The 2026 Kentucky Derby winner GOLDEN TEMPO will not compete in the May 16th Preakness Stakes at Laurel Park.
Instead, trainer Cherie DeVaux will prepare the stone-cold closer for the June 6th Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.
“We are looking forward to pointing him toward the Belmont Stakes and are excited for what lies ahead with this very special horse” DeVaux said in a statement. “Golden gave us the race of a lifetime in the Kentucky Derby, and we believe the best decision for him moving forward is to give him a little more time following such a tremendous effort. His health, happiness and long-term future will always remain our top priority.”
The decision to not go to Maryland comes after DeVaux monitored his condition following his last-to-first rally in the May 2nd Run for the Roses at Churchill Downs.
The Preakness, the second (and shortest) leg of the Triple Crown, comes just two weeks after the Derby — a short turnaround considered undesirable by many trainers — and one of the elements that make winning the Triple Crown so challenging.
Only 13 horses through history have won the three-race series, which is wrapped up by the Belmont Stakes three weeks after the Preakness.
“The Triple Crown is hard to win for a reason,” DeVaux said. “I appreciate the history of it. Horses are definitely different. They’re not built the same. They’re not trained the same as back then. But current times have shown that it can be done with the right horse.“
Willingly (not due to injury) skipping the Preakness is a relatively new trend. From 1997-2018, every Kentucky Derby winner went on to compete in the Preakness. COUNTRY HOUSE ended that streak in 2019 when he contracted a virus just days after the Kentucky Derby. He never raced again.
DeVaux’s decision to skip the second leg of the Triple Crown, makes GOLDEN TEMPO the third healthy Derby winner to skip the middle jewel of the Triple Crown since 2022.
The connections of 2022 upset Derby winner RICH STRIKE and last year’s winner, SOVEREIGNTY, also opted to pass on running their colts at Pimlico.
And so, it goes. We move on to Laurel Park.
