Cherie DeVaux: The 23-1 Longshot That Made History at Churchill Downs.
Cherie DeVaux: The 23-1 Longshot That Made History at Churchill Downs.
How a former pre-med student became the first female trainer in 152 years to win the Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby is supposed to be about favorites. About the horses with the best bloodlines and the highest odds and the trainers who have been there a hundred times before.
But on Saturday, May 2, 2026, the Derby forgot all about its own rules.
A 23-1 longshot named Golden Tempo came from dead last to win by a neck. And the woman who trained him, a 44-year-old from Saratoga Springs named Cherie DeVaux, became the first female trainer in 152 years to win the Run for the Roses.
It was the kind of moment that makes you believe in second chances. The kind of moment that reminds you why sports matter. Not because of the money or the fame or the fancy hats. But because every once in a while, the person nobody believed in wins the whole thing.
**From Pre-Med to the Winner's Circle**
Cherie DeVaux did not grow up dreaming of the Kentucky Derby. She grew up in Saratoga Springs, New York, a town known for horses, but her heart was somewhere else entirely. She studied pre-med in college. She was going to be a doctor. She had the grades and the drive and the plan.
But something pulled her back to the barns.
She started as a stable worker, cleaning stalls and feeding horses. Then she spent six years working for trainer Chuck Simon. Then eight years as an assistant to Chad Brown, one of the biggest names in the sport. She learned from the best, but she was always in the background. Always the helper. Never the boss.
By 2017, she was burned out. Exhausted. Ready to quit. She had spent years working for other people, building their dreams instead of her own. She was not sure she wanted to do this anymore.
Her husband, David Ingordo, a bloodstock agent, told her something simple: go out on your own. Bet on yourself.
So she did.
She got her trainer's license in 2018. Her first win came in March 2019, on just her 29th start. Since then, she has collected nearly 300 victories. Her horses have earned more than $32 million in career prize money. She won the Breeders' Cup Mile in 2024 and an Eclipse Award in 2025.
But the Derby had always been out of reach. Until now.
**The Race Nobody Expected**
Golden Tempo broke slowly. Really slowly. Dead last slowly. For most of the mile-and-a-quarter race, he was watching the other horses' behinds. Jockey Jose Ortiz, who had never won a Derby before either, did not panic. He waited. He found a path. And then, in the final stretch, Golden Tempo turned on the jets.
He surged past the favorite, Renegade, who was ridden by Ortiz's own brother, Irad Ortiz Jr. The crowd of 150,415 went absolutely silent for a second, and then they erupted.
And there was DeVaux, captured on live television, jumping up and down like a kid who just opened the best Christmas present of her life.
"He was so far out of it," she said afterward on the NBC broadcast, still catching her breath.
**The Family That Drove Through the Night**
You cannot tell DeVaux's story without talking about her family. Because they were there. All of them.
Nearly a dozen members of the DeVaux family piled into a big white van and drove 14 hours from New York to Louisville to watch the race. There was one rule on that van: nobody was allowed to say they were going to win. Bad luck. Superstitious.
"No one was allowed to say we're going to win because I'm superstitious," her sister Adrianne DeVaux said. "Since I was a little kid watching races, we're not allowed to say we're going to win."
The drive was eventful. Less than two hours in, Adrianne tweeted, "One jolly rancher thrown from the back to the front windshield and two Aleve taken already." They stopped at Wawa for snacks. Burger King for dinner. They made it to Louisville just before 4 a.m. on Friday.
It was worth every mile.
After the race, as Cherie held her young nephew Maverick on the broadcast, her family surrounded her, crying, jumping, celebrating. "They're probably not going to sleep," Cherie said, knowing they had another long drive back to New York the next day.
**What It Means to Be First**
Only 17 women had ever trained a horse in the Kentucky Derby before DeVaux. Only six women have ever ridden in the race. The closest any woman had come to winning was Shelley Riley, who finished second with Casual Lies all the way back in 1992.
DeVaux is the second woman to win any Triple Crown race, joining Jena Antonucci, who won the Belmont Stakes with Arcangelo in 2023. But the Derby is different. The Derby is the one everyone watches. The Derby is the one that gets the mint juleps and the fancy hats and the national anthem.
And now, a woman's name is on that trophy.
Days before the race, DeVaux saw a young girl on the backstretch at Churchill Downs. And she realized something.
"It really is an honour to be able to be that person for other women or other little girls to look up to," DeVaux said. "You can dream big, and you can pivot. You can come from one place and make yourself a part of history."
After the race, standing in the winner's circle, she was nearly speechless. But she managed to get out the words that mattered most.
"I'm glad I can be a representative of all women everywhere," she said. "We can do anything we set our minds to."
**The Toughness That Got Her Here**
DeVaux grew up with seven brothers and two sisters. You learn to fight for your voice in a house that crowded.
"My brothers are a lot bigger than me, so I think that's what shaped me," she told a reporter before the Derby. "I've had to fight and scrap and be heard so that I could survive growing up. And I understand that's not the same for everybody."
That toughness served her well in an industry that has not always been welcoming to women. Horse training is still largely male-dominated. The numbers are improving, but change is slow.
DeVaux did not wait for change. She made it.
**What Comes Next**
Golden Tempo's win earned DeVaux 10 percent of the $3.1 million purse—$310,000. Not bad for a horse that went off at 23-1 odds.
But the money is not the point. The point is what this win represents.
DeVaux started her career 22 years ago as a "bright-eyed, bushy-tailed exercise rider." She never thought she would be sitting in the winner's circle at the Kentucky Derby.
"I didn't believe," she said. "I started my career here 22 years ago... And I would not believe that I would be sitting up here today. Never in my life did I think I would."
But she is sitting there now. And no one can ever take that away.
The Triple Crown chase continues. The Preakness Stakes is on May 16 at Pimlico. The Belmont Stakes is on June 6 at Saratoga—DeVaux's home turf. Golden Tempo might run in those races. He might not. Either way, DeVaux has already made history.
**The Bottom Line**
Cherie DeVaux is not the first woman to train horses. She is not the first woman to win big races. But she is the first woman to win the Kentucky Derby. And that is a title that will belong to her forever.
She took a chance on herself when she was burned out and unsure. She left the security of being an assistant and started her own barn. She built something from nothing. And on the first Saturday in May, in front of 150,000 people and millions watching at home, it all paid off.
She did not set out to be a symbol. She set out to train horses. She set out to win races.
But she became a symbol anyway. And that is beautiful.
So here is to Cherie. And here is to Golden Tempo. And here is to every little girl who watched on Saturday and thought, maybe I can do that too.
Because now they know. They can.
Written by DDM ATIQ
