5/2/2026
(Auburn, WA) The 30th year and live 2026 Summer racing season got underway on Saturday at Emerald Downs. A 6 race card was a bit light with just 28 starters and two 4-horse fields.
The exceptionally wet early Spring delayed many of the training schedules for many of the horses that were turned out after last season and not ready to run just yet. Additionally, Saturday was the last day of racing at Turf Paradise in Phoenix and once they are concluded another 200 or so horses are expected to arrive in Auburn for the rest of the meet.
It’s was also Kentucky Derby day which ran between the 3rd and 4th races. The very active Promotions crew at Emerald Downs hosted their annual Fabulous Hat and Best Dressed contests with $1,000 given away to the top winners.
The 6 race card was highlighted by the feature race in the 5th in the Fabulous Hat Contest purse. A field of 5 went 6-furlongs for a purse of $23,000. Full coverage of the day is below the Kentucky Derby story.
152nd Kentucky Derby
(Photos from NBC race replay on Youtube)
The run for the roses began with 19 starters after another scratch of #9 The Puma Saturday morning. The Puma had a lot of support in this race as one of the top 4 favorites and impacted a lot of bettors.
But another scratch happened at the gate when #21 Great White reared up in the gates and the Stewards scratched the outsider reducing the field to 18. The betting public was split with #1 Renegade beginning the day as the betting choice but drifted up to 6-1 at one point. So Happy, Commandment, Chief Wallabee and Further Ado all bounced from 5-1 to 7-1 with the most win money ending up on Further Ado at 5-1. Renegade and So Happy also went off at 5-1, Commandment went at 6-1 and Chief Wallabee 7-1.
As the gates popped 38-1 Six Speed would end up on the lead with So Happy and 12-1 Danon Bourbon the Japanese import would sit just behind. Six Speed went the half in a quick 46.44 and as they entered the far turn Danon Bourbon and So Happy put Six Speed away and had first run.
At the quarter pole it was a wide open affair with Further Ado and Commandment making their moves. At the 1/8th pole Danon Bourbon with Atsuya Nishimura riding extended and had a clear lead with the others pursuing including 70-1 Ocelli with Joseph Ramos riding. In the meantime, the early favorite in this race Renegade and Irad Ortiz Jr up had found his way to the far outside and was beginning a move and from last place and way out in the middle of the track Golden Tempo with Jose Ortiz was stirring.
When they hit the 16th pole Ocelli surged past Danon Bourbon and Renegade was flying and just to his outside 23-1 Golden Tempo was in full flight. There was no stopping Golden Tempo who made up 8 lengths in the stretch run as the front speed collapsed as did the first run stalkers and all 3 top finishers came from way back but none further than Golden Tempo.
In fact Golden Tempo was nearly a full 3 seconds behind the leader at the 3/4’s mark with Six Speed going 1:10.90 and Golden Tempo dead last at 1:13.75. Golden Tempo finished in a final time of 2:02.27 winning by a neck over Renegade.
Ocelli finished 3rd while Chief Wallabee and jockey Junior Alvarado also closed well to be 4th while Danon Bourbon settled for 5th.
The winning connections for Golden Tempo were the Phipps Stable and St. Elias Stable and trained by Cherie DeVaux (more on Cherie below). The owners were also the winning breeders. Golden Tempo is by Curlin out of Carrumba by Bernardini. Golden Tempo nearly increased his career earnings tenfold by taking the massive 3.1-million dollar 1st prize to push his career earnings to $3,433,300 and is now 3-0-2 from 5 lifetime starts.
