Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo skips Preakness, targets Belmont Stakes

Golden Tempo’s victory in the Kentucky Derby had briefly revived the sport’s most famous chase. One week later, that hope was gone. Trainer Cherie DeVaux said Wednesday that the 23-1 Derby winner will skip the Preakness Stakes on May 16 and instead aim for the Belmont Stakes on June 6 at Saratoga Race Course, ending any chance of a Triple Crown this year.

The decision leaves horse racing with another reminder that its three-race crown has become harder to assemble in the modern era. Golden Tempo, who swept past the field from last to first to win the 152nd Kentucky Derby by a neck over morning-line favorite Renegade, will not face the second leg in Maryland. DeVaux said the horse needed more time after the Derby effort and that Golden Tempo’s health, happiness and long-term future remained the priority.

The scratch matters beyond one horse. Golden Tempo is the third Derby winner in the past five years not to enter the Preakness, and the sixth time in eight years the middle jewel will be run without a Triple Crown on the line. The last horse to win all three races was Justify in 2018, and Golden Tempo’s absence guarantees the streak will stretch to eight consecutive years without a Triple Crown winner.

The issue is not just one owner’s caution. The Derby-to-Preakness turnaround is only two weeks, a schedule many trainers now view as too compressed for elite thoroughbreds that typically need a month or more between starts. That gap has fueled a long-running debate inside the sport about whether the Triple Crown’s traditional spacing still fits how top horses are trained, raced and protected today.

Maryland racing officials have already weighed a possible fix, considering a move of the Preakness from the third Saturday in May to the fourth. That discussion has gained urgency this spring, with none of the 18 horses from this year’s Kentucky Derby heading to the Preakness. The race is being run at Laurel Park while Pimlico Race Course is rebuilt, with Pimlico expected to return as Maryland’s year-round racing home next year.

DeVaux, who became the first woman to train a Kentucky Derby winner, was already part of a historic moment in Louisville. Now, the Saratoga Springs native is steering Golden Tempo toward a different kind of test, one that keeps the colt in the conversation but underscores how far the Triple Crown has drifted from the rhythms of modern racing.