There were 18 horses ahead of Golden Tempo with less than half a mile to run. By the time the field reached the wire, only one was in front of him. And it wasn’t for long.
Golden Tempo won the 152nd Kentucky Derby on Saturday 2 May 2026 at Churchill Downs, storming from last place to beat co-favourite Renegade by a nose in a time of 2:02.27. The starting price was 23-1. The crowd had barely had time to register what was happening before it was over.
A Historic Moment in American Racing
The headline writes itself. Cherie DeVaux became the first woman to train a Kentucky Derby winner. That fact alone will be talked about long after the result fades from memory.
DeVaux, 44, is from Saratoga Springs, New York. She grew up in a family steeped in Standardbred racing, got her training licence in 2018, and earned her first win in 2019 on just her 29th start. Since then she has racked up more than 300 victories. She had 21 wins in 2026 before Saturday. Now she has the one that matters most.
The reaction from the paddock went viral. She earned it.
The Race Itself
Golden Tempo is a homebred for Phipps Stable and St. Elias Stable, sired by Hall of Famer Curlin. He was drawn wide and broke slowly. Three-quarters of a mile in, he was dead last in a field of 19. The kind of position where you start thinking about what went wrong.
What followed was one of the most dramatic finishes the Derby has produced in years. Jose Ortiz, riding in his 11th attempt at the race, guided Golden Tempo through traffic on the far turn and unleashed a run down the stretch that swallowed up horse after horse. Renegade, trained by Todd Pletcher and ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., had looked to be holding on. He wasn’t.
A nose at the wire. A 23-1 winner. The Ortiz brothers finished first and second.
Third went to long shot Ocelli.
The Data Angle
A 23-1 morning line implied probability of just over 4%. At those odds, the market was pricing Golden Tempo as an outlier rather than a genuine contender. That is exactly what makes reactions like this interesting from an analytics perspective.
Closers at Churchill Downs face a structural disadvantage in the Derby field. The mile and a quarter at a pace set by 19 horses creates traffic, trouble, and timing problems that are genuinely hard to model. Golden Tempo overcame all of it. Whether that is pure class, a perfect ride from Ortiz, or the race falling his way at the right moment, the finish time of 2:02.27 tells you the form was real.
What Happens Next
The Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, runs on Saturday 16 May 2026 at Laurel Park. It will be the first time the race has moved away from its traditional home of Pimlico Race Course, which is currently under construction.
Whether Golden Tempo lines up is not yet confirmed. In recent years, three of the last five Derby winners skipped the Preakness. The Triple Crown remains the most demanding sequence in US sport for a reason.
If DeVaux sends him, the story gets even bigger.
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