Here’s the official finish list:
1st 19 Golden Tempo (Jose Ortiz)
2nd 1 Renegade (Irad Ortiz Jr)
3rd 22 Ocelli (Joseph Ramos)
4th 12 Chief Wallabee (Junior Alvarado)
5th 7 Danon Bourbob (Atsuya Nishimura)
6th 11 Incredibolt (Jaime Torres)
7th Commandment (Luis Saez)
8th 10 Wonder Dean (Ryusei Sakai)
9th 8 So Happy (Mike Smith)
10th Emerging Market (Flavien Prat)
11th 18 Further Ado (John Velazquez)
12th 14 Potente (Juan Hernandez)
13th Six Speed (Brian Hernandez)
14th 23 Robusta (Emisael Jaramillo)
15th 2 Albus (Manuel Franco)
16th 3 Intrepido (Hector Berrios)
17th 4 Litmus Test (Martin Garcia)
18th Pavlovian (Edwin Maldonado)
Pay-outs
19 Golden Tempo $48.24 $19.14 $11.90
1 Renegade $7.14 $5.46
22 Ocelli $39.34
$1 Ex 19-1 $139.43
$1 Tri 19-1-22 $11,250.78
$1 Super 19-1-22-12 $94,489.95
$1 Super Hi 5 No winners
For full pays including Daily doubles, pick 3, 4, 5 and 6’s and future bets click on the Equibase chart here.
History made at 152nd Derby
There were a few history making events with the 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby but none bigger than trainer Cherie DeVaux becoming the first female trainer to win the run for the roses. DeVaux is just the second woman to win a Triple Crown race with the first being Jena Antonucci who won with Arcangelo in the 2023 Belmont Stakes. This was DeVaux’s first entry into the Derby after starting her own stable.
Not the only Woman making history on Saturday
DeVaux wasn’t the only “girl power” moment at Saturday’s Derby, well accomplished former jockey turned television analyst Donna Barton-Brothers made her last appearance on horseback covering the Derby for NBC. Brothers has been a presence on NBC and other National coverage of horse racing for the past 25 years.
On her final walk over on Saturday she walked with DeVaux and was the only NBC “expert” to select Golden Tempo to win, telling Devaux she hopes she wins the Derby.
Ortiz Brothers
Much of the talk and focus heading into the Derby was on Irad Ortiz Jr who has always slightly overshadowed his brother Jose topping the jockey standings for several years but had never won the run for the roses. Was this year Irad’s was the question.
Jose was making his 12th start in the Derby and he also had never won it. Jose Ortiz completed his own personal history making effort at the expense of his brother. It was likely a huge shock to Irad as he passed Ocelli believing he was getting his first Derby when Jose and Golden Tempo flashed to the front in the final strides.
The brothers did make history as the first brother exacta in the Derby. The $2 Ortiz brother exacta returned $278.86. Hopefully those who thought to bet the Ortiz bros pressed the “box” button.
More history for Jose
It was a huge weekend for Jose who also completed the Oaks-Derby Double, the first to do that since 2024 when Brian Hernandez Jr. did it with Thorpedo Anna in the Oaks and Mystic Dan in the Derby.
Jose Ortiz won 4 of the 16 Stakes races run on Friday and Saturday at Churchill Downs or 25% of the races. Ortiz also won the Alysheba and Modesty on Friday. All totaled in win purse money collected from his 4 stakes wins was an astounding $4,710,000.
Ortiz Bros big Numbers
Irad also had a big weekend winning two stakes one on Friday taking the Eight Belles and on Saturday won the Old Foresters Bourbon Turf. That was a total of $1,250,000 in winners shares of the purses which doesn’t include the $1,000,000 2nd place purse money for the Derby.
Individually, Jose Ortiz posted these eye-popping numbers:
Stakes starts: 15 with a top 4 finish record of 4-4-1-2 which is a 27% win rate, 53% exacta finish, 60% top 3 and 73% of the time you needed Jose in your superfecta tickets. Jose earned a total of $5,529,960 with his biggest take the 3.1-million in the Derby.
Irad Ortiz Jr was pretty good too:
Stakes starts: 15 with a top 4 finish record of 2-2-3-1 this is a 13% win clip, 27% exacta finish rate, 47% top 3 and 53% top 4 finish.
Combined the brothers won 6 of the 15 stakes races which means 40% of the time one of them was getting their picture taken. But their take of the total purse money was impressive, combined the Ortiz brothers earned $8,274,560 over the two days and 15 stakes races which is 47% of the 17,600,000 of the available purse money.
Full NBC Replay of the 152nd Kentucky Derby
Opening Day at Emerald Downs coverage
Track Condition: Fast
5th Race Feature Race: The Fabulous Hat Purse
The field of 5 older horses went 6-furlongs. 4-year-old Adios Jojo broke well from the 5 gate and Adrian Castellanos sent him straight to the lead quickly separating by a clear length. Bluegrass Lent also came out running for Alex Cruz on the rail and pressed the pace before tiring after a half mile. Jojo went 22.06 in the first quarter and slowed it down a bit with a 45.48 1/2 mile.
