Golden Tempo vs. Renegade rematch highlights 157th running of Travers Stakes

Golden Tempo, with jockey Jose Ortiz, won the 158th Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on June 6 in Saratoga Springs. The colt is the morning-line favorite for Saturday's Travers Stakes. (Skip Dickstein)

SARATOGA SPRINGS - Golden Tempo's chance for Saratoga immortality has arrived. To achieve it, he'll have to get past his most persistent rival and a host of other talented contenders.

Trained by Cherie DeVaux, Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Golden Tempo is the morning-line favorite for the 157th running of the Travers Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga Race Course. The Grade 1, $1.25 million race is set for a 6:35 p.m. post time as part of a blockbuster 14-race card.

For Golden Tempo, the 1 ¼-mile Travers will mark his first start since June 6, when he copied his Kentucky Derby formula by going last-to-first to win the final Belmont of the Triple Crown race's three-year residency in Saratoga.

"He is so classy, he is so professional. He's been like that his entire life," DeVaux told the New York Racing Association. "He's a horse who just continues to improve and continues to mature and change. … That's why each race we're hoping he's going to continue to improve, which he has done so far."

Golden Tempo, who drew the No. 9 post in the 10-horse Travers field, will be ridden once again by Saratoga's leading jockey, Jose Ortiz, who piloted him to victories in two-thirds of this year's Triple Crown.

Jim Dandy winner Renegade is the second choice in the morning-line odds for the 157th Travers Stakes. (Skip Dickstein)

Though an illness in June disrupted Golden Tempo's training schedule at DeVaux's Keeneland barn and kept him out of a planned prep earlier in this month in the Jim Dandy, it's all systems go as the colt attempts to follow Sovereignty's path from 2025 in winning the Derby, Belmont and Travers.

Four of the last five Belmont winners to enter the Travers have gone on to win it, but Saratoga's biggest race has been a bit less forgiving to Kentucky Derby winners. When Sovereignty won last year's Midsummer Derby, he became the first horse who won the Run for the Roses to win the Travers since Street Sense in 2007.

"He looks very good," Ortiz told the Times Union earlier this week. "We're very happy with him."

Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Golden Tempo is held by trainer Cherie DeVaux while schooling in the paddock at Saratoga Race Course on Thursday in Saratoga Springs. (Skip Dickstein)

Golden Tempo's biggest rival in the Travers? That's Renegade, the horse he ran down to beat by a neck in the Kentucky Derby.

"I'm 0-for-12 in the Derby, but I never lost by a neck," said Mike Repole, who co-owns Renegade with Robert and Lawana Low.

Trained by Todd Pletcher, Renegade went on to finish third behind Golden Tempo and Commandment in the Belmont, then bounced back with a win in the Jim Dandy on Aug. 1.

All three of Pletcher's previous Travers winners won the race coming off a Jim Dandy victory. Two of those horses, 2011 winner Stay Thirsty and 2024 winner Fierceness, were owned by Repole.

"He's pretty uncomplicated," Pletcher told NYRA. "He's been able to do it in all kinds of scenarios, so we're not looking to change anything. He's been in peak form the past couple of weeks and he acts to me like he's sitting on a big race."

"I have great respect for Renegade. I feel like they are all rivals when you are the favorite. Everybody is out to get you, so I think it will be interesting," said DeVaux.

With his regular rider Irad Ortiz Jr. out with an injury, Tyler Gaffalione will inherit the mount on Renegade in the Travers.

"Tyler's a great rider," Repole said. "We've ridden him before. He's in Kentucky a little too much for us to be able to ride him more often, but we're excited. He's a class A jockey and we know he's going to give him a great ride."

If there's a disruption to the Golden Tempo-Renegade showdown, it could come in the form of Napoleon Solo. The Chad Summers-trained colt won the Preakness when neither Golden Tempo nor Renegade was in the field, and is coming off a second-place finish in the Haskell over a sloppy Monmouth Park track.

Preakness Stakes winner Napoleon Solo will face Golden Tempo and Renegade for the first time in the Travers. (Skip Dickstein)

"This is the deepest Travers we've seen in a long time," Summers said. "Obviously, Golden Tempo is the favorite for the 3-year-old championship, but he's never run against us before. So, we'll see what happens in the race."

Two lightly-raced colts from powerhouse barns could also complicate proceedings.

Leading Change, trained by Brad Cox, has only raced twice in his career, but is coming off a win in the Grade 3 Indiana Derby on July 11. Then there's Sea Strike, trained by Chad Brown, who scored an 8 ¼-length win in the Curlin at Saratoga on the day after the Jim Dandy while making just his third career start.

"He is a lightly-raced horse and we'll see if we can get another eighth of a mile out of him at the mile and a quarter and see how he does," said Brown, a Mechanicville native who also has Emerging Market in the Travers field. "On figures, it looks like he fits."

Baby Vino comes into the Travers coming off an upset win in the Haskell last month at Monmouth Park. (Skip Dickstein)

Rounding out the Travers field are Baby Vino, who won the Haskell at 28-1 odds in his last start; The Puma, the Haskell's fourth-place finisher; Ocelli, who finished third in the Derby and fourth in the Preakness but is winless in 10 career starts; and Silent Tactic, who was a strong third in the Jim Dandy while making his first start in more than four months.

Whether one of the new contenders emerges or if it falls back into another Golden Tempo vs. Renegade duel won't be determined until the Travers leaves the gate.

"I have always said this race is a bit different than the other races because horses do a lot of maturing throughout the summer, colts especially, so it will be interesting to see how they both perform," DeVaux said. "And we have new horses in the race, too, and they weren't part of the conversation during Belmont week."

2026 Travers Stakes field

1. Emerging Market (Chad Brown, Ricardo Santana Jr., 15-1)
2. Leading Change (Brad Cox, Manny Franco, 12-1)
3. Napoleon Solo (Chad Summers, John Velazquez, 8-1)
4. The Puma (Gustavo Delgado, Javier Castellano, 8-1)
5. Renegade (Todd Pletcher, Tyler Gaffalione, 3-1)
6. Ocelli (Whit Beckman, Edgar Zayas, 20-1)
7. Sea Strike (Chad Brown, Flavien Prat, 5-1)
8. Baby Vino (Lindsay Schultz, Paco Lopez, 10-1)
9. Golden Tempo (Cherie DeVaux, Jose Ortiz, 5-2)
10. Silent Tactic (Mark Casse, Luis Saez, 10-1)

*Trainer, jockey, morning-line odds in parentheses

SubscribeThere’s more to Albany with the Times Union. Subscribe today for just 25¢.

This article originally published at Golden Tempo vs. Renegade rematch highlights 157th running of Travers Stakes.