Golden Tempo with Jose Ortiz up, wins the 158th working of the Belmont Stakes with with Commandment and John Velazquez up ending second at Saratoga Race Course on June 06, 2026 in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Al Bello | Getty Pictures Sport | Getty Pictures
Golden Tempo proved his Kentucky Derby win was no fluke by coming again Saturday to take the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
The win made Cherie DeVaux the second girl to coach a winner within the third leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown. The Saratoga Springs native joined Jena Antonucci, who received the race in 2023 with Arcangelo. DeVaux is the primary feminine coach to win two Triple Crown races.
Commandment completed second, and Renegade, who was second to Golden Tempo by a neck final month at Churchill Downs, wound up third among the many discipline of 9.
The highest three all ran within the Derby however opted to skip the Might 16 Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, due to the two-week break between the races.
Much like how he raced on the Derby, jockey Jose Ortiz rallied Golden Tempo from final to first with one other sturdy stretch drive. Nonetheless, Ortiz wanted to do it with out almost the kind of tempo the frontrunners within the Derby offered.
That meant the opposite horses within the race had been more energizing for the stretch run than they had been in Louisville final month. Nonetheless, the horse owned by Phipps Secure and Vincent and Teresa Viola, confirmed that didn’t matter.
“I type of wrongfully, in all probability, thought that as a result of the best way the race was run within the Derby, he was having to exit and show himself,” DeVaux instructed reporters. “We felt the perfect horse received the Kentucky Derby, and he simply solidified that at the moment.”
On the half-mile mark within the 1 1/4-mile race, Renegade, Commandment and Golden Tempo had been at the back of the pack as Powershift led the best way with Development Fairness shut behind. Development Fairness moved into the lead because the horses entered the ultimate flip.
That is when Renegade, Commandment and Golden Tempo, who had been the final three in that order, started to shut. By the point they reached the top of the flip and into the ultimate stretch, these three horses had been on the surface neck-and-neck with one another.
Golden Tempo and Commandment finally broke away, and within the last strides, Ortiz and Golden Tempo had been clear to win by 1 1/4 lengths in 2:03.49.
“Commandment saved coming from the surface, however each time he bought nearer to him, I felt like my horse gave me one other gear and one other gear,” stated Ortiz, who received the Belmont for the second time. He rode Tapwrit to victory in 2017.
With the win, Golden Tempo turned the thirteenth horse, excluding Triple Crown winners, to win each the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont. Sovereignty achieved that double final yr, and the final horse earlier than him to do it was Thunder Gulch in 1995.
Regardless of the Derby win, Golden Tempo didn’t break as the favourite. That was Renegade at 3-5.
Golden Tempo, who was the fourth alternative at 6-1 from the surface gate within the nine-horse discipline, paid $14 to win, $7.32 to position and $3.88 to indicate. Commandment, the fifth alternative additionally at 6-1, paid $7.02 and $4.08. Renegade paid $2.52.
