The 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby delivered one of the most iconic, history-making finishes in the storied race’s history, as longshot Golden Tempo charged from the back of the pack to claim a neck-length victory, landing trainer Cherie DeVaux a groundbreaking milestone as the first woman to ever win the prestigious Churchill Downs classic.
Coming into the 1 1/4-mile race with 23-1 odds, Golden Tempo spent the first half of the contest mired at the rear of the 18-horse field. Race favorite Renegade, a 4-1 pick ridden by top jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., also started slow, sitting 15 lengths off the lead midway through the race as he attempted to pull off a historic win from the inside starting gate — a feat no horse had achieved in 40 years. As the two horses stormed down the final stretch, Renegade looked poised to cross the finish line first, only for Golden Tempo to edge past at the very last moment. The final time for the race was clocked at 2 minutes 2.27 seconds, and third place went to Ocelli.
The winning jockey, Joe Ortiz — younger brother of Renegade’s jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. — notched the win on just his 11th attempt at winning the Kentucky Derby. The victory also came just one day after he won the Kentucky Oaks aboard Always A Runner, making Ortiz only the ninth jockey in history to claim both of Churchill Downs’ top prizes in the same year. Speaking to reporters after the race, Ortiz acknowledged the bittersweet nature of beating his own brother, saying: “I want Irad to win the Derby, of course — it’s his dream too — but this is how things turned out. His horse ran a fantastic race, and he should be proud of that. Today’s just my day, and Golden Tempo’s day.”
For DeVaux, the win is a full-circle moment that caps a 22-year journey in horse racing that began right at Churchill Downs. She started her career at the iconic track as an eager young exercise rider, and never could have imagined she would one day stand in the winner’s circle of the Kentucky Derby. “I started my career here 22 years ago as a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed exercise rider, and I would not believe that I would be sitting up here today,” she said.
With the victory, DeVaux becomes just the second female trainer ever to win a U.S. Triple Crown race, following Jena Antonucci, who trained 2023 Belmont Stakes winner Arcangelo. DeVaux, who has notched 298 wins from 1,802 career starts, spoke to NBC Sports directly after the race, saying she was overwhelmed with emotion: “I don’t have any words, I’m so, so happy. I’m glad I could be a representative of women everywhere, and I want to say thank you to the team at Phipps Stable and St Elias Stable, our owners.”
She also credited her husband for pushing her to pursue her training career when she faced a personal crossroads in 2017. “In the summer of 2017 I was kind of at a crossroads in life, and my husband told me that I owed it to myself to at least try. He had the faith in me and he saw what I didn’t see, and believed in me,” DeVaux shared. The win earned Golden Tempo’s owners a $3.1 million top prize, cementing this year’s Kentucky Derby as one of the most memorable in modern racing history.