Much like most of the races the front speed controlled the pace and Castellanos had this race paced perfectly as 9-year-old Dirt Road Red with Kevin Krigger at 7-2 and 9-2 Counteract under Silvio Amador both threatened at the top of the stretch, Adios Jojo kept them at a safe distance and finished the job winning by a length over Dirt Road Red in a time of 1:10.79.
Counteract was a clear 3rd over favorite Wood Ceiling who ran an even race with Jose Rodriguez just nipping Bluegrass Lent for 4th.
4-year-old Adios Jojo races for Chad and Josh and trained by Howie Gibson. Adios Jojo is officially an Oregon bred but with strong Washington connections by Smiling Tiger, out of Lorelle G by Harbor the Gold and was bred by Dr Rodney Orr.
Adios Jojo now has a lifetime record of 3-1-2 from 10 starts for a 30% win rate and picked up $13,110 for his effort pushing his career earnngs to just short of 50k at $49,586.
5 Adios Jojo (Castellanos) $5.76 $3.56 $2.70
2 Dirt Road Red (Krigger) $4.42 $2.90
3 Counteract (Amador) $3.20
$1 Ex 5-2 $9.58
$1 Tri 5-2-3 $26.20
$1 Super 5-2-3-4 $40.00
$1 Daily Double 3-5 $3.94
$1 Pick 3 4-3-5 $19.08
ESN talks with winning trainer Howard Gibson
Race Replay
The rest of the Emerald card
1st Race
The field of 5 went 5 1/2 furlongs and 1-1 betting Taino House went to the lead with Too Tall to Call as the pair blazed away to a 3 lenght lead over 3-1 second choice Tiz Grazen. Taino House with last year’s top jockey Kevin Krigger aboard measured Too Tall and Jose Rodriguez as they set fractions of 22.03 and 45.21.
Turning for home Taino House drew off to win by 3 while Tiz Grazen was a clear 2nd. Meantime, Lucy L and Pablo Castillo rolled up for 3rd from far back along with Gianola and Talliyah Timentwa who finshed 4th both passing a tiring Too Tall to Call.
The winning time was 1:03.96. Tainio House races for James Kiser, Michael Pattison and Laura Oatfield and getting the first training win of the year was Charlie Essex.
4 Taino House (Krigger) $4.18 $2.76 $2.26
3 Tiz Grazen (Amador) $3.54 $2.68
5 Lucy L (Castillo) $3.50
$1 Ex 4-3 $5.20
$1 Tri 4-3-5 $13.50
$1 Super 4-3-5-2 $67.50
ESN talks with the winning jockey of the 1st race of 2026 Kevin Krigger
Race Replay
2nd Race
Four starters went 5 furlongs, which also meant no show wagering on the race. When the gates sprung 4-5 odds on choice Alluring Valentine was sent under the urging of Kevin Krigger. Run On Om and Silvio Amador were not far behind and longshot O’Ravenna with Jose Rodriguez broke well but quickly drifted back to 3rd and Princess Amber under Adrian Castellanos got off a step slow and was well back early.
After setting fractions of 22.57 and 46.43, Alluring Valentine had plenty left when they hit the stretch pulling away to win by 6 1/2 lengths in a final time of 58.61. Run On Om was a clear 2nd while Princess Amber closed well to be 3rd and O’Ravenna finished 4th.
Fred Desimone is the owner of Alluring Valentine and trained by Tim McCanna. The 3-year-old gray filly is a Washington bred by Running Tap out of Classy and Sassy by Mineshaft and was bred by Fred and Cindy Desimone.
