Golden Tempo wins Kentucky Derby, Cherie DeVaux makes history as first female trainer

Golden Tempo won the 152nd Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs, and Cherie DeVaux became the first female trainer to win the race at the Louisville track. The victory came in the 20-horse field that anchored the first leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown and kept the Derby’s most durable story line intact: tradition colliding with modern pressure.

Churchill Downs listed post time at approximately 6:57 p.m. ET for the race, which is traditionally run on the first Saturday in May. The 2026 running unfolded before tens of thousands of spectators as part of Derby Week, which included Opening Day, Sunday Funday, Winsday, Thurby, Kentucky Oaks and Derby day itself. The scene remained as much social theater as sporting contest, with hats, tailored suits, dresses and celebrity sightings sharing space with the horses.

The Derby’s reach comes from more than pageantry. Churchill Downs said Kentucky Derby Day produces some of the largest betting pools in horse racing, and last year’s win-place-show pool totaled $122.4 million. That scale explains why the race remains one of the sport’s biggest commercial engines, drawing money, media attention and tourism to Louisville even as racing continues to confront scrutiny over the costs and risks behind the spectacle.

The race also carried the weight of history. First run in 1875, the Kentucky Derby is the longest continually held major sporting event in the United States, with roots that trace to Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr.’s 1872 visit to England’s Epsom Derby. Churchill Downs still sells it as the “Run for the Roses” and the “Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports,” a framing that captures both its romance and its enduring market power.

Golden Tempo’s victory and DeVaux’s breakthrough gave the 2026 Derby a place in the record books, but the event’s larger significance remained unchanged. The Kentucky Derby continues to function as a race, a ritual and a business, all compressed into a few minutes in early May.