LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — You get to hold the trophy on Kentucky Derby Day. It takes seven weeks to get the one with your name on it.
Or, in Cherie DeVaux's case, her name.
On Saturday, Churchill Downs presented the engraved trophies that Golden Tempo's connections will keep forever.
The engraving is a funny thing.
It comes after the cheering stops. After the roses wilt. After the television cameras leave. Long after the race became history.
Only then does someone carefully etch your name into silver.
By then, of course, your life has already been engraved.
DeVaux arrived at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May as one of racing's brightest young trainers with a chance to win the Kentucky Derby. She left as the first woman ever to do it.
That's a title no engraver can fit on a trophy.
Since then, she's thrown out the ceremonial first pitch at Yankee Stadium. A commemorative Woodford Reserve bourbon release celebrating Golden Tempo sold out almost immediately. Time magazine named her among its 100 most influential people in sports.
She admitted Saturday she never imagined any of it.
"It's definitely been a whirlwind," she said. "It's hard to put words to describe that."
Moments later, she found them anyway.
Golden Tempo's owner, Vincent Viola, shares a moment with the Kentucky Derby trophy and the children of Jockey Jose Ortiz, right, at Churchill Downs on June 27, 2026.
"What has been really special to me is that I get to be the advocate for our sport," she said. "Our industry is wonderful, and I think we've come really far in our safety and our rules and our aftercare. It's been really special to be able to put a voice with that and shine our industry in a positive light."
Most people spend the weeks after a once-in-a-lifetime achievement talking about themselves. DeVaux has spent hers talking about horse racing.
Winning the Kentucky Derby doesn't simply make you famous. It makes you one of the public faces of a sport, whether you ask for the job or not. Suddenly people want your opinion on racing's future. They want you on podcasts, television shows and baseball fields. They want you to explain the game to people who may only watch one race a year.
DeVaux said she's tried to say yes whenever she can.
"There are opportunities that I could have said no to," she said. "But every opportunity that I've had to bring the word of our sport out into everyone's living room or podcast or whatnot, I think it's a a great opportunity for us to be able to share that."
The horse, meanwhile, has spent the last few weeks doing something refreshingly ordinary.
He got sick.
DeVaux laughed as she described it as "a little kid sickness." Nothing serious. Just enough to alter the schedule of the Kentucky Derby winner. Instead of another prep race, Golden Tempo is expected to return directly in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga.
Saturday belonged to something quieter than all of that.
A trainer holding a trophy that finally bore her name. A team walking through the Kentucky Derby Museum, where Golden Tempo's remarkable spring has already become part of the permanent exhibit.
The colt's breathtaking rally from last to first. Then the encore five weeks later in the Belmont.
"It was an exclamation point, for sure," DeVaux said.
No doubt.
But exclamation points don't end stories.
They announce them.
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