HRWA sets 2026 conference in Lexington, adds Derby winner Cherie DeVaux

The Horse Racing Women’s Association is bringing its fifth annual conference back to Lexington, and it is doing so with a sharper industry edge than ever. The 2026 gathering is set for Oct. 12-14 at Harper Hall, with FanDuel TV returning as title sponsor and an early speaker lineup that already includes Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Cherie DeVaux and Golden Tempo co-owner and breeder Daisy Phipps Pulito.

That combination gives the event immediate weight inside racing. DeVaux’s Derby breakthrough with Golden Tempo on May 2 put her among the sport’s most visible horsemen, while Pulito’s role at Phipps Stables and her ownership and breeding ties to the colt connect the conference to one of the spring’s biggest stories. For attendees in Lexington, that means more than a networking stop: it means hearing from people whose decisions are shaping stallion value, ownership strategy, barn management and the next wave of racing leadership.

HRWA chairwoman Stephanie Hronis has framed the conference as a forum for leadership, education, networking, mentorship, collaboration and community building for women in racing and sports. That mission carries extra significance now that HRWA has evolved from the Horse Racing Women’s Summit into a year-round association, a shift that reflected the organization’s broader ambitions when it took that step in February 2025. What once looked like a one-off gathering now operates as a more durable professional network with a recurring place on the industry calendar.

Lexington remains the right setting for that conversation. The city sits at the center of the Thoroughbred business, and HRWA’s return there after its first Lexington conference in 2025 keeps the discussion close to the bloodstock, breeding and training operations that drive the sport. Last year’s event was held at Limestone Hall; this time, the move to Harper Hall keeps the conference in the city’s core while giving the organization a new stage for its fifth edition.

More speakers and panelists are still to come, but the early reveal already signals where the conversation is headed before 2026: women are not just participating in racing’s future, they are increasingly helping define it. With a Derby winner in the room, a title sponsor back in place and Lexington as the backdrop, HRWA has assembled a conference that speaks directly to the power centers of the sport.