By Dick Jerardi
The single most fascinating and confounding thing about horse racing is that you rarely know anything with absolute certainty. Even when you are right about most everything, it often does not matter in the end.
Take my selection of Danon Bourbon in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. I liked the horse from Japan for several reasons: a. Did not think the Americans were that strong this year (turned out even weaker than I expected with an historically low Derby winning Beyer of 95), b. Loved the videos from Japan which I thought translated to Danon Bourbon being near the first flight and away from any trouble (which is exactly what happened) and c. the instant acceleration the horse had shown when called on in the stretch (which turned out pretty good for the first 100 yards at the top of the stretch when it looked like he had broken the race open at 12-1).
What I could not account for and have not yet been able to account for is why Danon Bourbon got so leg weary in those final 200 yards that he finished a fading fifth. It is true that he was the only horse near the front that was still in the vicinity at the finish, but the others near the lead were mostly overmatched anyway.
Like I said, you can be right about most everything and still get no result. But I shall keep coming back because the whole goal in this game is to put yourself in the right position often enough that you get enough good results to offset the bad ones.
And if I could not get my result and Japan could not get its first Derby, I was and am absolutely thrilled that 23-1 Golden Tempo (25 lengths last on the first turn?), passed them all and got up in the final strides to make the very deserving Cherie DeVaux the first female trainer to win the Derby. The video of her shrieking for Golden Tempo when he started rolling in the stretch will be the indelible memory from this Derby.
The emotion from the wonderful jockey Jose Ortiz moments after getting his first Derby, the day after winning his first Kentucky Oaks on Always a Runner. Two brothers (Irad just second on Renegade) from Puerto Rico finishing 1-2 in the Derby. How does that happen?
And Jose wearing the legendary black Phipps family silks with the cherry cap for owners St. Elias Stable and Phipps Stable. It all felt like a movie. Which is kind of how the Derby is every year regardless of who wins it.
The Kentucky Derby is one of the rare annual American events that somehow keeps getting more popular. A quarter million fans jammed the old track on Central Avenue in Louisville Friday and Saturday. The NBC telecast averaged 20 million viewers, the most since 1989.
NBC and Churchill Downs decided to put the Oaks in prime time Friday and were rewarded with 2.4 million viewers, eight times the previous year. The Oaks attracted $29 million in wagers, a 29 percent increase from 2025. The Oaks card got $89 million in bets, a 20 percent increase from last year. A mere $216 million was bet on the Derby and $331 million on the Derby Day card.
If there was only a way to bottle all that for more of the other 364 days in a year. But the reality is that the Derby is a complete one off, a brand that seemingly can’t be duplicated. The NFL would absolutely be an incredible success without the Super Bowl. Horse racing without the Kentucky Derby? Not a thought I want to consider.
We all love the sport for a variety of reasons. For me, it’s the gambling, the stories, and the people behind the stories. DeVaux came onto the track 20 years ago as an exercise rider and worked her way up to assistant trainer for the powerful Chad Brown barn.
It was a big gamble when she left that security and took out her trainer’s license. Her first starter was in May 2018. She did not win a single race that year, and her horses won $66,627. She was 0-for-29 until finally winning her first race in 2019.
Slowly but surely, she built up her stable one win at a time. Her breakthrough horse was She Feels Pretty for Roy and Gretchen Jackson, who, of course, owned 2006 Derby winner Barbaro.
She Feels Pretty gave DeVaux her first Grade I win in 2023 and her first Eclipse Award winner in 2025. The trainer has now won eight Grade I stakes, five by She Feels Pretty.
But, as good and consistent as She Feels Pretty was for the trainer, the wider world discovered Cherie DeVaux a few minutes after 7 p.m. Saturday evening when Golden Tempo crossed the finish line first and made some horse racing history. And who does not love a good history lesson?
