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Cherie DeVaux made history when Golden Tempo won the Kentucky Derby in early May, becoming the first female trainer to win the first leg of the Triple Crown.
DeVaux, 44, said that although she never integrated her gender into her identity as a horse trainer, it was the only thing she wanted to do as a woman.
“It was the one thing as a woman that I wanted to do just because I thought it would be — that’s a good benchmark. There’s 151 races with all the men and then it’s me,” DeVaux told PK Press Club Digital in a recent interview.
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Cherie DeVaux, trainer of Golden Tempo, celebrates with the trophy in the winner’s circle after the 152nd Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky on May 2, 2026. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
“I never claimed that my gender was part of my identity as a trainer. I’m a horse trainer. We all work very hard, men and women. So it wasn’t second only to being a woman.”
For DeVaux, she was happy that the conversation about a woman winning the Kentucky Derby could finally move forward.
“I was actually getting a little tired – I don’t want to say I’m tired, but this question kept coming up, and it’s like it’s time for the conversation to move on, that’s how I felt. I joked in the post-Derby interview, ‘Thank God I don’t have to answer that question anymore,'” DeVaux said.
The Saratoga Springs, New York, native said it’s an honor to be someone people look up to.
“It’s an honor. And I have great respect for the fact that I’m now someone that people, women, men, people look up to. It’s something that I don’t lose sight of, and I just do my thing, and if it can inspire someone else, that’s an added bonus,” DeVaux said.
“I always thought we had to do something: we train horses, but we can reach the community, or others, just by doing what we do and behaving ourselves, holding ourselves accountable and holding ourselves to higher standards.”
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Trainer Cherie DeVaux kisses the trophy after Golden Tempo won the 152nd Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky on May 2, 2026. (Abbie Parr/AP Photo)
DeVaux, about a week and a half removed from winning the Kentucky Derby, said things are finally starting to stabilize.
“It’s been overwhelming in a really incredible way,” DeVaux said. “I’ve been busy, doing a lot more extracurricular activities other than running our barn, and I keep joking that when a league wins a championship, it goes to Disney World, and we continue to have a lot of horses to train. So things are starting to calm down a little and we’re getting back to enjoying working with our horses and training the rest of the barn.”
Before the race, Golden Tempo was 23-1 to win the Kentucky Derby. DeVaux said she feels good about Golden Tempo but is tempering her expectations.
“I felt like Golden Tempo was going to have a really good race. We targeted the race. We had a plan with him. He checked all the boxes. He came to the race in a good order, but really, it’s the derby. And it’s our first trip to the derby, and there’s a lot of horses in it. It’s not a very good chance that you’re going to win, is it?” » said DeVaux.
“So the realistic expectations that I put on the whole situation were: let’s have fun. I hope Golden Tempo has a really good run. He comes in with a run and we’re going to be happy with that.”
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Trainer Cherie DeVaux stands in front of a barn after a training session at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky on April 27, 2026. (Charlie Riedel/AP Photo)
Golden Tempo’s running style is described as a deep closer, meaning he comes at the peloton from the outside. DeVaux said they tried to use blinders to get him more involved early in the race, but that’s just not his style.
Golden Tempo stayed true to form during the Kentucky Derby, as he came from behind and took the lead late. DeVaux was careful not to dig himself too deep a hole with a slow start.
“For most of the race, I was just keeping an eye on him, seeing how the race was going in front of him. And there was a fast pace and a lot of these horses didn’t show the propensity to want to go a mile and a quarter. Golden Tempo came as close as a mile and 3/16 in the Louisiana Derby, so we were very confident in his ability to handle that distance,” DeVaux said.
“When I got him, I had a feeling he was going to have a really good run and give a good show of himself, but he had given himself so much to do. So as he was getting them and he was coming, and then when he was getting to Renegade, that was when he was like, ‘Oh my God, this could happen,’ he put his head forward and you know, the rest is history as they say.”
“I blacked out the last part when he won because I just couldn’t believe he won the race. Like it was just disbelief, I can’t believe that really just happened.”
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Jockey Jose L. Ortiz celebrates after winning Golden Tempo in the 152nd Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky on May 2, 2026. (Abbie Parr/AP Photo)
Amid the chaos following her victory, DeVaux said she didn’t sit and really think about it all, but spent time reflecting on her journey through history.
“Within moments, I find myself thinking about things that happened in my life and I questioned my path and it’s not just my path to coaching. I was talking about something that happened in my late 20s with a relationship that went really bad, and I was talking to my assistant about it. I actually thought if I could survive that, I could survive anything,” DeVaux said.
“I had these moments along the way where I could have been discouraged, I could have left, and instead I just had the courage to move forward.”
The courage to move forward indirectly led to her Instagram posts being flooded with congratulations.
“There have been a lot of them and there is still some clutter in the inbox,” DeVaux said. “I didn’t realize how many messages you could actually get on Instagram. Flavor Flav was the one who kind of shocked me when he saw I was in New York, like ‘hey we’re having an event,’ which my little ’90s kid in me thought was pretty cool.”
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Cherie DeVaux celebrates after becoming the first trainer to win the Kentucky Derby during the 152nd running at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky on May 2, 2026. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
For DeVaux, she never thought she would be here.
“I was really overwhelmed by the reaction videos of Golden Tempo running, my reaction as a woman and you know, it’s just something that I never thought I could touch anyone,” DeVaux said.
“I’m just doing my thing, encouraging my horse.”
