DeVaux Keeping up the Tempo

[Wandering Eyes]

Perhaps the most salient aspect of Cherie DeVaux's 1-2 in one of the first GI Kentucky Derby rehearsals was that it didn't particularly feel like any kind of statement. It was just the sort of thing that now feels natural for a barn that took only six years to go from its first winner to a $10-million campaign, and has just housed its first Eclipse champion in She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}).

By sheer force of talent, DeVaux has rapidly dismantled some pretty lazy characterizations. She is no longer, for instance, described as a trailblazing female trainer. Yes, we can still admire how she has overcome gender bias in a male-dominated profession. But she is now a top trainer who happens to be female. By the same token, while she remains grateful to have one of the world's most accomplished bloodstock agents as a sounding board, people no longer know her as David Ingordo's wife, but Ingordo as DeVaux's husband.

She is here, quite palpably, on her own terms. That said, even DeVaux is startled at the rate of her progress since saddling her first winner in 2019. “If you'd said back then that by now we'd have had a Breeders' Cup winner, multiple Grade Is, an Eclipse champion, I might have looked at you like you had eight heads,” she says. “I think I felt it would happen eventually, but it just seemed that once we got over the hump, right away things kept happening.”

She has been around long enough, equally, to know that graphlines seldom run evenly. This time last year, she had just said farewell to the horse she will always cherish as responsible for her breakout–and More Than Looks (More Than Ready) really was a statement horse–and then had a dismal hometown meet at Keeneland last spring. But this is a lifelong horsewoman. She knows how the game can go and, perhaps most crucial to her rise, has ensured that her clientele are the right fit.

“All along I've been really cognizant of trying to maintain my core values,” DeVaux stresses. “Which is to develop each horse, individualize the care to make them the best they can be, whether that means a Grade I winner or an allowance horse or just a nice one that can win a couple in the claiming ranks. Sometimes, in the very beginning, that could be hard. Hopefully people are realizing that the climate has changed, in the way we need to operate, but if you don't have the numbers, and a horse has problems, some people might be tempted to inject their way to pushing on. That was something I never did. And I think that just focused a lot of the clients that I still have now: they've been on board, they've been patient, and they've seen how it works out in the long term.

She Feels Pretty with DeVaux on the pony | Sarah Andrew

“There is always a learning curve with any new client. We can be best friends, go to dinner, but maybe my philosophies won't fit their expectations–and that's okay. It doesn't make one person wrong. It's just about making sure you have a good fit, for both of you. So I've always tried to say up front, here's how I operate and if this isn't for you, that's okay. My feelings won't get hurt, certainly not compared to somebody trying to get me to run in a spot I feel isn't right for the horse.”

That kind of curation, of horse and owner alike, sits comfortably with DeVaux's desire to confine growth to quality rather than quantity. This is not a trainer who wants hundreds of horses in three different time zones. Selectivity is key. She not only wants clients on the same page but also expects to be pragmatic about cycling through quality. If a horse doesn't warrant its place in the barn, then it will be time to discuss a reset.

That creates a kind of renewable energy that seems legible in an excellent start to 2026. All seven of her January winners at Fair Grounds have barely started their careers: three breaking their maidens second time out; another on debut; two following up debut wins in an allowance; and even when 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' Golden Tempo (Curlin) beat Mesquite (Union Rags) in the GIII Lecomte Stakes, both were inexperienced horses stepping out of maidens.

“In the beginning, we had what we had and worked with that,” DeVaux reflects. “Now we're getting a higher level. And, with the best of them, it's not just the next race coming up in the book. You're drawing up campaigns, you see their big target, work backwards. You dial them up, dial them back. A horse like She Feels Pretty, you know she shows up every time she runs. So that's where relationships with the clients and farms are great, you can all work together so each horse is where it needs to be when coming in.”

Tristan and Val de Meric, for instance, are credited for their groundwork with the newly minted champion turf female, who has a hometown Breeders' Cup beckoning at the end of the year. On her only previous start at Keeneland, She Feels Pretty won the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup by six lengths. At Del Mar she saw off the European raiders until the very last strides, but second still took her earnings past $2.5 million and she is approaching a peak of maturity.

“She's an interesting study,” DeVaux says of her physical development. “She is a completely different horse from when she came in: big, rangy, lots of substance. That wasn't always the case. There were times she would get really light, and then all of a sudden she'd be taller and longer. A lot of getting her to where she is now was about backing off, when she was going through a growth spurt, and only pushing when she was ready.”

