By Kyle Feldscher, CNN
(CNN) — In the moments before the Kentucky Derby began, two incredible women – one stepping off the grandest stage in horse racing and another about to step onto it – strode together to Churchill Downs’ paddock.
Donna Brothers, a former jockey with 1,130 career wins, was working her final race as a commentator on NBC’s coverage of the Derby. As the pageantry kicked into high gear, she walked with Cherie DeVaux – the daughter and granddaughter of horse trainers – to discuss her family’s legacy and her first-ever start in the Kentucky Derby.
When Brothers asked DeVaux what it would mean to make history as the first female trainer to win the Derby, DeVaux said she couldn’t conceptualize such a thing as the duo walked together, but then turned the moment around on Brothers.
“Women like you are what made it easy for me and, by the way, my career started 22 years ago at Churchill and I’ve always admired and respected you and it is an honor that you get to do your last walkover with me,” DeVaux told Brothers.
It seemed like a nice compliment at the time, a nod to Brothers’ historic role in the sport as DeVaux readied to watch her long-shot horse, Golden Tempo, run for the roses. It ended up being a passing of the torch for women in horse racing.
DeVaux’s 24-1 underdog ended up being the horse draped in roses with an incredible come-from-behind victory that saw him and jockey José Ortiz charge from dead last after three-quarters of a mile to waltzing into Churchill Downs’ winner circle. The weaving, lung-bursting charge down the home stretch will be long remembered as one of the most impressive kicks in Derby history – and it was just the way his trainer drew it up.
“He’s a dead closer. And the thing that the Louisiana Derby really solidified (was) that he was getting there, from the eighth pole (to) home. If he had a little bit extra, extra ground, he was going to make it,” DeVaux said. “So, you know, it’s just one of those things. We just have to have faith in the process, faith in the horse and faith in Jose. Lot of faith. Gotta have faith.”
Operating on faith
Faith is what got DeVaux to this history-making point, the trainer of the horse that wins America’s most famous race.
Though her family has long been involved in racing, she was planning to become a doctor. She was studying pre-med in college when she found herself in need of a job and gravitated toward her family’s business.
“My mother says, ‘Well, there’s a farm across, and all you have to do is walk the horses. And that’s how I started,’ DeVaux told reporters. “And then I thought, ‘Well, I can ride them.’ And I had this advisor my last year, and she’s telling me to take organic chemistry, which no pre-med student wants to take. And I just looked at her, I said, ‘No, I’m gonna go work on the racetrack. And she’s like, ‘Are you sure?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll just go see how it works.’”
She worked under the tutelage of Chuck Simons for six years in upstate New York at Saratoga Race Course before moving to Chad Brown’s operation at the same track.
She eventually came to a crossroads in her career, DeVaux said. That’s when the next moment of faith came.
“In the summer of 2017, I was kind of at a crossroads in life, and he told me that I ow