Scratched: 4 Bluelocket
3 Alluring Valentine (Krigger) $3.78 $2.40 refund
5 Run On Om (Amador) $3.20 refund
2 Princess Amber (Castallanos) refund
$1 Ex 3-5 $3.49
$1 Tri 3-5-2 $6.96
$1 Super 3-5-2-1 $4.80
$2 Daily Double 4-3 $3.75
Race Replay
3rd Race
The field of 5 went 5 1/2 furlongs and 2-1 slight favorite Southern Anton went straight to the lead under Silvio Amador while 3-1 3rd choice Fly Farther and Kevin Krigger tried to take the lead but from the one hole got pinned to the inside while the 2-1 second choice Mocktails Anyone with Jose Rodriguez in the saddle had the open trip from the outside. Circle of Fire and Pablo Castillo and Dixie’s Delight with Lenny Seecharan ran at the back of the pack.
This was how they would finish with only Mocktails Anyone surging past Fly Farther on the turn but they couldn’t catch Southern Anton who rolled to an easy 7 3/4 length win in a final time of 1:04.05. Southern Anton races for Robert G Jones and trained by Tim McCanna who picked up his 2nd win of the day completing the second daily double.
Mocktails Anyone ran 2nd, Fly Farther 3rd and Circle of Fire completed the superfecta.
4 Southern Anton (Amador) $6.24 $2.90 $2.14
5 Mocktails Anyone (Rodriguez) $3.24 $2.32
1 Fly Farther (Krigger) $2.64
1 Ex 4-5 $7.63
$1 Tri 4-5-1 $30.94
$1 Super 4-5-1-2 $73.10
$1 Daily Double 3-4 $12.51
$1 Pick 3 4-3-4 $20.10
Race Replay
4th Race
Five older geldings went 5 1/2 furlongs and Washington bred A View from Above broke sharply from the gate but Silvio Amador was able to settle him nicely and held a short lead over Ice Tower and Taliyah Timentwa through early fractions of 22.19 and 45.40. Amador and the odds-on 3-5 choice had plenty left for the stretch pulling away for an easy win in a final clocking of 1:03.76.
6-1 Bedrock with Lenny Seecharan in the irons made a nice late run but was clearly second best in this one, 2-1 Olympic Legend and Kevin Krigger ran on well for 3rd, Deputy’s Dancer and Alex Cruz took 4th over a tiring Ice Tower.
Gary Lusk and Alexis Silva-Martinez own A View From Above and Silva-Martinez trains. A View From Above was bred by Mr and Mrs Frederick Pabst and is by Abraaj out of Deja Views by Forest Camp.
3 A View From Above (Amador) $3.30 $2.28 $2.10
2 Bedrock (Seecharan) $4.02 $2.38
1 Olympic Legend (Krigger) $2.24
$1 Ex 3-2 $5.02
$1 Tri 3-2-1 $8.78
$1 Super 3-2-1-5 $15.10
$1 Daily Double 4-3 $6.64
$1 Pick 3 3-4-3 $16.84
50-cent Pick 4 3/4-4-4-3 $14.19
Race Replay
6th Race
In the finale on day 1 of 2026 a scratch left just 4 horses to finish the day. This meant there was no show betting or Super Hi 5. You have to have a minimum of 5 runners for a Super Hi 5 bet.
Great Runner and Alex Cruz were bet down to 6-5 favoritism while Benny Buckets and Silvio Amador and Supermax with Adrian Castellanos were both 2-1 and the longshot was House of Lords and Jose Rodriguez at 5-1.
Not much separated the quartet as they motored around the Auburn oval in the 1-mile getaway race as they set fractions of 24.38 and 47.98. Heading for home Benny Buckets made his move Great Runner came off the rail and the longshot House of Lords loomed up threatening on the outside.
It came down to Benny and the Lord and House of Lords got up in literally the final stride to pull off the upset win to finish the day. House of Lords is owned by Rancho Viejo and Jerry Carmody and trained by Jesse Velasquez. House of Lords ran the 1st mile race of the season in a final time of 1:36.87.
5 House of Lords (Rodriguez) $12.94 $4.88 refund
3 Benny Buckets (Amador) $3.78 refund
1 Great Runner (Cruz) refund
$1 Ex 5-3 18.99
$1 Tri 5-3-1 $35.96
$1 Super 5-3-1-4 $43.20
$1 Daily Double 5-5 $20.43
$1 Pick 3 3-5-5 $75.26
50-cent Pick 4 4-3-5-5 $135.30
50-cent Pick 5 3/4-4-3-5-5 $279.78
10-cent Pick 6 4-3/4-4-3-5-5 $74.56 Carryover is $610
Super High 5 Refunded
Race Replay
Jockey’s, Trainers and Owners
Opening day saw several double winner’s to the year rolling. Defending joc key Champ Kevin Krigger wasted little time in picking up where he left off last September the opening Daily double with front running rides on Taino House in the 1st and Alluring Valentine in the 2nd.
