Golden Tempo will stick with Saratoga, trainer DeVaux says
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - There will not be a media tour this time around.
Following Golden Tempo’s victory in the Kentucky Derby, which made Cherie DeVaux the first female trainer to win that race, DeVaux was everywhere, from the Today Show to Inside Edition to multiple podcasts to Yankee Stadium, where she threw out the ceremonial first pitch before a game.
After Golden Tempo’s victory in Saturday’s $2 million Belmont Stakes at Saratoga, DeVaux said she will continue the far-less-glamorous life of a horse trainer.
“I land tonight and I’ll be driving at 3 a.m. to Ellis Park,” DeVaux, who lives in Lexington, Ky., said on Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, Golden Tempo on Monday was scheduled to van from Saratoga to Keeneland, where he has been based since early April. Golden Tempo will train there, but plans call for him to return to Saratoga for the Grade 2 Jim Dandy on Aug. 1. He will stay here for the Grade 1 Travers on Aug. 29.
“It’s a track that we know he likes,” DeVaux said when asked why the Jim Dandy over the Grade 1 Haskell on July 18 at Monmouth Park. “With a horse like him, we just try to keep all the factors we know work in his favor.”
One of those favorable factors is the 1 1/4-mile distance that Golden Tempo has proven to be to his advantage over this year’s 3-year-old crop. He outfinished Renegade at that distance in the Kentucky Derby and was getting away from Commandment in the latter stages of the Belmont, which Golden Tempo won by 1 1/4 lengths.
“I believe that’s a factor,” DeVaux said. “He’s definitely a classic distance horse at 1 1/4 miles. It’ll be interesting to see when he runs in the Jim Dandy [at 1 1/8 miles] how that translates. With his maturity and now more running and experience, hopefully we can see a little more versatility in him.”
Though Golden Tempo rallied from last to first in both the Derby and the Belmont, he was closer to a moderate pace in the Belmont. The opening half-mile in the Belmont - run over a Saratoga main track that did absorb some rain in the final five minutes to post - was 48.29 seconds, nearly two seconds slower than the pace of the Derby at Churchill Downs. There were virtually six horses abreast at the quarter pole before Golden Tempo outfinished all of them. He was given a 98 Beyer Speed Figure.
Despite being the Kentucky Derby winner, Golden Tempo was sent off the co-fourth choice in the Belmont at odds of 6-1. There were many who wondered if Golden Tempo wasn’t a fortunate winner of the Kentucky Derby.
“I definitely felt the pressure to at least run well, to get the respect that he won in the Derby and should have won the Derby, and I feel like that was validated in the Belmont,” DeVaux said.
Golden Tempo is the 13th horse - not including the Triple Crown winners - to win the Derby and the Belmont. Six of the last seven - including Sovereignty last year - were voted 3-year-old champions. Riva Ridge (1972) was outpolled by Key to the Mint.
Commandment improved on his seventh-place finish in the Kentucky Derby with a solid second-place finish in the Belmont. Trainer Brad Cox said after the race he felt the horse was primed for a big effort and delivered one.
On Sunday, via text, Cox said he would have Commandment return to Churchill Downs and evaluate his training before he decides where to run the Grade 1 Florida Derby winner next.
Renegade matched strides with Golden Tempo in the Kentucky Derby, falling a neck short at the wire. In the Belmont, Renegade ran until midstretch before he flattened out, finishing third, beaten 5 1/4 lengths.
Trainer Todd Pletcher said it took Renegade a good two weeks to bounce back from the Derby, but he felt the horse was ready to run back in the Belmont.
“I don’t think we saw the best Renegade yesterday,” Pletcher said. “We didn’t really have an excuse, we just got outrun. I felt like it took him a little while to bounce out of the Derby. I thought he had a really good week going into the Belmont, but still felt like maybe a little more time would have helped.”
Pletcher said he will “pencil in” the Jim Dandy for Renegade, but also said he wouldn’t be adverse to training the Arkansas Derby winner to the Travers.
Pletcher also sent out Powershift, who set the pace before finishing last. Pletcher said he would likely back Powershift up in distance.
Chief Wallabee, fourth in the Kentucky Derby, finished fourth in the Belmont. Trainer Bill Mott said it simply looks like his horse doesn’t want 1 1/4 miles. Chief Wallabee - as is the case with Powershift - is eligible for a first-level allowance race as well as the Curlin Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds who have not won a graded stakes to be run here July 29.
“I don’t see anything on him today that says he’s got to have a break,” Mott said. “If he’s sound and training well, we’ll try another race.”
Emerging Market, fifth in the Belmont, pulled off a right front shoe when he stumbled at the start, though trainer Chad Brown isn’t sure how significantly that impacted where he finished.
“I don’t know how he would have run regardless but unfortunately when he took that big stumble at the start he pulled his shoe off,” Brown said. “The gate crew let me know they had the shoe. He got a good trip from there; I don’t know how much that affected him or didn’t affect him, but it wasn’t ideal.”
Brown said he would regroup with Emerging Market as well as sixth-place finisher Growth Equity and eighth-place finisher Ottinho.
Englishman to Jerkens
Hours before she won the Belmont Stakes, DeVaux won the Grade 1 Woody Stephens with the 3-year-old Englishman, who galloped to a 5 3/4-length victory and, at the very least, equaled a 48-year-old track record when he ran seven furlongs in 1:20.40. Darby Creek Road is credited for having run 1:20.40 in 1978, though fractions were timed in fifths back then as opposed to hundreths now.
Englishman bounced back from a second-place finish behind Crude Velocity in the Pat Day Mile five weeks ago. Crude Velocity finished second in the Woody Stephens.
“You’re not expecting him to equal a track record from 1978, but he’s a horse that has always had a ton of ability, he’s just naturally fast,” DeVaux said. “The Pat Day Mile was his first time really being challenged. I’m just glad to see that after he came back and moved forward. He had an excuse to regress and he didn’t.”
DeVaux said Englishman would also return to Keeneland to train and that his summer goal is the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens here on Aug. 29. DeVaux was unsure if Englishman would have a start beforehand.
DeVaux did say that Englishman’s long-range goal is the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Oct. 31 at Keeneland.
“Even though he’s 3, he’s one of the top horses sprinting right now,” DeVaux said.
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