The Run That Rewrote History
With three-quarters of a mile run and the field bunched at the final turns, Golden Tempo was nowhere. Not near the back — at the back, dead last in an 18-horse field, so far behind the leaders that, as trainer Cherie DeVaux put it afterward, "he was so far out of it." Then jockey Jose Ortiz asked him to run. What happened next — a last-to-first charge through traffic and down the Churchill Downs stretch that ended in a neck victory over the 5-1 favorite Renegade — was one of the most astonishing finishes in Kentucky Derby history. It also made DeVaux, 44, of Saratoga Springs, New York, the first woman in 152 years of the Run for the Roses to train the winner. "I'm just glad I don't have to answer that question anymore," she said in the winner's circle, to cheers from her team. Then she added: "I'm glad that I could be a representative of all women everywhere that we can do anything we set our minds to."
A Woman, Two Brothers, and 152 Years of History
The story of Cherie DeVaux is one of patient, stubborn accumulation. She grew up in Saratoga Springs — one of horse racing's great centers — one of nine siblings, seven of them brothers, a childhood she credits for the toughness that her sport demands. She began at Churchill Downs 22 years ago as an exercise rider, learned the craft under trainers Chuck Simon and Chad Brown, and took out her own training license in 2018 after deciding she needed to go solo or risk burning out as an assistant. Her first win came in 2019, on her 29th start. In the eight years since, she built a record of more than 300 victories — professional, methodical, and until Saturday morning, still carrying the weight of that one question she couldn't yet answer. Only 17 women had ever trained a horse that reached the Derby starting gate. None had won. The previous best finish by a female trainer was Shelley Riley's runner-up in 1992, a record that had stood for 34 years. DeVaux did not mention it before the race. She did not need to.
The subplot that the sport will tell for years is the Ortiz brothers. Jose Ortiz, 32, had already won the Kentucky Oaks on Friday — the filly equivalent of the Derby — making him the rare jockey to claim both races in the same weekend. On Saturday, threading Golden Tempo through the outside and finding a lane that seemed to close before it opened, he out-rode his brother Irad Ortiz Jr., who was aboard Renegade and ran a strong second. In the aftermath, Jose Ortiz was characteristically direct: "I want him to win the Derby, of course. I know it's his dream as well. But it happened that way. Today's my day and Golden Tempo's day." The two brothers, born in Puerto Rico, have been among the best jockeys in North America for the better part of a decade. Saturday was the first time they finished first and second in the Kentucky Derby. It will not be the last time anyone tells this story.
The Kentucky Derby has been producing its particular brand of the impossible since Aristides won the inaugural race in 1875. Rich Strike at 80-1 in 2022. Secretariat's 1973 time that no horse has beaten in 53 years. The 2020 running before empty grandstands in a pandemic September. Each one adds a chapter to a race that has had enough history for several sports. Saturday's chapter belongs to Cherie DeVaux — who started her career at Churchill Downs as an exercise rider 22 years ago, "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed," as she put it, and walked out of it on Saturday evening as the first woman in the history of the Run for the Roses to saddle its winner. Golden Tempo will make his own decision about the Preakness. DeVaux has already made hers about history.