Golden Tempo not DeVaux's only talented sophomore
?q=100)
Somewhere between getting rock-star treatment on television and social media, throwing out a ceremonial first pitch at Yankee Stadium, and sending her Converse kicks, custom-made for the first Saturday in May, to be displayed at the Kentucky Derby Museum, Cherie DeVaux still has a vast stable of horses to train.
The 2-year-olds have started arriving en masse, many bound for bucolic isolation at the Pea Patch, Ellis Park, and then there’s the minor task of training Derby winner Golden Tempo toward the Belmont Stakes.
And Golden Tempo is not the only talented 3-year-old for whom DeVaux must plot stakes plans. Englishman finished second in the Pat Day Mile on the Derby undercard, one race before DeVaux saddled Remember Mamba to a good second-place finish in the American Turf. Both horses, like Golden Tempo, are bound for stakes at Saratoga, but the two will follow different schedules.
Englishman, a blowout maiden and first-level allowance winner of his first two starts, made his stakes debut in the Pat Day Mile, his first race beyond seven furlongs. He laid down a wicked pace, 22.06 and 44.20, and had no answer when the talented Bob Baffert-trained Crude Velocity came calling.
Englishman did hold a clear second while racing over a distance slightly beyond his best, DeVaux believes. To that end, Englishman, all being well, will cut back to seven furlongs in the $500,000 Woody Stephens on June 6 at Saratoga, and DeVaux has another seven-furlong Saratoga Grade 1, the Allen Jerkens on Aug. 29, as a longer-term goal.
“He was dead tired after his race, but he bounced back and he’s back galloping fine,” DeVaux said Monday.
While the Pat Day Mile proved a little too long for Englishman, the 1 1/16-mile American Turf did not provide quite enough distance for Remember Mamba, who broke from a wide post, 11, that hurt his chances. Just 11th at about the quarter pole, Remember Mamba roared home for second but could only come within 2 1/4 lengths of Stark Contrast, an excellent sophomore turf horse in his own right and tactically advantaged over 1 1/16 miles.
“He ran great. The post got us. With him, we’re going to try and target the longer races this summer,” DeVaux said.
The first of those: The Belmont Derby Invitational over 1 1/8 miles on July 4 at Saratoga.
By then, Golden Tempo might have won another Triple Crown race – which would mean another round of non-racing demands on DeVaux’s time. Undoubtedly, she would take that trade-off.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.