Supercharger looks to keep it rolling for DeVaux in Old Dominion Derby
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Supercharger may not be the first 3-year-old that comes to mind when people think of Cherie DeVaux’s banner 2026 campaign, but the colt kept the party going for the trainer when he won his first graded stakes last month. He will go for his second in the Grade 3, $500,000 Old Dominion Derby on Monday at Colonial Downs.
“He’s a horse that has always acted like he would mature and get better with time, and he has,” DeVaux said. “Obviously, we’re pleased with how far he’s come with each of his races.”
The Old Dominion Derby will be the featured race on an 11-race Labor Day card marking the final day of the Colonial meet. The card will feature six turf stakes offering a combined $1.3 million in purse money.
Supercharger’s first graded stakes victory came on an even bigger day at Colonial, when he rallied from seventh to win the Grade 2 Secretariat with a 90 Beyer Speed Figure on Arlington Million Day. The late-blooming 3-year-old took four tries to earn his maiden victory, but he has now won three straight.
Golden Tempo, Englishman, Supercharger, and Remember Mamba have won seven graded stakes for DeVaux in 2026.
Supercharger will stretch out to 1 1/8 miles on Monday, but he handled the distance well in a maiden special weight and first-level allowance at Churchill Downs earlier this year.
“It’s definitely an advantage, which some of them don’t have,” DeVaux said. “The nine furlongs should suit him a little bit better than the mile and a sixteenth.”
Though he will have to find the right trip from the far outside post, Supercharger will likely be helped by a few defections. Trainer Victoria Oliver said Fuzzbuster will run at Kentucky Downs on Monday, while Joe Sharp said Siyouincanada will stay at Saratoga.
DeVaux also entered Dr. Agne. The longshot is one of five last-out allowance winners in the field, along with Chambersville, Lennox the Grey, and the cross-entered runners Gramp’s Legacy and Go for Rocket.
The Big Con, a colt trained by Miguel Clement, is the only other graded stakes winner in the field, having won the Grade 3 Grey on synthetic at Woodbine last year. He returned from a nine-month layoff in the Grade 1 Saratoga Derby last month and suffered a tumultuous trip in his turf debut, making up some late places for fifth. He will run without blinkers Monday.
Heeere’s Johnny, winner of the $150,000 Saranac at Saratoga in July, also is coming out of the Saratoga Derby. The late-running Ray Handal trainee trailed for much of that race and finished sixth.
Trainer Graham Motion entered the outside contender Kravitz, who stepped up and finished sixth behind older rivals in a 1 3/8-mile first-level allowance at Saratoga last month.
“I really wanted to try him at a longer distance last time, and I’m not convinced that he wants to go that far, to be honest,” Motion said. “It was in his pedigree, so we wanted to try it, but this is getting him back to what we know he handles.”
Tiernanogue suffered two distant stakes defeats at Saratoga this summer but will switch back to turf for Brendan Walsh.
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