Silvio Amador finished 2nd in both the 1st two races then got his 1st win of the season in the 3rd aboard Southern Anton then went wire-to-wire on A View from Above in the 4th. Adrian Castellanos who arrived later in the season is here at the start and got the big win in the feature race and Jose Rodriguez got a win in the finale.
Trainer Tim McCanna also doubled taking the 2nd race with Alluring Valentine and the 3rd with Southern Anton. Charlie Essex got things started sending out the 1st winner of the season with Taino House. Alexis Silva-Martinez took 2nd in the opener but got his 1st win in the 4th with A View from Above and Jesse Velasquez won the finale to get a picture on opening day.
Howard Gibson took the big race with Adios Jojo in the opening day feature race for owners Chad and Josh who continue to keep a strong string of horses in the NW after setting records just a few years ago.
The Betting Window
The short fields didn’t help many of the bets but there were still some really good betting chances to hit on opening day. Here’s the re-0cap:
Largest $2 win/place/show bets
Had to wait for the final race to get double digit pays. 5-1 House of Lords in just a 4 horse race paid $12.94 for the high win pay. House of Lords also was the high $2 place at $4.88 but just a little more than the $4.42 that Dirt road Red paid in the 5th. Bedrock also topped $4 with a 44.02 return in the 4th. The top show bet, which was only available in 4 of the 6 races as Emerald does not offer show betting on 4-horse fields, went to Lucy L in the 1st race. The 7-1 shot paid $3.50.
Top vertical bet returns
You would have thought the top exacta, trifecta and super would have all been in the last race with the longest shot of the day winning. It held true in the $1 exacta returning $18.99. But that was it. The top $1 trifecta was in the 1st race paying $49.42 or $24.71 for the 50-cent bet. The $1 top superfecta bet paid $73.10 in the 3rd race or $7.31 for the 10-cent bet.
The horizontals
All the top pays were linked to House of Lords upset win in the final race with the $1 daily double paying $20.43, the 50-cent Pick 3 $37.63 and 50-cent pick 4 $135.30.
The pick 5 and pick 6 are always the final 5 or 6 races on the card so they will always be tied into the final race of the day. On opening day the 50-cent pick 5 paid well returning $279.78. This was linking 3-5, 2-1, 3-5, 9-5 and 5-1 shot together.
The Jackpot Pick 6 is back this season but the price dropped in half from a 20-cent minimum bet to a 10-cent minimum. The Jackpot only gets totally paid out if there is a single winner. Otherwise each winner gets a portion of around 60% of the pot and 40% carries over. $610 carried over which meant there were about 18 winning tickets each paying $74.56. (My math is not exact by any means but should be close.)
Larry the SportsCat had a great day betting Emerald after getting his clock cleaned in the Kentucky Derby. You can check out our in house handicapper on his page Larry’s Lucky Picks.
The Handle
A total of $755,751 was bet on the Emerald Downs races on Saturday. This is an astounding $125,929 wagered per race. This does not count the Kentucky Derby, only the 6 races at Emerald. With the reduced fields and competition by many tracks this is a huge number and very likely meant the large crowd that showed up also bet.
In comparison, Turf Paradise handled a little more than 950k with just 150k on-track which averages to just 95k per race. They also had 85 horses run averaging 8.5 per race. To handle $30,000 more per race than Turf Paradise is a crazy number.
Once again, the NW fans show every year their love and commitment to this great sport.
Crowd, Contests and Fun
The big story on opening day was the huge crowd that showed up on opening day. The 4 suites on floor 6 were all sold out, the tables by the track were sold out there were long lines at the betting windows, the concession stands were busy and the day was a great start to the 2026 season.
Hats, Hats and Hats
The Promotions crew was hard at it and the fans came dressed to the 9’s trying to win the Fabulous Hat and best Dressed competitions. The winners all got their share of the $1,000 in prize money.
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