Trainer Cherie DeVaux will saddle two of the most exciting three-year-olds in the country on Saturday when she sends out ENGLISHMAN in the Grade 1 $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial and GOLDEN TEMPO in the Grade 1 $1.25 million DraftKings Travers at Saratoga Race Course.
The 157th renewal of the DraftKings Travers [Race 13, approx. 6:35 p.m. Eastern] is one of five Grade 1s scheduled for Saturday’s 14-race program, including the H. Allen Jerkens Memorial in Race 8 and three top-level Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” qualifiers with the Personal Ensign [Distaff] in Race 9, the Forego [Dirt Mile] in Race 11 and the Resorts World Casino Ballerina [Filly and Mare Sprint] in Race 12. The card is supported by the Grade 2 Lake Placid in Race 10.
The DraftKings Travers will be showcased live on FOX as part of a two-hour edition of FOX Saratoga Saturday presented by Oceania Cruises from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. First post on Saturday’s card is 11:05 a.m. with gates opening to the public at 9 a.m.
Phipps Stable and St. Elias Stable’s Grade 1 Kentucky Derby-winner Golden Tempo will look to become the fifth horse since 2020 to capture both the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes by NYRA Bets and the Travers – an elite list that includes Tiz the Law [2020], Essential Quality [2021], Arcangelo [2023] and Sovereignty [2025].
C R K Stable’s Englishman, a $400,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase, arrives at the Jerkens from a course record-equaling final time of 1:20.40 for his 5 3/4-length romp in the seven-furlong Grade 1 Woody Stephens presented by Mohegan Sun on June 6 here. The win was awarded a 115 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest number registered by a three-year-old this year – and second only to the 122 figure earned by the five-year-old Knightsbridge in the Grade 3 Monmouth Cup.
Should both Golden Tempo and Englishman win on Saturday, it would send both horses into strong consideration for the highest of year-end honors and leave DeVaux in the unique scenario of potentially being the first trainer of the winners of Horse of the Year, Champion Three-Year-Old Colt and Champion Sprinter in the same year since Hall of Famer Laz Barrera accomplished the feat in 1978 with Triple Crown-winner Affirmed [Champion Three-Year-Old Colt, Horse of the Year] and J. O. Tobin [Champion Sprinter in a tie with Dr. Patches].
DeVaux credited her owners as well as her team’s continued attention to detail for the barn’s success.
“I’m very fortunate to have great clients,” DeVaux said. “We’ve had a lot of success and pulled together to put ourselves in a position to be able to get these types of horses in the barn, but also be able to manage them.
“[With] these ones it’s more about just maintaining them and not getting nervous and not getting too star struck with our own stock,” she continued. “It’s important, as a team, that we’re all on the same page…the horses that are not at the top, we’re treating each horse the same and I feel that’s what has put us in a position to be successful and to be able to get these types of horses in the barn and maintain them.”
Golden Tempo, listed as the 5-2 morning line favorite, drew post 9-of-10 under the Spa’s leading rider Jose Ortiz, who has notched 64 wins at the meet heading into Thursday’s card and sits just four wins behind the record of 68 set by Ramon Dominguez across a 40-day meet in 2012.
“For his running style, I feel it’s better for him to be outside, let the speed go and let him find a place to where he can save some ground,” DeVaux said. “I think it’s more advantageous to be in an outside position as opposed to the inside where horses are crowding around you and getting jostled around.”
The Curlin bay has banked in excess of $4.6 million through a 6-4-0-2 ledger.
Englishman is listed at 3-5 on the morning line for the Jerkens with Ortiz named to ride from post 4. The Maxfield colt has won three of four starts, the lone blemish on his record a 3 3/4-length second to Crude Velocity when stretched out in distance for the Grade 2 Pat Day Mile in May at Churchill Downs.
Englishman extracted a modicum of revenge on his familiar foe last out with his 5 3/4-length score over Crude Velocity in the Woody Stephens.
DeVaux didn’t rule out stretching Englishman out in distance again down the road.
“The way he runs and the way he is, I think a one-turn mile is his distance limit. I’m not saying we wouldn’t open that up for discussion at another point,” DeVaux said. “Right now, we’re just going to keep him at that sprinting six-to-seven [furlongs] distance. He didn’t run bad in the Pat Day Mile, it’s just that Crude Velocity was better. He also was stuck against the rail, so it was a little bit hard for him to relax and he’s a lightly-raced colt. He could have more dimension but right now we’ll do what he’s best suited for.”
One of the enduring images of this year’s Kentucky Derby was an emotional DeVaux cheering home Golden Tempo, who closed from last-of-18 and 17 lengths off the pace to secure a neck win over returning rival Renegade. The Derby winner’s running style comes in stark contrast to the speedy Englishman, who has held at least a three-length advantage at the stretch call of his three wins.
DeVaux said it’s impossible to decide whether it’s easier to be the hunter with the onrushing Golden Tempo or the leader with Englishman as the one with the target on his back.
“Both are anxious moments,” said DeVaux, with a laugh. “It’s funny, they had the camera on me when Englishman ran [in the Jerkens] and as soon as he pulled away, I said, ‘Okay, I don’t have to cheer anymore, I’m going to save it for Golden Tempo.’ A horse like Englishman is not as dependent on the complexity of the race as Golden Tempo is but they’re both exciting and the level of cheering doesn’t negate how excited I am.”
Schultz relishing the ride with G1 DraftKings Travers contender Baby Vino
Trainer Lindsay Schultz became the first woman to train a winner of the Grade 1 NYRA Bets Haskell when Baby Vino splashed home over the sloppy and sealed surface at Monmouth Park to score by a half-length over Napoleon Solo.
