KENTUCKY DERBY PRESENTED BY WOODFORD RESERVE (G1)
Churchill Downs - 2nd May 2026
There’s already a fantastic story to go with the 2026 Kentucky Derby as Cherie Devaux became the first female trainer to win the race with GOLDEN TEMPO. The winner certainly took a bit of finding as his International SP of 25/1 might suggest and when I looked back through his latest efforts at Fair Grounds in search of clues that could explain this improvement, there wasn’t anything leaping off the data pages at me. He had perhaps been given too much to do when he finished 3rd in the Risen Star Stakes behind Paladin in February, a fact borne out by the way that he ran the fastest individual splits for furlongs 6, 7 and 8 without ever looking like he was going to get on terms with the winner and the runner-up. It was a similar story in the Louisiana Derby where he again finished 3rd, this time behind Emerging Market. He hit the line well that day and recorded a race best run-out speed of 35.34 mph. Both of those efforts suggested that a strongly run race over 10 furlongs were likely to suit, but he was beaten fairly on both occasions and it would have taken a considerable leap of faith to suggest that Golden Tempo was going to improve as much as he did.
The headlines have quite rightly been made by Cherie Devaux, but there should also be an enormous amount of praise heaped upon Jose Ortiz for what was a truly superb ride aboard the winner. Having been towards the rear of the field, he found himself 2.85s behind the leader with half a mile to run. Instead of panicking at that point, Jose Ortiz allowed his mount to build his momentum. Golden Tempo finished very strongly and his final 4 furlong splits ranked 1st, 1st, 2nd and 1st as he clocked a race best figure of 48.77s for the final half a mile of the race. His average stride frequency reached a race peak of 2.22 per second in the 7th furlong as he began to pick his way through the field and whilst the connections of the runner-up may feel that they have had their pockets picked, a side by side comparison of the data for both runners over the final half a mile would clearly suggest that Golden Tempo was the better horse on the day, although I should add the caveat that Renegade did record the better run-out speed at 35.5 mph once he had crossed the line. At an average of 25.49 ft, Golden Tempo had the longest average stride length figure in the field and although his peak average figure of 26.42 ft ranked only 4th, he was consistently able to maintain his stride for longer than his rivals and recorded the longest stride length figure in the race for 5 of the last 6 furlongs. Golden Tempo is a long striding son of Curlin and on his 5 starts to date his average stride length figure has ranked either 1st or 2nd in the field. That is perhaps the real key to this victory. A big field and a fast early pace meant that Golden Tempo had the time to really lengthen his stride and that allowed him to make up so much ground in the closing stages. That might suggest that the Belmont Stakes rather than the Preakness will be the more suitable race for him, but there is only one triple crown and whilst his connections were very keen not to commit to the race, it must be open as an option if the horse comes out of the Derby in good order.
Cherie Devaux told TDN “We’re going to let him decide that. We’re going to see how he looks tomorrow, and subsequently, the next couple weeks or, you know, the next couple days. But we’re going to have to allow him to tell us, because the horse is first. We’re not here for ourselves. We’re not here for our egos. We’re here for the horse”.
It was quite the weekend for Jose Ortiz, who also won the Kentucky Oaks aboard Always a Runner on Friday evening, but you should also spare a thought for his brother Irad, who may well have thought he had the race won aboard Renegade when he hit the front in the closing stages. Having been bumped at the start from his low draw, he didn’t get a clean passage through, but Renegade still managed to run the fastest penultimate furlong in the field (12.28s). He did very little wrong and Todd Pletcher must surely fancy his chances of being able to reverse this form later in the season, but Golden Tempo had the higher finishing speed (99.1%) and combined with his longer stride, it would be a mistake to assume that this was a “one off” performance simply because of his starting price. I can’t really make any excuses for Further Ado or Commandment, who appeared to run reasonable races without being able to last all the way to the line. Renegade is the obvious horse to note for the other triple crown races, but I will also add a small note for the Japanese runner Danon Bourbon. He finished 5th and the wait for a Japanese trained winner of the Kentucky Derby goes on, but having fared best of those who raced in the vanguard, I thought he did at least emerge from this race with his reputation intact.