Golden Tempo, a 23-1 longshot trained by Cherie DeVaux, stormed from dead last to win the 152nd Kentucky Derby on May 2, 2026 at Churchill Downs. Jockey Jose Ortiz guided the bay colt past 17 rivals in a breathtaking stretch run, edging co-favorite Renegade by a nose to deliver one of the most dramatic finishes in the race’s storied history — and making DeVaux the first female trainer ever to win the Run for the Roses.
2026 Kentucky Derby Results — Full Finishing Order
The 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby drew 150,415 fans to Churchill Downs on a crisp 54°F afternoon. Six horses were scratched before the race, leaving a field of 18. Here is the complete official finishing order:
| Place | Horse | Odds | Jockey |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Golden Tempo | 23-1 | Jose Ortiz |
| 2nd | Renegade | 5-1 | Irad Ortiz Jr. |
| 3rd | Ocelli | 70-1 | Joseph Ramos |
| 4th | Chief Wallabee | 7-1 | Junior Alvarado |
| 5th | Danon Bourbon | 14-1 | — |
| 6th | Incredibolt | 27-1 | — |
| 7th | Commandment | 7-1 | — |
| 8th | Wonder Dean | 20-1 | — |
| 9th | So Happy | 6-1 | — |
| 10th | Emerging Market | 11-1 | — |
| 11th | Further Ado | 7-1 | — |
| 12th | Potente | 23-1 | — |
| 13th | Six Speed | 40-1 | — |
| 14th | Robusta | 50-1 | — |
| 15th | Albus | 50-1 | — |
| 16th | Intrepido | 55-1 | — |
| 17th | Litmus Test | 34-1 | — |
| 18th | Pavlovian | — | — |
Scratches (6 total): Great White (gate incident), The Puma (swollen leg), and four others scratched earlier in the week.
Winning time: 2:02.27 | Track condition: Fast | Purse: $5 million
Golden Tempo: The Horse, the Trainer, and the History Made
Who Is Golden Tempo? Horse Profile & Road to the Derby
Golden Tempo is a bay colt and the son of two-time Horse of the Year Curlin — a bloodline that screamed staying power even when the betting public largely looked away. Trained by DeVaux and owned jointly by Phipps Stable (Daisy Phipps Pulito) and St. Elias Stable (Vincent Viola), the horse entered the Derby having shown flashes of brilliance without yet putting it all together.
His prep race résumé included creditable showings in the Louisiana Derby and the Risen Star Stakes — results that earned points toward the Kentucky Derby but didn’t exactly set the racing world on fire. He was not considered a serious contender entering Churchill Downs. His trainers knew something the market didn’t.
“He’s a dead closer,” DeVaux said in the days before the race. “The Louisiana Derby really solidified that he was getting there from the eighth pole home. If he had a little bit of extra ground, he was going to make it.”
She was right.
Cherie DeVaux: The First Female Trainer to Win the Kentucky Derby
In 152 runnings of the Kentucky Derby, no woman had ever trained the winning horse. Cherie DeVaux, 44, changed that forever on May 2, 2026.
Born and raised in Saratoga Springs, New York — a family immersed in harness racing — DeVaux’s path to Churchill Downs was anything but straight. She studied pre-med at Florida Gulf Coast University and Albany before the racetrack pulled her away from organic chemistry for good. She began as a stable worker under the late trainer Chuck Simon, who, by her own admission, “wrangled” a self-described wild child into the discipline of horsemanship.
“Chuck saw I was going the wrong way and took me under his wing and made me be an assistant trainer, begrudgingly,” DeVaux has said.
After six years with Simon, she spent eight more as an assistant to high-profile trainer Chad Brown before striking out on her own in 2018. The start was rocky. She went nearly 11 months before saddling her first winner — a maiden named Traveling at Gulfstream Park in March 2019. Her husband, bloodstock agent David Ingordo, urged patience: give it three years. It took closer to six before DeVaux’s operation reached elite level, earning over $10 million in purses in 2024 alone, capped by a Breeders’ Cup victory.
Saturday was her very first Kentucky Derby start. And she won it.
“I started my career here at Churchill Downs 22 years ago as a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed exercise rider,” DeVaux said in her post-race press conference.
The closest any female trainer had come previously was Shelley Riley, whose Casual Lies finished second in 1992. The only other woman to win any Triple Crown race was Jena Antonucci, who took the 2023 Belmont Stakes with Arcangelo. DeVaux is now in a category entirely her own.
