Golden Tempo to bypass Preakness
Derby champ will point to Belmont
Frank Vespe
May 6, 2026
For the second consecutive year, the Kentucky Derby winner will skip the Preakness.
“After much thoughtful discussion as a team, we have decided that Golden Tempo will bypass the Preakness Stakes,” trainer Cherie DeVaux wrote in a statement posted to social media.
Golden Tempo closed best of all on the outside to score a 23-1 upset in the May 2 Kentucky Derby, benefiting from a hot pace that took the starch out of the early speed horses. The top four finishers all were 10th or worse after three quarters of a mile.
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Golden Tempo, a Curlin colt who is a homebred for Phipps Stable and St. Elias Stable, is now 3-for-5 in his career with purse earnings of more than $3.4 million.
“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,” DeVaux wrote. “His health, happiness, and long-term future will always remain our top priority.”
With this decision, three of the last five Derby winners have skipped the Preakness. Golden Tempo joins Sovereignty and Rich Strike as recent Derby winners to bypass the Middle Jewel.
That there will be no Triple Crown possibility obviously is a blow to the Preakness and to Maryland, but in the longer term, this trend is bad for the Thoroughbred industry as a whole. For good or ill, the Triple Crown is the sport’s only real connection to the public outside the racing bubble, and the lack of a Crown aspirant takes much of the air out of the balloon.
Those decisions are also rendering the longstanding debate over the dates of the Triple Crown races increasingly out-of-touch with reality.
While top-flight horses of earlier decades – the current schedule was settled on in 1969 – commonly ran on two or three weeks of rest, high-caliber horses today generally have four to five weeks between races.
As one example, in the 1991 Preakness, the average starter had had his most recent prior race a shade over 16 days earlier, and even those who had not run in the Kentucky Derby had started, on average, 21 days prior. In 2023, the average for all horses in the race was 31 days, and for non-Derby horses it was nearly 34.
The field for the May 16 Preakness, still very much in flux, is likely to be full or very close to it. And particularly with the dearth of Derby runners, the Preakness likely will be a very attractive betting race.
As for Golden Tempo, his next stop will be Saratoga on June 6.
“We are looking forward to pointing him toward the Belmont Stakes and are excited for what lies ahead with this very special horse,” DeVaux wrote.
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