Will Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo go for the Triple Crown?
· Yahoo Sports
Cherie DeVaux made history when Golden Tempo won the Kentucky Derby on May 2. Now, she has one week to decide whether to chase more of it.
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DeVaux, who became the first female trainer to win the Kentucky Derby with Golden Tempo’s neck win over Renegade, said May 3 the Preakness Stakes is on the table, but nothing has been decided. The second jewel in horse racing's Triple Crown is May 16 at Laurel Park in Maryland. The field will be set May 11.
“Obviously this race is in two weeks,” DeVaux said the day after her historic win. “It’s a lot different than what he’s done. He’s a horse who has a lot of constitution to him. He can handle something like that. But if one day he just doesn’t look like he’s in tiptop shape, then we’ll pivot and come up with another plan.”
Derby runner-up Renegade will not run. Trainer Todd Pletcher said the colt is headed to Saratoga and will be focused on the June 6 Belmont Stakes.
Golden Tempo shipped back to DeVaux’s base at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky, on May 3. His condition over the next several days will drive the decision.
“He needs to be doing as well in the next two weeks as he was going into the Derby,” DeVaux said. “He just needs to be healthy, be sound, be happy, have good energy.”
No female trainer has ever won the Preakness. The closest came in 2002 when Maryland-based Nancy Alberts finished second with Magic Weisner.
The Triple Crown itself has not been completed since Justify in 2018. Four of the last seven Kentucky Derby winners skipped the Preakness entirely, including last year’s winner Sovereignty. He went on to win the Belmont Stakes after bypassing the Preakness and was named Horse of the Year.
The venue is also a consideration.
The Preakness is being held at Laurel Park in Laurel, Maryland, for the first time this year while its historic home, Pimlico Race Course, undergoes a $400 million renovation. Some in the industry have questioned whether trainers would take the risk of running a valuable Derby winner at a track that has never hosted a race of this magnitude.
Taj Mahal, unbeaten in three starts, all at Laurel, enters the Preakness with a genuine home track advantage. Bob Baffert’s Crude Velocity, who won the Pat Day Mile on the Derby undercard to extend his record to 3-0, figures to be among the favorites. Chip Honcho, who Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen held out of the Derby specifically to target the Preakness, is also a strong candidate to win. Golden Tempo, who went off at 23-1 at Churchill Downs, would be a significant player if he enters. But some analysts believe the 1 3/16-mile distance at Laurel may not suit his deep-closing style as well as the Belmont Stakes’ 1 ½-mile course.
DeVaux said the decision is up to Golden Tempo.
“It is on the table,” she said. “But it’s really up to him.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Will Golden Tempo run at the Preakness Stakes?