“Golden Tempo is amazing. Jose is amazing,” said DeVaux in an interview with The Guardian, who was born in Saratoga Springs and raised in Englewood, Florida. “I think he needed to do this to kind of show that he was meant to win the Derby and that he is a horse that belongs in that conversation of being one of the top three-year-olds.”

Trainer Cherie DeVaux keeps rewriting racing history. After becoming the first woman ever to train a Kentucky Derby winner, she’s now the second female trainer to claim the Belmont in the past four years, following Jena Antonucci’s 2023 victory with Arcangelo. DeVaux stands alone as the only woman to win multiple Triple Crown races.

While Saratoga’s race didn’t unfold at the blistering pace of the Derby, it didn’t matter. Golden Tempo closed with authority, handling the mile and a quarter in a swift 2:03.49. The field was strong; nine horses charged for the wire, but he played his closing kick at just the right moment.

This marked Belmont’s third and final year at Saratoga. The old Belmont Park, straddling Queens and Long Island, remains under reconstruction but should welcome the race back next year.

“He wasn’t going to get that setup as he did in the Derby,” Ortiz said in an interview with The Guardian. “We all knew that, and I was a little worried about it. He needed some kind of setup. But today, there wasn’t one, and he showed up today and won.”

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In the home stretch, Golden Tempo went wide and kicked into gear, passing the favorites and edging out Renegade in second and Ocelli in third. Ortiz’s savvy ride also gave him the rare Oaks-Derby double for the weekend. They finished the classic 1 1/4-mile distance in 2:02.27.

When asked what gave her the belief that she could win at the Kentucky Derby one day, Cherie said with emotion, “It was really my husband. In the summer of 2017, I was kind of at a crossroads in life and he told me that I owe 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.”

Golden Tempo is a homebred son of Curlin, owned by Phipps Stable and St. Elias Stables. DeVaux’s historic win brought new attention to her alma mater, Lemon Bay High, and cemented her place in horse racing’s record books.”

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