Take a look at this winner. Golden Temple wears the roses after racing to victory with jockey Jose Ortiz at the 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby. And what a race it was. The 23-to-1 longshot was in last place, then charged down the stretch to beat the entire field. But that’s not the only reason the race made history. Golden Temple’s trainer is a woman, the first to win the Derby.
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Of the more than 150,000 fans at Churchill Downs–
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–none was more excited than Cherie DeVaux.
“I’m glad that I could be a representative of all women everywhere, that we can do anything we set our minds to.”
JERICKA DUNCAN: This morning, after the victory, a much more subdued horse and trainer sharing a tender moment.
“I don’t know if the enormity of this has really sunk in.”
JERICKA DUNCAN: DeVaux comes from a large family of horsemen and started her own training stable just eight years ago in a decidedly man’s game. Only 17 women have trained a Derby horse over the past 151 years.
“I had zero horses. And then I started– my first year, I think I had 12 and then 24, and then it kind of grew from there.”
“She’s a part of history now. It’s hard to even wrap your head around it today.”
Monique Delk, one of the owners of Golden Temple, believed in DeVaux from the beginning.
“She’s going to meet people that are going to say, I saw you do this, and you changed my thought process. You made me want to love horses.”
JERICKA DUNCAN: Being an inspiration wasn’t DeVaux’s Derby mission, but she’s already been inundated with texts and messages from girls and young women who now see what’s possible.
ANNOUNCER: Kentucky Derby.
CHERIE DEVAUX: “I am grateful. I am proud to be that person for the sport.”
“A lot of long hours and a lot of hard work to get there. Congratulations.”