Cherie DeVaux made the call Wednesday afternoon: Golden Tempo will skip the May 16 Preakness at Laurel Park and target the June 6 Belmont Stakes at Saratoga. [1] [2] The paper Wednesday held the decision window open; today the Belmont pivot is the answer — Golden Tempo becomes the third Kentucky Derby winner in five years to skip the Preakness, joining Rich Strike (2022) and Sovereignty (2025), and the women-breaking-ceilings arc moves to DeVaux's hometown for the third and final Saratoga Belmont before Belmont Park's reconstruction completes. The Triple Crown calendar — two weeks Derby-to-Preakness, three weeks Preakness-to-Belmont — is now the structural problem modern training has rejected three times in five years; Maryland officials are reportedly weighing a move to the fourth Saturday in May. [3] DeVaux, the first woman to train a Derby winner, was born in Saratoga Springs and worked her early career on the backstretch there. With Golden Tempo out, Bob Baffert's Crude Velocity emerges as the 4-1 morning-line Preakness favorite, and the second jewel runs for the sixth time in eight years without a Derby winner on the track. [3]

-- CHARLES ASHFORD, London