Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo skips Preakness, targets Belmont Stakes

Golden Tempo’s absence from the Preakness Stakes does more than remove the Kentucky Derby winner from the gate. It shuts down any Triple Crown chase before the second jewel is run and underscores how modern racing economics, and the fear of asking too much of a 3-year-old too soon, are reshaping the sport’s biggest spring storyline.

Trainer Cherie DeVaux and the colt’s owners decided to bypass next weekend’s Preakness and point instead to the Belmont Stakes on June 6 at Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York. DeVaux said Golden Tempo’s health, happiness and long-term future remain the priority, and the team wants the horse to get more time after the Derby effort. The Belmont will be run at Saratoga for a third and final time this year, a notable setting for DeVaux, who became the first woman to train a Kentucky Derby winner.

Golden Tempo earned that distinction on May 2 in the 152nd Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, where he rallied from far back to beat Renegade by a neck as a 23-1 long shot. He covered the 1 1/4 miles in 2:02.27 before a crowd of 150,415 at Churchill Downs in Louisville. The win gave DeVaux a place in racing history and turned Golden Tempo into the most compelling horse in the classic series, even if only briefly.

The decision to skip Baltimore also fits a pattern that has become hard to ignore. Golden Tempo is the third Derby winner in the past five years not to enter the Preakness, and ESPN reported that 2026 will be the sixth time in eight years the race is run with no chance of a Triple Crown on the line. Justify was the last horse to sweep the three classics, in 2018, and the repeated absences reflect a sport where top 3-year-olds are being spaced out more than they were in earlier eras. Maryland racing officials are even considering moving the Preakness from the third Saturday in May to the fourth Saturday in hopes of improving participation.

The 151st Preakness Stakes is scheduled for Saturday, May 16, at Laurel Park in Laurel, Maryland, while Pimlico Race Course is closed for a major rebuild. Laurel Park, at 198 Laurel Race Track Road, will host the race without a Derby starter from the 18-horse field that ran at Churchill Downs. The result is a second jewel that still matters, but one that increasingly arrives detached from the national drama that once made the Triple Crown feel within reach.