Why Kentucky Derby Winners Keep Skipping the Preakness
The New York Times reported Thursday that Golden Tempo, winner of the 2026 Kentucky Derby, will not line up for this Saturday’s Preakness Stakes — making it the sixth time in eight years that a Kentucky Derby Preakness skip has played out at racing’s biggest stage.
Trainer Cherie DeVaux sat down with The Athletic’s horse racing contributor Teresa Genaro to explain the decision and the broader forces reshaping the Triple Crown picture.
A Streak That Keeps Repeating
For more than five decades, the pattern was nearly unbroken. From 1960 through 2018, only three Derby winners bypassed the Preakness. Since 2019, however, that outcome has become the norm rather than the exception. The lone counterexample in that window came in 2020, when pandemic scheduling flipped the race order entirely.
DeVaux said the standard two-week gap between the Derby and Preakness simply leaves insufficient recovery time. In her professional experience, she told The Athletic, she had never started a horse back on rest that short. For Golden Tempo to have made the trip to Baltimore, he would have needed to emerge from Churchill Downs in exceptional condition.
How the Sport Has Changed
The shift is not purely about one horse or one trainer’s preference. Genaro noted that modern racing practice has drifted toward monthly starts rather than the punishing back-to-back schedules that defined earlier eras. Historic Triple Crown champions including Sir Barton and Count Fleet won the Derby and Preakness when the two races were held just four to seven days apart — a schedule that would be considered unthinkable today.
Breeding patterns have reinforced the trend. American dirt racing now prizes speed over stamina, and auction prices consistently reward bloodlines built for shorter, faster efforts. Races themselves have grown shorter on average, pulling the gene pool in the same direction.
Tighter Oversight Adds Another Layer
Regulatory veterinary supervision has also grown considerably stricter, DeVaux said. Treatments once permitted within the rules to help a sore horse recover quickly are no longer available in the brief window between races. She acknowledged the oversight is welcome in principle but said the pendulum has swung hard enough in one direction to create real friction for trainers trying to manage tight schedules.
Three Derby runners — Ocelli, Robusta, and Incredibolt — will contest Saturday’s Preakness despite finishing outside the winner’s circle at Churchill Downs. For the sport’s governing bodies, that reality raises a longer-term question about the commercial and competitive health of the Triple Crown as a unified series.
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