Golden Tempo takes 158th Belmont Stakes, winning first, third legs of Triple Crown

Golden Tempo proved his Kentucky Derby win was no fluke by coming back Saturday to take the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

The win made Cherie DeVaux the second woman to train a winner in the third leg of horse racing's Triple Crown. The Saratoga Springs native joined Jena Antonucci, who won the race in 2023 with Arcangelo. DeVaux is the first female trainer to win two Triple Crown races.

Commandment finished second, and Renegade, who was second to Golden Tempo by a neck last month at Churchill Downs, wound up third among the field of nine.

The top three all ran in the Derby but opted to skip the May 16 Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, because of the two-week break between the races.

Similar to how he raced at the Derby, jockey Jose Ortiz rallied Golden Tempo from last to first with another strong stretch drive. However, Ortiz needed to do it without nearly the type of pace the frontrunners in the Derby provided.

That meant the other horses in the race were fresher for the stretch run than they were in Louisville last month. However, the horse owned by Phipps Stable and Vincent and Teresa Viola, showed that did not matter.

"I kind of wrongfully, probably, thought that because the way the race was run in the Derby, he was having to go out and prove himself," DeVaux told reporters. "We felt the best horse won the Kentucky Derby, and he just solidified that today."

At the half-mile mark in the 1 1/4-mile race, Renegade, Commandment and Golden Tempo were in the back of the pack as Powershift led the way with Growth Equity close behind. Growth Equity moved into the lead as the horses entered the final turn.

That's when Renegade, Commandment and Golden Tempo, who were the last three in that order, began to close. By the time they reached the end of the turn and into the final stretch, those three horses were on the outside neck-and-neck with each other.

Golden Tempo and Commandment eventually broke away, and in the final strides, Ortiz and Golden Tempo were clear to win by 1 1/4 lengths in 2:03.49.

"Commandment kept coming from the outside, but every time he got closer to him, I felt like my horse gave me another gear and another gear," said Ortiz, who won the Belmont for the second time. He rode Tapwrit to victory in 2017.

With the win, Golden Tempo became the 13th horse, excluding Triple Crown winners, to win both the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont. Sovereignty achieved that double last year, and the last horse before him to do it was Thunder Gulch in 1995.

Despite the Derby win, Golden Tempo did not break as the favorite. That was Renegade at 3-5.

Golden Tempo, who was the fourth choice at 6-1 from the outside gate in the nine-horse field, paid $14 to win, $7.32 to place and $3.88 to show. Commandment, the fifth choice also at 6-1, paid $7.02 and $4.08. Renegade paid $2.52.