In the history of the Kentucky Derby, only 3.1% of horses starting from the No. 19 post had ever won the race. Understandably so, it was a dramatic comeback party at Churchill Downs at the end. Golden Tempo sat dead last going into the first turn. Eighteen horses ahead of him, 38-1 long shot, Six Speed leading the pack well ahead as everyone watched on. And then Cherie DeVaux’s horse did something in the Kentucky Derby nobody saw coming.
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Sent off at 24-1 odds, the three-year-old bay colt trailed the entire 18-horse field early after breaking slowly under José Ortiz before beginning to thread through traffic along the outside. Breaking from Post 16, the same gate that produced the 2025 Derby winner, Golden Tempo, settled comfortably at the back, exactly where his connections expected him to be. But once the field began to turn for home, he started picking his way forward through traffic along the outside
Golden Tempo surged past horses one by one and edged Renegade at the wire by a neck to capture the 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby in front of 150,415 spectators at Churchill Downs. But more importantly, the late charge delivered more than just an upset finish.
It also secured a landmark breakthrough for Cherie DeVaux, who became the first woman ever to train a Kentucky Derby winner, and only the second female trainer to win any American Triple Crown race. She was also making her first Kentucky Derby start as a trainer, becoming the first woman since 2021 to saddle a Derby runner and immediately turning it into a historic victory.
“I don’t even have any words right now,” DeVaux said in a post-race interview. “I’m glad that I could be a representative of all women everywhere. We can do anything we set our minds to..I’m just so happy for Golden Tempo and Jose, who did a masterful job at getting him there, because he was so far out of it. He has had so much faith in this horse.”
From her vantage point, the early position was not unexpected.
The moment Cherie DeVaux became the first female trainer to win the Kentucky Derby.
“That’s how he runs,” she said at a press conference. “So it’s not like we really did anything different than he hadn’t done in his previous starts. And about the 3/16 pole, I thought we’re probably going to win this. I kind of blacked out after that,” she said, laughing.
DeVaux’s breakthrough followed more than a decade of learning the craft under Chuck Simon and Chad Brown before she launched her own stable in 2018. By the end of 2025, she had already collected six graded stakes wins, including the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes, but Golden Tempo was her first Triple Crown starter. It became the 298th win of her career, and easily the biggest.
The final stretch became even more dramatic because the last serious challenge came from inside the family. Renegade, ridden by José Ortiz’s older brother Irad Ortiz Jr., launched his own late push after navigating early traffic from the rail. The two brothers drove their mounts toward the wire together before Golden Tempo found just enough in the final strides to separate.
For José Ortiz, the victory carried its own emotional weight. After ten previous Derby attempts without a win, he finally captured the race he had chased for years, and did so with his parents in attendance.
“It’s a dream come true. This is the biggest race in the world for me. I’m blessed,” Ortiz said. “I get to ride it almost every year but to get to win it with my mom and my dad here, it’s very special,” he said as tears began to stream down his face. I just wish my grandpa was here but I know he is looking down from heaven and is happy to see me achieve my life’s goal.”
He also made sure to acknowledge how close the finish truly was.
“I know it is his dream as well, but it happened that way and I think he should be happy,” he said. “His horse ran a very good race, it’s a very nice horse. But it was my day, Golden Tempo’s day and I’m happy for Cherie and for the ownership.”
Irad Ortiz Jr., whose mount nearly stole the race despite a difficult beginning, saw the finish much the same way. “We got squeezed at the start. We came flying late, but the winner just got the jump on me,” he said.
The Derby capped what had already become a remarkable weekend for José Ortiz. Just a night earlier, he had ridden Always a Runner to victory in the Kentucky Oaks, completing one of the sport’s rarest doubles.
“To get the double is very hard,” he said after becoming the ninth rider to win both races in the same year. “They were joking inside the (jockey) room today that 10 guys had done it, it’s not impossible. I’m just very happy.”
Golden Tempo’s victory, worth $3.1 million for owners Phipps Stable and St. Elias Stable, came after a race shaped by early scratches and a fast opening pace that helped set up the closing run. Six Speed had controlled the tempo through the early fractions, but the quick early splits: 22.68 seconds for the opening quarter mile and 46.44 for the half, created the conditions for late runners to reenter contention. At that stage of the race, the eventual top three finishers were running 18th, 16th and 15th, an unusual setup for a Derby stretch drive at Churchill Downs.
Japanese contender Danon Bourbon briefly appeared poised to take control entering the stretch before being overtaken late by Ocelli and then the Ortiz brothers’ mounts closing fast from the outside.
Golden Tempo took full advantage of that.
More than three-quarters of a mile into the race, he was still last. By the finish line, he had passed every horse in front of him. And in doing so, he delivered one of the most improbable rallies Churchill Downs has seen in recent Derby history. His run was timed perfectly enough to turn a trailing position into a historic victory.
The victory was the third win in just five career starts for Golden Tempo, a son of Curlin out of the Bernardini mare Carrumba and a homebred for Phipps Stable and St. Elias Stable. He entered the Derby off a prep campaign that included wins earlier in the season at Fair Grounds before a third-place finish in the Louisiana Derby six weeks earlier, a schedule designed specifically with Churchill Downs in mind.
Connections were noncommittal immediately afterward about whether Golden Tempo would run in the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown on May 16, saying they would allow the colt’s recovery in the coming days to determine the next step.
But while Golden Tempo may have been the star of Derby day, Churchill Downs was a full card of racing from start to finish.
Churchill Downs race results from Derby day
Here are the results from all 13 races:
Race 1: Maiden Special Weight
1st: Powershift
2nd: Silent Way
3rd: Ingleborugh
Race 2: Allowance Optional Claiming
1st: Out Of The Woods
2nd: Sovereign Law
3rd:Our Moneyman
Race 3: Allowance Optional Claiming
1st: Vibe
2nd: Bullard
3rd: Who Dey
Race 4: Derby City Distaff Stakes Presented By Ford
1st: R Disaster
2nd: Ways and Means
3rd: Usha
Race 5: Twin Spires Turf Sprint Stakes Presented By Accenture
1st: Yellow Card
2nd: Jose Shiesty
3rd:Litigation
Race 6: Knicks Go Overnight Stakes Presented By L&N Federal Credit Union
1st: Tour Player
2nd: Moonlight
3rd:Dragoon Guard
Race 7: Longines Churchill Distaff Turf Miles Stakes
1st: Classic Q
2nd: Portfolio Duration
3rd:Pin Up Betty
Race 8: Pat Day Mile Stakes Presented By SAP
1st: Crude Velocity
2nd: Englishman
3rd: Stop the Car
Race 9: American Turf Stakes
1st: Stark Contrast
2nd: Remember Mamba
3rd:Honey Dutch
Race 10: Churchill Downs Stakes Presented By Ford
1st: T O Elvis
2nd: Disruptor
3rd: Crazy Mason
Race 11: Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic Stakes
1st: Rhetorical
2nd: Make Me King
3rd: Corruption
Race 12: Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve
1st: Golden Tempo
2nd: Renegade
3rd: Ocelli
Race 13: Allowance Optional Claiming
1st: Gilden Bandit
2nd: Small Town
3rd: Noble Affair
Race 14: Maiden Special Weight
1st: Prize Pick
2nd: Find No Fault
3rd: Big Jake