“I’m glad I can be representative of women everywhere,” DeVaux said on the NBC broadcast immediately after the race. “We can do anything we set our minds to.”
In the packed media room afterward, a reporter asked whether she felt a burden as a trailblazer. Her answer drew cheers: “I’m just glad I don’t have to answer that question anymore.”
And then, more reflectively: “Being a woman or my gender has never really crossed my mind in this. The thing that really has become apparent to me is not everyone has the same constitution I have mentally. It really is an honor to be that person for other women or other little girls to look up to. You can dream big and you can pivot, you can come from one place and make yourself a part of history.”
Owner Daisy Phipps Pulito, who watched from the Churchill Downs stands, captured the ownership side of the emotion: “It is a family sport for us. Almost our whole family is here today, and the Violas, our extended family who we get to campaign the horse with. It’s life-changing for all of us to win the Kentucky Derby — when you win a race like this, it’s the pinnacle of our sport.”
Jockey Jose Ortiz — A Family Affair
Jose Ortiz’s ride on Golden Tempo will rank among the finest in recent Derby history. But the story had an extra layer: when Ortiz crossed the finish line in first, his brother Irad Ortiz Jr. crossed it in second, atop Renegade.
It was the first time in Kentucky Derby history that brothers finished 1-2.
After the race, Jose was asked about beating his brother in the sport’s biggest race. “I want him to win the Derby, of course,” he said on the NBC broadcast. “I know it’s his dream as well. But it happened that way. I think he should be happy. His horse ran a very good race. He’s a very nice horse.” Then, with a grin: “Today’s my day and Golden Tempo’s day.”
The brothers exchanged a fist bump after crossing the finish line.
Ortiz’s weekend was remarkable in its own right — he had also won the Kentucky Oaks on Friday, completing a rare Oaks-Derby double rarely achieved by a single jockey.
How the Race Unfolded?
Gate Drama: Great White’s Late Scratch Explained
The 152nd Kentucky Derby was delayed 11 minutes past its scheduled 6:57 p.m. ET post time — and one reason was the kind of scene that stops a racing crowd cold.
Great White, an unusually large horse standing nearly six feet tall and carrying post position No. 21 (later 22 after reshuffling), began to act up as the horses loaded into the starting gate. The colt bucked, threw jockey Alex Achard, and then flipped backward — a dangerous, chaotic scene that required race officials to scratch him on the spot. It was the sixth and final scratch of a week that had already seen The Puma removed that same morning due to a swollen leg.
The result: an 18-horse field instead of the 24 originally entered.
The Stretch Run: From 18th to 1st in the Final Furlong
Six Speed set a comfortable pace through the early going, and most of the field settled in with energy to spare entering the final turn — a setup that would prove decisive.
Golden Tempo, meanwhile, was invisible. Three-quarters of the way through the race, he sat in 18th place. Dead last. Not within view of the leaders. In the stands, his connections watched and waited.
Japan-based Danon Bourbon led off the final turn and opened a two-length lead. Then 70-1 shot Ocelli burst through traffic and rolled alongside him. Then Renegade, the 5-1 co-favorite, surged on the outside. And then — “impossible to believe,” as USA Today’s horse racing writer described it — Golden Tempo materialized.
Starting multiple lengths behind the next closest horse, Ortiz began threading through the field, weaving and driving on the outside. With each stride, the gap to the leaders closed. In the final 100 yards, Golden Tempo ran down Renegade and crossed the wire first.
DeVaux, watching from trackside, later said: “When he made the lead, I kind of blacked out.”
The winning time was 2:02.27 on a fast track.
2026 Kentucky Derby Payouts & Betting Results
Win, Place & Show Payouts for Golden Tempo
| Horse | Win | Place | Show |
|---|---|---|---|
| Golden Tempo (1st) | $48.24 | $19.14 | $11.90 |
| Renegade (2nd) | — | $7.14 | $5.45 |
| Ocelli (3rd) | — | — | $36.34 |
All payouts based on a $2 base wager. Source: Official Churchill Downs results.
Exacta, Trifecta & Superfecta Payouts
| Bet Type | Combination | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| $2 Exacta | 19-1 | $278.86 |
| $1 Trifecta | 19-1-22 | $11,250.78 |
| $1 Superfecta | 19-1-22-12 | $94,489.95 |
The superfecta was a life-changing ticket. A $2 superfecta bet would have returned nearly $190,000. To hit it, you needed Golden Tempo (23-1), Renegade (5-1), Ocelli (70-1), and Chief Wallabee (7-1) — in exact order. The combination of two longshots in the top three made the multi-leg exotics especially explosive.
