Reagan's Wit looks to keep it rolling for DeVaux
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What is a trainer of Thoroughbreds to do after her horse, the Kentucky Derby winner, captures the Belmont Stakes? After another 3-year-old she trains about two hours before the Belmont won a Grade 1 sprint with even more verve than the Belmont winner himself?
How about getting in the car and heading west? Which is what Cherie DeVaux did the Monday morning after Golden Tempo stamped himself the leading 3-year-old of 2026 and Englishman the fastest 3-year-old of the crop.
DeVaux had a horse to run Sunday at Saratoga, Pelican Pride, who finished 10th in a maiden race. Then, early Monday, DeVaux set a course for Ellis Park, 14 1/2 hours west-southwest, to have a look at the string, comprised mainly of 2-year-olds, that she has training there. Ellis, in fact, is where Golden Tempo began his racetrack training last summer.
“Just back to the grind,” DeVaux said Wednesday. “I used all that driving time just to have some quiet and reflect. It’s been so busy. It’s all a little hard to conceptualize.”
Done with New York for now, DeVaux has four entrants this week at Churchill Downs, among them Reagan’s Wit in the featured sixth race Friday. He’s one of nine entrants in a 1 1/16-mile grass race with a baseline third-level allowance condition and an $80,000 claiming option.
A Golden Tempo or an Englishman, Reagan’s Wit is not, but he is a stakes-winning middle-distance turf horse who, in his most recent outing, won a second-level allowance April 9 at Keeneland. Even in victory, Reagan’s Wit, as has been his wont, made some mistakes, swapping his leads back and forth through the homestretch.
“That’s just him,” DeVaux said.
Reagan’s Wit probably has to run a tick better to beat his leading Friday rivals, Baby Max and Judge Davis.
Golden Tempo came out of his second Triple Crown race win just as he did his first – in great form physically and psychologically. He had his first morning of post-Belmont training Wednesday at Keeneland, and will have his first post-Belmont workout three weeks after his race, rather than the two DeVaux typically waits.
“I’m just giving both of them an extra week,” DeVaux said.
DeVaux reiterated that Golden Tempo likely runs next in the Jim Dandy Stakes, a prep for the Travers. Englishman, who got a stratospheric 115 Beyer Speed Figure winning the Woody Stephens over seven furlongs last weekend, has the six-furlong Amsterdam on July 31 penciled in as a prep for the Grade 1 Allen Jerkens in August.
First runner for Flightline
Flightline, the undefeated 2022 Horse of the Year, is expected to be represented by the first starter of his stud career with a Mark Casse-trained colt named Greenwell in the fifth race Friday at Churchill. Greenwell and nine other 2-year-old maidens are entered to race five furlongs.
Greg Tramontin’s Greenwell Thoroughreds purchased the colt, a May foal, for $500,000 at the Keeneland 2025 September yearling sale. Tramontin has been expanding his breeding and racing operations following his 2024 purchase of Siena Farm in Kentucky.
Greenwell is out of the War Front mare Cambodia, a multiple graded stakes winner on turf. She was unraced at 2, as was Flightline, partially owing to an incident in which he sustained a deep gash to his hindquarters in a stall accident early in his juvenile year.
Flightline went on to win all six of his starts by a combined 71 lengths, racing from six furlongs to 1 1/4 miles. He stands at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky, and his first crop has been in demand in the auction ring. Last year, his 57 yearlings sold at public auction averaged $737,274, against his advertised fee of $200,000. This year, his 2-year-old average sits at $2,055,357 from seven sold, led by a record-priced $10.5 million colt now named Zedan, who is in training with Bob Baffert in California.
Flightline has a second entrant in Saturday’s sixth race at Churchill, the filly House Boat Party, a homebred for Flying Dutchmen who has worked steadily for trainer Brian Lynch.
– additional reporting from Nicole Russo
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