Cherie DeVaux Eyes Belmont Stakes History at Saratoga

The 2026 Belmont Stakes runs Saturday, June 6, at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York, with a 7:04 p.m. ET post time on FOX. The 158th running of the "Test of the Champion" closes out the Triple Crown season, and for the third straight year it will be contested at 1 ¼ miles rather than the traditional 1 ½ while Belmont Park finishes a multi-year renovation. This is the final Belmont at Saratoga before the race returns to the rebuilt Belmont Park in 2027, which already gives the afternoon a sense of occasion.

For one trainer, the day carries something more personal. Cherie DeVaux grew up in Saratoga Springs, and on Saturday she saddles Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo barely a few miles from where she first learned what a racetrack smells like at dawn. A month ago she became the first woman ever to train a Derby winner. Now she is home, with a chance to write another line into the record book in front of her own people.

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Cherie DeVaux History at Saratoga

The History on the Line

DeVaux made her first piece of history on May 2, when Golden Tempo swept from last to first under Jose Ortiz to win the Kentucky Derby at 23-1, edging Renegade at the wire. In the 151 runnings before that afternoon, no woman had ever trained the winner of the Run for the Roses.

Saturday offers a second milestone. A Golden Tempo victory would make DeVaux only the second woman to train a Belmont Stakes winner, after Jena Antonucci saddled Arcangelo to win in 2023. More tellingly, it would make her the first woman to win two of the three Triple Crown races, since no woman has ever won the Preakness and Antonucci's lone classic was that 2023 Belmont. Golden Tempo, for his part, would become just the 13th horse to complete the Derby and Belmont double. Doing all of that in her hometown, in the last Belmont Saratoga will host for the foreseeable future, would be the kind of storyline the sport rarely scripts this neatly.

A Racing Family, Just Not This Kind of Racing

The DeVaux name has been attached to winners for decades, but the family business was harness racing, not Thoroughbreds. Her father, Adrian "Butch" DeVaux, was a mechanic who reportedly picked up a horse for a hundred dollars and did well enough with it in the sulky to build a stable of Standardbreds. He raced and drove at Monticello Raceway and at Saratoga, and he raised what Cherie has described as a Brady Bunch household of ten children around the barns.

Several of them stayed in the game. Her older brother Jimmy is one of the most prolific harness drivers in the Northeast, a multiple leading driver at both Monticello and Saratoga with more than 5,000 career wins. Her brother Kenny trains at Monticello. Her younger sister Adrianne, after a stint working for Cherie, now trains Thoroughbreds of her own. The horses this family has sent to the winner's circle over the years were pacers and trotters on half-mile ovals, not classic contenders, but the influence is the same one that shaped the woman now standing in the Saratoga winner's circle. DeVaux still tells the story of cold nights at Monticello, riding a still-harnessed horse back up the hill to Barn G while her brothers trailed behind on a bike tied to the station wagon.

That harness world also delivered her into the Thoroughbred one. The trainer who first took her on at Saratoga, Chuck Simon, had himself started out working for Butch DeVaux years earlier. From Simon she moved to Chad Brown's powerful operation, where she spent the better part of a decade as an assistant and was instrumental in nursing the champion Lady Eli back from a career-threatening bout of laminitis. The thread running from a hundred-dollar Standardbred to a Derby trophy is not subtle once you trace it.

From the Sulky to the Classics

DeVaux went out on her own in 2018 with a string of eight horses and did not win until her 29th start the following spring. The build since then has been steady and serious. Gam's Mission gave her a first graded stakes win in the 2021 Regret Stakes at Churchill Downs. More Than Looks took the 2024 Breeders' Cup Mile. She Feels Pretty developed into the 2025 American Champion Female Turf Horse, stacking up Grade 1 wins in the Natalma, the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup and the E.P. Taylor along the way. Golden Tempo turned that résumé into a classic.