Total Purse Distribution — Who Got What
The 2026 Kentucky Derby carried a $5 million total purse, distributed to the top five finishers.
| Recipient | Share | Estimated Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Owners (Phipps Stable / St. Elias Stable) | ~80% | $2.48 million (combined) |
| Trainer Cherie DeVaux | ~6.2% | $310,000 (before taxes) |
| Jockey Jose Ortiz | ~6.2% | ~$217,000 (after agent/valet, before taxes) |
Standard industry split. Exact owner division depends on private agreement between Phipps Stable and St. Elias Stable.
Historical Context: Longshot Winners & the Favorite Curse
The 2026 Kentucky Derby marked the eighth consecutive year that the pre-race favorite failed to win the Run for the Roses. The last favorite to win? Justify, who went off at 5-2 odds in 2018 and swept the Triple Crown.
Golden Tempo’s 23-1 odds place him firmly in the company of the race’s memorable longshot champions. For perspective, the average winning odds at the Kentucky Derby over the past decade hover around 12-1 — meaning Golden Tempo was roughly twice as much of a surprise as a “typical” winner.
The 2026 race also featured one of the most compressed top of the odds board in recent memory: Renegade, So Happy, and Further Ado all went off as co-favorites at 5-1, with six horses total at 9-1 or better. When no single horse dominates the market, the door swings wide for closers like Golden Tempo to ambush the field.
The 70-1 placement by Ocelli in third added further chaos — the combination of a 23-1 winner and 70-1 show horse producing the trifecta payout of $11,250.78 per $1 ticket.
What’s Next: 2026 Triple Crown Outlook
Preakness Stakes Preview
The second jewel of the Triple Crown — the Preakness Stakes — is set for May 16, 2026 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. That’s just 14 days after the Kentucky Derby.
The burning question: will Golden Tempo run?
DeVaux was noncommittal in her press conference. “We’re gonna let him decide that,” she said. “We’re going to see how he responds.” A horse that ran from dead last in an 18-horse field expends enormous energy, and trainers often protect their Derby winners from the punishing two-week turnaround.
If Golden Tempo does not run the Preakness, the Triple Crown path closes — a horse must win all three legs to claim the crown. If he does run and wins, the Belmont Stakes on June 6 becomes the stage for history.
No horse has won the Triple Crown since Justify in 2018. Eight years of near-misses have made the racing public hungry.
Renegade (2nd place), Ocelli (3rd), and Chief Wallabee (4th) are all expected to run at Pimlico regardless of Golden Tempo’s decision, setting up another competitive field.
FAQ
Who won the 2026 Kentucky Derby?
Golden Tempo, ridden by jockey Jose Ortiz and trained by Cherie DeVaux, won the 152nd Kentucky Derby on May 2, 2026 at Churchill Downs. The horse came from dead last in the final turn to edge out Renegade at odds of 23-1.
Who trained the 2026 Kentucky Derby winner?
Cherie DeVaux trained Golden Tempo, becoming the first female trainer in history to win the Kentucky Derby. The closest a woman had previously come was Shelley Riley, whose horse Casual Lies finished second in 1992.
What were Golden Tempo’s odds?
Golden Tempo went off at 23-1 odds on race day, making him one of the significant longshot winners in recent Derby history. The horse was not among the pre-race favorites; Renegade, So Happy, and Further Ado were co-favorites at 5-1.
What did Golden Tempo pay out?
Golden Tempo paid $48.24 to win, $19.14 to place, and $11.90 to show on a $2 base bet. The trifecta (19-1-22) paid $11,250.78 and the superfecta paid $94,489.95 per $1 bet.
Who finished second in the 2026 Kentucky Derby?
Renegade (5-1), ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr. — brother of winning jockey Jose Ortiz — finished second. Ocelli (70-1), ridden by Joseph Ramos, finished third.
How many fans attended the 2026 Kentucky Derby?
150,415 fans were in attendance at Churchill Downs for the 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby.
Will Golden Tempo run in the Preakness Stakes?
Trainer Cherie DeVaux did not commit to the Preakness Stakes (May 16, 2026) after the race, saying she would assess how Golden Tempo recovered before making a decision.
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See all 2026 Triple Crown results | View full Kentucky Derby payout table | Watch the official race replay
Sources: Official Churchill Downs results, NBC Sports broadcast and press conference transcripts, CBS Sports, CNN, SI.com, NBC News.
All payout figures are official Churchill Downs data. Purse distribution estimates are based on standard industry percentages.
