cCan I just not be a really good horse trainer that did something really profound and amazing in a short amount of time after I had to work my rear end off for it?\u201d DeVaux said. \u201cLike, why can\u2019t that just be the story?\u201d<\/p>\n

Etc.<\/p>\n

The Belmont is the 13th race on a 14-race card that begins at 8 a.m. PDT. The first seven races will be on FS2 before coverage shifts to Fox at noon (the Belmont show starts at 1). A separate handicapping-oriented show will air from 1-4:30 p.m. on FS1.<\/p>\n

There are five Grade 1 races scheduled, including Bob Baffert\u2019s Nysos against Michael McCarthy\u2019s Journalism in the Met Mile (2:32 p.m.) and Baffert\u2019s Crude Velocity against DeVaux\u2019s Englishman in the Woody Stephens (1:52 p.m.). The Belmont is slated to start at about 4:10 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Belmont Stakes is less than 34 hours away, and Cherie DeVaux is feeling stressed. Not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7911,58473,126019,122964,52998,11592,143189,23877,48,52,51,47,50,49,1741,143188,1423,2211,143190,199,595],"class_list":["post-349920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-belmont","tag-bob-baffert","tag-cherie-devaux","tag-derby","tag-different-people","tag-fox","tag-golden-tempo-surprise","tag-kentucky-derby","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-lot","tag-p-m-edt","tag-question","tag-race","tag-recent-time","tag-saratoga","tag-saturday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}