On Saturday, Schultz will look to become just the third woman trainer to capture the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers with Baby Vino listed as a 10-1 longshot in a field headed by the Cherie DeVaux-conditioned Golden Tempo. Jena Antonucci accomplished the feat in 2023 with Arcangelo, following Mary Hirsch, who sent out Thanksgiving to win the Travers in 1938.
The 37-year-old Schultz notched her first win in January 2022 with Capture the Glory at Oaklawn Park and picked up her first stakes win in July 2023 when Alex Joon captured the Edward P. Evans at Colonial Downs.
Schultz will match talents Saturday with Hall of Fame trainers Todd Pletcher [Renegade, 3-1ML] and Mark Casse [Silent Tactic, 10-1], as well as multiple Eclipse Award-winners Brad Cox [Leading Change, 12-1] and Chad Brown [Emerging Market, 15-1; Sea Strike, 5-1].
“There’s a lot of young trainers my age starting to get big horses and I’m glad to be a part of that,” Schultz said. “It’s a massive honor and kind of unbelievable when you look at the other people you’re running against in this race, their credentials, their experience and everything they’ve done.”
Baby Vino needed five starts at Oaklawn Park to break his maiden, enduring a number of troubled trips along the way, before his 2 3/4-length graduation on May 1. The Vino Rosso colt followed with a 10 3/4-length romp under Paco Lopez in the Listed NYRA Bets Pegasus on June 13 at Monmouth Park ahead of his narrow win under Jorge Vargas, Jr. in the Haskell when besting the Lopez-piloted Grade 1 Preakness-winner Napoleon Solo, a returning rival on Saturday.
“After we won the Pegasus people started asking me if he could be a Grade 1 horse, but I’ve never trained a Grade 1 horse before. I thought he could be a real good horse, but I didn’t know,” Schultz said. “I went into the Haskell with plenty of confidence and the horse has showed his hand all the way – he’s always worked good and, in his races, he had some adversity to overcome. He finally started to put it all together.”
While Schultz did not previously have a Grade 1-winner in her barn, she was no stranger to working with top-flight stock having started out her career with Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito.
“My very first job on the track I was a hotwalker for Nick Zito here and that year Ice Box was a two-year-old, we had Da’Tara in the barn, we had Commentator, Cool Coal Man,” Schultz recalled.
Schultz, who attended the University of Louisville’s Equine Industry Program, went on to the Darley Flying Start program and later found herself working for trainer Tom Proctor where she assisted with multiple graded stakes-winners Marketing Mix, Banned and Global View.
“There was a horse called Cambodia I was very close to and she ran third in the [2017 Breeders’ Cup] Filly and Mare Turf,” Schultz recalled. “Her owners helped support me when I went out on my own – they brought another owner in – Allen Schubert. Cambodia meant a lot for me.”
Another horse that continues to have meaning for Schultz is Temeraine, who banked $558,949 through a 22-5-2-5 record for Proctor, including a win in the 2013 Grade 3 Kentucky Turf Cup. Temeraine finished fifth that year in both the Grade 1 Arlington Million at Arlington Park and the Grade 1 Canadian International at Woodbine.
“For Tom, I started as a traveling assistant/office manager. He had three strings at the time. The horse we now use as a pony, Temeraine, he won the Kentucky Cup, and I got to bring him to the Arlington Million and to Woodbine for the big race up there,” Schultz recalled.
Following her time with Proctor, Schultz spent nearly a year working with Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey. The experience gained is invaluable as she prepares her young charge for the Travers.
On Monday, Schultz sent Baby Vino through the paddock en route to a half-mile work over the main track with NYRA clockers catching the colt in an opening quarter-mile in 23.47 and 47.31 for four furlongs.
“We were happy, he did it easy. I had him galloping out in a minute and change,” Schultz said. “We got what we wanted, and he didn’t come back with too much of a blow. It was good.
“It’s a lot for them,” Schultz added regarding handling the crowd on big race days. “So, we made it part of our everyday routine to go through the paddock and school them in the races. He’s been good.”
Schultz had a big call to make when deciding on a rider for the Travers and ultimately landed on going back to Lopez, who has a history with the horse dating back to Baby Vino’s first entry on November 27 when he was scratched from a six-furlong sprint at Fair Grounds.
“Paco worked this horse in New Orleans before he even ran and was named on him in his first race,” Schultz said. “Paco worked him up until the Pegasus and while the Pegasus wasn’t the quality of the Haskell, he gave him the easiest trip he’s had in all his races.
“Jorge Vargas rode a phenomenal race and will continue to ride horses for us,” she continued. “I’m beyond thrilled he won the Haskell, and that we did it together, it was such a good experience. But to have the chance to put Paco back on the horse, we went ahead and took it.”
Campaigned by Delta Squad Racing, HRH Prince Faisal bin Khaled bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, and Cosmo Stables, Baby Vino has banked $794,916 through a 7-3-2-1 record and will look to become the first Haskell winner since Point Given in 2001 to take the Travers.
Schultz knows Baby Vino will face a strong test in the Travers when facing Kentucky Derby one-two finishers Golden Tempo and Renegade despite having already bested returning rivals Napoleon Solo, The Puma and Ocelli in the Haskell.
“The horses’ style is beneficial. It’s a big positive going in. He can be tactical,” Schultz said. “I can see him sitting right in behind the speed and being able to get the jump on the closers. He’s a Grade 1 winner, he hasn’t run in the Classics and has never run a mile and quarter before, but I think that he will. I think that he fits with them. Most importantly, he deserves a chance to run against this group and it’s a good opportunity to do it when he’s in such good form.”
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