There is a fitting Saratoga footnote to all of it. Last summer DeVaux was assigned Barn 83 at the Spa, the stalls long occupied by Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, the four-time Derby winner who died in June 2025. She called it a cathedral of greatness. As it turned out, the barn was being handed from one Derby-winning trainer to the next.

The Betting Angle: A Closer in Search of a Pace

Golden Tempo drew the outside post 9 in a compact nine-horse field and sits at 9-2 on the morning line. Renegade, the colt he beat by a neck in the Derby, is the 2-1 favorite from post 4 and gets a cleaner trip than the troubled run he had at Churchill Downs. Bill Mott returns with Chief Wallabee looking for back-to-back Belmonts after Sovereignty last year, and Chad Brown, DeVaux's former boss, sends out three runners led by Emerging Market at 6-1 as he chases a first Belmont of his own.

DeVaux likes the outside draw, and the logic is sound. Golden Tempo is a deep closer who breaks slowly and finds his footing at the back of the field, so a spot on the far outside keeps him clear of the early crossing and traffic that nearly cost him at every prior start. The complication is pace. This field carries less natural speed than the 18-horse Derby did, and a closer is only as good as the fractions in front of him. DeVaux has been candid that her colt needs a contested pace to run at, and that if the race crawls, Ortiz will have to ride him closer than his style prefers.

That tension is the whole handicapping puzzle. There is real precedent on Golden Tempo's side, since Sovereignty took the identical path of skipping the Preakness and arriving fresh to win this race a year ago. But a 9-2 closer who is dependent on someone else setting the table is a horse many players will want to use underneath in exactas and trifectas rather than single on top. The value question is simple to state and hard to answer: will nine horses produce enough early speed to set up the kick that already won DeVaux a Derby?

If the answer is yes, a Saratoga native could leave her hometown with a place in history that no woman has ever held.

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Frequently Asked Questions: 2026 Belmont Stakes

Who is the morning line favorite for the 2026 Belmont Stakes?

Renegade, trained by Todd Pletcher and ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., is the 2-1 morning line favorite for the 2026 Belmont Stakes. Renegade draws from post position 4 in the 9-horse field. Chief Wallabee, also trained by a top conditioner and ridden by Junior Alvarado out of post 3, is the second choice at 3-1, followed by Golden Tempo at 9-2. You can bet on the Belmont Stakes morning line favorite and the full field at FanDuel Racing.

When and where is the 2026 Belmont Stakes and what time is post time?

The 158th running of the Belmont Stakes takes place on Saturday, June 6, 2026, at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. Post time for The Test of the Champion is 7:04 p.m. ET. This is the third and final year the race will be held at Saratoga while Belmont Park undergoes a full reconstruction project. The race is contested at 1¼ miles due to the configuration of Saratoga's main track, shorter than the traditional 1½-mile distance at Belmont Park. The Belmont Stakes will return to a newly reimagined Belmont Park beginning in 2027. New FanDuel Racing users can place their first bet of $10 and get $50 back in Racing Bonus ahead of race day.

How can I bet on the 2026 Belmont Stakes and are there any promotions available?

You can bet on the 2026 Belmont Stakes winner and all associated wagering markets at FanDuel Racing. Belmont Stakes odds are available across win, place, show, exacta, trifecta, and superfecta markets. New FanDuel Racing users can take advantage of a promotional offer where you place your first bet of $10 on any race at any track and receive $50 back in Racing Bonus. Additional 2026 Belmont Stakes promos are available on FanDuel Racing. The full morning line odds for all 9 horses, including the 2-1 favorite Renegade and longshots Vitruvian Man at 30-1 and Ottinho at 20-1 — are listed above. Stay updated on live Belmont Stakes odds (fanduel.com/belmont-stakes-odds) as they shift ahead of the Saturday, June 6 post time.

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The above author is a FanDuel employee and is not eligible to compete in public daily fantasy contests or place sports betting wagers on FanDuel. The advice provided by the author does not necessarily represent the views of FanDuel. Taking the author's advice will not guarantee a successful outcome. You should use your own judgment when participating in daily fantasy contests or placing sports wagers.