For Cherie DeVaux, historic Kentucky Derby win may

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Before Cherie DeVaux gained a Breeders’ Cup race, before one of her horses gained an Eclipse Award, before she turned the reply to a Siri query — “Who was the first female trainer to win the Kentucky Derby?” — she confronted the same drawback as every new coach.

She needed horses.

Fortunately for her, this was 2018 and she had just married David Ingordo, a main bloodstock agent. Surely he’d convey her some top horses and DeVaux could be on her manner.

Except … it took DeVaux 11 months to win her first race.

“That was 100% my fault,” Ingordo said. “We gathered up some horses of our own; we were totally self-funded. And the collection of horses I gathered up were yaks and llamas and sheep. They weren’t related to the equine species.

“I told her, ‘You should have divorced me for the effing horses I put in there.’”

Ingordo was telling this story Sunday, standing in the morning chill exterior Barn 37 at Churchill Downs, where dozens of cameras and a few reporters have been there to document every phrase his spouse had to say, 12 hours after she made historical past.

“Good thing I don’t have social anxiety,” DeVaux quipped as she stepped in entrance of the throng.

She reported Golden Tempo, munching on some hay in his stall perhaps 50 ft behind her, was doing effectively, two hours before he took a 70-mile van experience to DeVaux’s base at Keeneland. A call on whether or not he’ll continue east next week to Laurel Park, non permanent home of the May 16 Preakness, gained’t be made for a number of days.

DeVaux said she celebrated with household late Saturday evening, ultimately getting to sleep at 1:30 a.m. and permitting herself to “sleep in a bit,” not rising until a complete 4 hours later. There have been more than 800 textual content messages on her cellphone and she was considering about what she was going to pack for a flight to New York, where she’s scheduled to seem at 7:30 a.m. Monday on NBC’s “Today.”

“I don’t know if the enormity of this has sunk in yet,” she said.

But DeVaux, 44, has never forgotten where she got here from. She grew up in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., which is understood for thoroughbred racing, but her household was concerned in harness racing and she never wished to be a coach anyway. She was in school when most of her household moved to Florida, and she stayed behind to end college. She needed a job to help pay tuition, and her mother told her there was a racetrack across the road “and all you have to do is walk the horses.”

Cherie DeVaux, coach of Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo, is surrounded by media in the winner’s circle Saturday in Louisville, Ky.

(Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

DeVaux’s plan was to go to medical college, but when an advisor said she had to take a class in natural chemistry, “I just looked at her and said: ‘No, I’m going to go work on the racetrack.’ She’s like: ‘Are you sure?’ and I was like, ‘I’m just going to see how it works.’”

Her first job was with Chuck Simon, who had labored for her father. She was 22 when she confirmed up at Churchill Downs.

“I was a wild child,” DeVaux said Saturday evening. “Chuck saw I was going the wrong way and took me under his wing and made me be an assistant trainer, begrudgingly, because I was really enjoying the party life. But he kind of wrangled me in.

“He would be so proud. I am here because of him. Because he pushed me. He pushed my boundaries. He gave me direction when I needed it. And he was always proud of me. But I just think this definitely would have put him over the top.”

Holding one of the roses that got here with Golden Tempo’s victory, she added, “And I can’t wait to drop one of these off at our old barn here.”

She did just that Saturday evening before leaving the observe.

Cherie DeVaux, coach of Golden Tempo, seems on during morning exercises forward of the Kentucky Derby on April 27 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

(Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

“It was really emotional,” she said Sunday of her stop at Barn 14. “You know, you walk up, and all the memories flood back of being there, and … it’s an honor to get to be able to do something, you know? It’s just a rose, but it meant a lot. That was where I first unloaded my car, and I thought, ‘OK, let’s do this.’”

DeVaux then labored a number of years for Chad Brown before making the choice to exit on her own. She said Ingordo told her to give it three years and if it didn’t work, she may do one thing else.

But Ingordo, who has been working in racing since he was 15, spending time with trainers such as Bobby Frankel and Bruce Headley and later his stepfather, John Shirreffs, said he knew it might work.

“I always say that talent and class are evident in horses and people very quickly,” Ingordo said. “And, you know, I’d watch Cherie and see her, and I knew her from her previous job. And I could watch … the one trainer’s name might have been on the headlines, but I saw who was doing the work. And I told her, ‘You’re too talented to be an assistant. And it’d be a waste if you don’t try it.’”

It did work. Slowly at first, but business picked up and DeVaux began profitable greater races. Her breakthrough got here in 2023 when she had the likes of More Than Looks, Vahva and She Feels Pretty. The latter supplied her first Grade 1 win in the 2023 Natalma at Woodbine, and the next yr all three of those horses captured Grade 1 races, including More Than Looks in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar. Last yr, She Feels Pretty gained two more Grade 1s and was voted the Eclipse Award as top feminine turf horse.

She has a life away from the observe as effectively, as a lot as any coach can have. Ingordo has full custody of a 15-year-old daughter from a earlier marriage, and he said, “Meeting Cherie was not only good for me, it’s been great for my daughter.”

As for making historical past, Ingordo said it wasn’t something they talked about, and DeVaux “doesn’t sit there and go, ‘I’m a woman, hear me roar.’

“But at the same time,” he said, “she’s very cognizant of the fact this is a very male-dominated business throughout history. It’s probably a little chauvinist at times, if not more.

“And for her to do this. … You know, she’s not a one-hit wonder. The top 25 should be her domain, somewhere in there, for a long time.”