The 152nd Kentucky Derby rewrote a sentence that had been waiting a very long time for a different ending. On May 2, Cherie DeVaux became the first woman to train the race’s winner. Golden Tempo supplied the dramatic timing, coming from the back of the field when the finish was beginning to look like somebody else’s story.
There is an excellent sports film in that setup. Conveniently, the horse did not wait for a screenplay.
From Last to a Neck in Front
Golden Tempo rallied from last in an 18-horse field under Jose Ortiz. The Derby’s race report records the late challenge that edged Renegade. Coming from behind is a racing style, not a strategy that has somehow become impossible in the modern Derby; the hard part is making the timing work.
Churchill Downs’ announcement confirms the winning margin of a neck, odds of 23-1 and a time of 2:02.27 over a mile and a quarter. The colt was bred and is owned by Phipps Stable and St. Elias Stable. Ortiz also won the Kentucky Oaks that weekend.
For the viewer, the pleasure is watching the gap between “surely too much to do” and “he might actually do it” disappear. A late charge compresses an entire underdog narrative into a few seconds. The replay is worth watching even if the last horse race you followed involved a toy on a kitchen floor.
The Career Behind the Historic Saturday
DeVaux did not materialise at Churchill Downs carrying a lucky stopwatch. A Daily Racing Form interview from April 2018 records her decision to leave Chad Brown’s operation and establish her own stable. She had worked for Chuck Simon before joining Brown in 2010.
That earlier interview is a useful counterweight to the overnight-success version of the story. The decision to work independently was a professional risk taken years before the roses, with experience already behind it. The headline captures a moment; a career contains all the less photogenic mornings that made the moment possible.
AP’s race coverage places the milestone alongside Jena Antonucci’s 2023 Belmont victory with Arcangelo: they are the first two women to train winners of U.S. Triple Crown races. DeVaux also acknowledged what her achievement could mean for girls and women watching.
Celebrating that first does not require pretending that one result removes every barrier in the sport. It does give the next person a concrete example. “Nobody has done it” is one sentence that now needs editing.
A Large Audience, With the Numbers Properly Labelled
In its May 4 preliminary audience announcement, NBCUniversal reported an average of 19.6 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, calling it the most-watched Derby on record. It cited preliminary Nielsen figures and Adobe Analytics, with official metrics still to follow.
That is a substantial audience for a memorable finish. It does not prove that DeVaux’s eventual victory caused people to tune in beforehand, or that a single broadcast has reversed every longer-term trend in horse racing. The sporting achievement is strong enough without borrowing a bigger causal claim.
The Next Race Is a Decision, Not an Automatic Sequel
The Preakness is scheduled for May 16. But the May 3 follow-up with DeVaux described her as noncommittal about Golden Tempo running, with his recovery to be assessed before a decision.
A Derby win makes a Triple Crown story tempting. It does not oblige the horse to follow the television script. Watching how he comes out of the race is part of the training job too, even if “we will see” fits less neatly on a promotional poster.
For now, there is a complete story to enjoy: a trainer reached a historic first, an unfancied colt finished fastest where it mattered, and a jockey judged a difficult run. Cats, professionals at appearing unconcerned until the exact moment they want something, might appreciate the timing. They would probably request that their own victory garland be delivered to the sofa.
