Golden Tempo wins the 152nd Kentucky Derby and makes history
Shelley Devaux became the first female trainer to win the Run for the Roses when Golden Tempo won the 152nd Kentucky Derby.
There will be no Triple Crown winners in horse racing this year, which is likely to lead to calls for changes to the long-standing calendar of horse racing’s signature events.
Less than a week after the horse won the Kentucky Derby in a stunning upset, Golden Tempo’s team announced that he will not run in the 2026 Preakness Stakes, to be held in Laurel, Maryland, on Saturday, May 16th. Trainer Shelley Devaux said Golden Tempo will instead prepare for the June 6 Belmont Stakes.
“Golden gave us the race of a lifetime in the Kentucky Derby, and we believe the best decision for him going forward is to give him a little more time after such a tremendous effort,” Shelley Devaux Racing said in a statement. “His health, well-being and long-term future will always remain our top priority.”
The Preakness Stakes is considered the second leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown, which concludes each year at Belmont Park. There has been speculation in recent months that the schedule could be changed to increase the time between the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes. There are currently two weeks between the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, and three weeks between the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes.
Golden Tempo is the third Kentucky Derby winner in the last five years to choose not to run in the Preakness, and the second consecutive year after Sovereignty did not run at Pimlico in 2025.
“There’s a reason the Triple Crown is hard to win,” DeVoe said Sunday when asked about the controversy over the horse racing calendar, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network. “I appreciate that history. The horses are obviously different. They’re not the same size. They’re not trained the same way they were back then. But the current era shows that with the right horse it’s possible.”
Churchill Downs, the parent company that owns the Kentucky Derby, recently reached an agreement to acquire the intellectual rights to the Preakness Stakes, with media rights negotiations looming after this month’s race. Due to renovations at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, this year’s Preakness Stakes will be held at Laurel Park.
How many horses have won the Triple Crown?
Since the Kentucky Derby was founded in 1875, a total of 13 horses have won what is officially known as the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Horse Racing. they are:
- Lord Burton (1919)
- Brave Fox (1930)
- Omaha (1935)
- Army Admiral (1937)
- Whirlway (1941)
- Earl’s Fleet (1943)
- Raid (1946)
- Quote (1948)
- Secretariat (1973)
- Seattle Through (1977)
- Affirmation (1978)
- American Pharoah (2015)
- Justify (2018)
