Golden Tempo wins Belmont Stakes at Saratoga
Trainer Cherie DeVaux greets Golden Tempo and Jockey Jose Ortiz after winning the 158th running of the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, June 6, 2026, at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs. Credit: AP/Yuki Iwamura
SARATOGA SPRINGS – Cherie DeVaux described it as “overwhelming” to win Saturday’s 158th Belmont Stakes with Golden Tempo, who repeated his last-to-first run that also earned him the Kentucky Derby on May 2.
That made her the first woman to train a Derby winner. Now, DeVaux is the first woman to train a horse that won both the Derby and the Belmont. Jena Antonucci, in 2023, was the first woman to train the winner of a Triple Crown race when Arcangelo won the Belmont Stakes.
“To be honest, it’s not something that’s really in the forefront of my brain,” said DeVaux, who was born in Saratoga Springs but raised in Florida. “When we won the Derby, the first thing I said, or the second, was, ‘I’m glad I don’t have to say what does it feel like to be a female that wins the Kentucky Derby.’ It’s kind of that. It’s exciting. I am person that just sets my expectations of things high.”
Golden Tempo, breaking from the outside post at 6-1 in the nine-horse field, won the 11/4-mile final leg of the Triple Crown in a slow 2:03.49, coming from 12 lengths back and still running last with a half-mile to go. The Belmont Stakes will return to its traditional 11/2-mile test back at reconstructed Belmont Park next year after three years at Saratoga.
Golden Tempo came from 18 lengths back to win the 18-horse Kentucky Derby and also went last-to-first to win his first career outing, a six-furlong sprint on Dec. 20.
“I think he proved a point,” said jockey Jose Ortiz, who was sponsored by Hildebrandt’s of Williston Park, wearing that branding on his leg during the race and wearing a cap bearing the ice cream shop’s logo during his press conference.
“A lot of people thought that his win in the Derby was based on the speed early on and they thought he wasn’t good enough based on his number. It’s a horse that’s got no speed so I knew I was going to be last regardless. So I had to be there and pray for the best.”
It marked the second straight year a horse has won the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes but skipped the Preakness, eschewing a chance to win the Triple Crown.
Then again, none of the 14 horses in the Preakness on May 16 entered the Belmont Stakes, including winner Napoleon Solo.
Justify, in 2018, remains the 13th and last Triple Crown winner.
“I do think we made the right decision,” DeVaux said. “I don’t think we’d have the same horse if we did run back in two weeks. It’s a horse-by-horse, case-by-case decision. For him, just as much growth as we’ve seen in him, it would have been hard for him to follow that up in two weeks and ten, subsequently, three weeks.”
Golden Tempo finished 11/4 lengths ahead of 6-1 Commandment, who broke from the seventh post and was still seventh at the mile mark. Kentucky Derby runner-up Renegade, at 8-5, was third.
“My horse put up a really good fight,” Commandment jockey John Velazquez said. “I was trying to hold the eventual winner around the turn and my horse just isn’t good on the turn. Then when we came down the lane, he actually went on with him. The last sixteenth of a mile, (Golden Tempo) outran him.”
Renegade, who also skipped the Preakness, could not duplicate the challenge he gave to Golden Tempo in the Kentucky Derby, when he escaped traffic and nearly outran the winner down the stretch despite his rough trip.
“I thought (Renegade) got a pretty good trip,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “He got clear late at the top of the stretch, which we were obviously looking to do. He gave (jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr.) a little bit of a run but not the same sustained run that he did in the Derby. I think he was just a little flat today.”
The post time for the Belmont Stakes was moved up by three minutes to avoid incoming weather but the rain still started coming down about four minutes before the gates opened.
However, a rainbow was visible behind the racetrack as Golden Tempo was in the winner’s circle with Ortiz, DeVaux and his connections.
“Very similar, just less horses,” Ortiz said in comparing his wins in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes. “He has no speed, like I said, but he was able to break clean today and put me close to them.”
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
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