Cherie DeVaux and Jose Ortiz honor Golden Tempo after historic Derby win

Cherie DeVaux and Jose Ortiz carried Golden Tempo’s Kentucky Derby momentum straight into Yankee Stadium, throwing ceremonial first pitches before the Yankees faced the Texas Rangers on May 7 in the Bronx. For horse racing, it was a clean crossover moment: the sport’s biggest story line, wrapped in one of baseball’s biggest brands.

DeVaux’s appearance came less than a week after Golden Tempo won the 152nd Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 2, and the victory carried real weight beyond the winner’s circle. DeVaux became the first female trainer ever to win the Derby, a milestone that made her one of the most recognizable figures in racing this spring. Golden Tempo was described by multiple outlets as a long shot, and the horse delivered in classic Derby fashion, coming from the back of the pack to win the race that still defines the sport.

DeVaux’s visibility only grew after the race. She appeared on ESPN’s Women’s Sports Now, a sign that the story had broken past the usual racing channels and into broader sports coverage. That matters. Racing spends a lot of time preaching to the converted, but a Derby winner, a first female trainer, and a Bronx first-pitch cameo put the sport in front of casual fans who might otherwise only tune in for the Triple Crown.

Ortiz brought his own layer of baseball symmetry. His cousin, pitcher Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, has been in the Yankees organization, giving the first pitch a family connection that fit the day’s theme of overlapping sports worlds. The Yankees acknowledged the appearance on social media and highlighted Golden Tempo’s historic Derby win, another sign that the moment resonated beyond Churchill Downs and into a mainstream sports feed.

There is history here, too. Jena Antonucci became the first woman to train a Triple Crown race winner in 2023 when Arcangelo won the Belmont Stakes, but DeVaux’s Derby victory went a step further in the race that carries the most public weight. That is the real test for racing’s mainstream push: not whether insiders noticed, but whether a Yankees-Rangers crowd, and the people watching around it, learned a new name they will remember the next time the Derby rolls around.