A perfect example, then, of working with the individual and keeping discipline for an optimal path to development. That's why DeVaux especially relishes the spring, when the 2-year-olds come in and start offering some clues as to where they need to go together.

“That's my favorite time, their early works,” DeVaux says. “You'll see one that looks afraid of getting close to his company and if you didn't know any better, you'd think that you might be in trouble. Then, a week later, completely different experience. He's on the inside, goes right through a hole. That's so rewarding, the 'a-ha!' moment: 'Oh, okay, I can do this.'”

DeVaux with husband David Ingordo at the sales | Keeneland

This, of course, is an operation with an unusually close handle on that development curve: not many trainers debate the scouting of talent at the sales with their spouses over breakfast. Obviously Ingordo has clients across the board, but it has clearly been fulfilling for both to move DeVaux's wish-list up the catalogue each passing year.

“Might have to find a new bloodstock agent if we don't have a few to be excited about!” DeVaux says with a grin. “Our biggest challenge is that we're both really intense. So if one person's going to be upset and disappointed, then the other has to take their turn as voice of reason and be realistic. Because it's not just stakes races. It's every race, every sale. So if we got a bad ride, a bad post, somebody needs to say, 'That just happens, it's luck.' You can't have two people saying it's the end of the world. That would be like two horses running off together; it's not going to end up well for either!

“We've both worked really hard, and sometimes it feels like it has all been the blink of an eye. At some point you do have to think, 'We need to make sure we have some quality of life.' Our work-home life balance is always going to be skewed towards work, but I'm good at saying, 'No, it's 7 p.m., we're not talking about this. Send a text or email and we'll revisit it in the morning.'”

A bigger sales budget should help DeVaux to avoid any kind of turf pigeonholing. After all, these big dirt pedigrees cost big money. “And to get those kinds of horses, you have to prove yourself,” DeVaux adds. “The first couple of years we bought quick, early horses from the 2-year-old sales. Now we're trying to get more Classic horses. But everyone has to earn their stripes, to get those opportunities.”

To that extent, Vahva (Gun Runner) laid down a significant marker as a Grade I winner on dirt. She, too, finished second at the Breeders' Cup, but DeVaux acknowledges that More Than Looks may have consumed a fair proportion of luck winning the Mile the previous year. He was quite a high-wire act, to get there at his peak, and it was only a couple of days later that DeVaux noticed the problem that led to his retirement.

More Than Looks | Horsephotos

“I always had faith in him but you were always having to do everything perfectly,” she says. “And when does a plan like that ever work? Never. I can still see it in my mind, almost in slow motion: 'Can you please switch your lead!?' He took forever to do that, but then as soon as he got going, 'Oh my God, he's going to win.' Something like that, it validates what you're doing every day.”

Her thoughts in the winner's circle went straight to Chuck Simon, her mentor, who had died that summer.

“Really I owe everything to him,” DeVaux says. “Chuck's first job was with my father and his harness horses. I was two, maybe. And when I started working on the racetrack, galloping at Saratoga, a friend said she had a job for me, to come and gallop for this guy, she'd take care of it. So the first week, after I gave my information for payroll, he's like, 'Hey, why didn't you tell me who you were?' I said, 'I don't need any favors. I just want to work and learn.'”

Cherie DeVaux at Saratoga | Sarah Andrew

That December, she broke her leg–the luckiest break of her life. “I was 23 and Chuck could see that I was a hard worker, driven and motivated, but needed blinkers,” DeVaux says. “So when I came back from that injury, he said he was going to teach me to be assistant trainer. I didn't think I wanted that responsibility. But he was like, no, this was what was going to happen. He saw it in me and thought it was almost like a civic duty. I was there six years. We had limited horses, so that's where the patience came in: do what you can with what you have.”

Of course, she had an earlier grounding yet, with her father's Standardbreds.

“Those are sturdier, hardier animals,” she reflects. “But it's all horsemanship, all hard work. I come from a long line of horsemen. My grandfather was a harness trainer. I rode my whole life. I used to barrel race and I had a mare that was so hard to ride. I'd be flying through the air at some rodeo and it was just 'get out of my way.' A couple times I tried to school her, it just made her worse. So it's different perspectives. Okay, we're not fixing that one, let's try to find how to get along with her. It's always learning. I'm super intense, as a person. Horses can be frustrating, when things go wrong like they will. But you just have to keep the 'mo' going, no matter what. Be positive. So long as you're doing the right thing, then don't panic and just keep moving forward.”

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