Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 3, 2026
Aly Sandel’s 14th birthday!
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Horses, brothers, proms and politics
In my Father’s house are many mansions.
About 45 minutes before the Kentucky Derby, the Super Bowl of horse racing, Andi facetimed us into their family’s pre-race conversations. The Derby gets us together every year. Miles and Jasper talked about their picks, and wondered if they should change them.
Aki            Emerging Market
Andi          Incredibolt
Miles         Renegade
Jasper        So Happy
Finn           Six Speed
Margaret   Further Ado
Dave          Robusta
How much excitement can you stand? The Tomita TV feed was five or ten seconds before ours, and while we watched Great White rear, throw off his rider and fall flailing on the ground, they watched the race start. Screaming!
Go Renegade! Go So Happy! And we were so happy to be watching and especially listening to the race with them. Golden Temple won at 23-1, trained by Cherie DeVaux, who became the first female trainer to win the Derby. Golden Temple also, by the way, won the Kentucky Oaks race on Friday. Two days running. And so Jose Ortiz became the ninth jockey in history to win the two Kentucky races on the same horse.
Asked about it afterward, he was Puerto Rican proud, and Puerto Rican humble. I thought that’s how Bad Bunny showed up at the NFL super bowl this year. Puerto Rico got some facetime at them both.
Jose’s brother Irad also raced on Saturday riding the race favorite Renegade. Both brothers charged into the finish line almost neck and neck. The Lexington Herald racing reporter got an interview:
Neither brother had won the Derby in a combined 19 starts. Now, Jose, the younger by a year, can walk away with familial bragging rights in addition to the career-defining victory. “Good for him, he ran second,” Jose said of his brother with a smile. “Hopefully he gets the opportunity to win it one day. But it wasn’t today.”
Of the 11 previous matchups between brother jockeys in the Derby, Jose and Irad accounted for eight. They had squared off in each of the past five Derbys, but neither had finished in the money since 2019. That year Jose finished third on Tacitus and Irad finished fourth on Improbable in the previous best combined finish for brother jockeys.
 Jose finished second on Good Magic in 2018, but Irad finished seventh on Hofburg. Entering Saturday, Irad appeared to have the better shot at the win. Renegade was the morning-line favorite and went off at 5-1. Golden Tempo was a longshot at 23-1.
Golden Tempo had used his closing style to win the Lecomte Stakes in his first race as a 3-year-old but finished third with the same strategy in the Risen Star Stakes and Arkansas Derby in his last two races before the Derby. He was last of the 18 horses more than 3/4 of a mile into the Derby. “It’s not like we really did anything different that he hadn’t done in his previous starts,” trainer Cherie DeVaux said. “There was a lot of speed on tap, on paper, and that materialized. I watched Jose come up and get himself in position going into the final turn, and at about the 3/16 pole, I thought we’re probably going to win this.”
The Derby win capped a historic weekend for Ortiz, who also won the Kentucky Oaks aboard Always a Runner on Friday. He is just the ninth jockey to win both of Churchill Downs’ signature races in the same year. He won six races across Friday and Saturday. “When you’re riding in a zone, it’s very good,” he said. “It seems like you make every right move, You move at the right time. I’m glad I had that this weekend. Some other times every move you make is wrong.
“I’m 32. I’m hitting kind of prime for a jockey. … I think I’m young still, but I’m very experienced. … I’m calm, trust my horses. Part of remaining calm is to have the confidence of the trainers I ride for, who believe in me, trust me, trust my judgment and let me ride the horse the way I want to ride my horses.” Ortiz won the Eclipse Award for outstanding jockey in 2017.
That year he won his first Triple Crown race on Tapwrit in the Belmont Stakes. He won the Preakness Stakes on Early Voting in 2022. He has won six Breeders’ Cup races, including the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Mile on More Than Looks, who was also trained by DeVaux. As one of the top jockeys in the world, Ortiz likely could have found his way onto a Derby horse with better odds than Golden Tempo.
Trainer Cheri DeVaux admitted to some apprehension when she called Ortiz’s agent to confirm he would be available to ride Golden Tempo in the Derby. “We always knew this horse had a lot of ability, but he’s very lazy, as you can see early in the race,” Ortiz said. “…(DeVaux) has been very loyal to me, so I feel like I should give that back. I knew always Golden Temple was gonna be my mount.” That confidence served Ortiz well when Golden Tempo appeared out of contention almost as soon as the race started.
He pointed to more experience in recent years at Churchill Downs as being key in identifying the points on the track when he needed to make his move. Knowing his brother’s horse was a closer who should be in contention for the win didn’t hurt either. Jose identified Renegade as one of the horses he should follow and imagined he would be battling his brother at some point, even if he didn’t expect it to be for the win. When Irad and Renegade made their move to the outside, Jose took Golden Tempo even farther outside.
“We came flying late,” Irad said. “But the winner just got the jump on me.”
And if you want to watch the race again, here it is. Golden Tempo is #19, and Renegade is #1. The horses, and the brothers, ran far behind for nearly all of the race. Golden Tempo was dead last. It’s fascinating to watch after hearing Jose describe his strategy. And after watching the brothers embrace seconds after they crossed the finish line.
Andi remembered a little of going to a track while our family made a few $1 bets on horses in Pennsylvania. On the way back from the Outer Banks and to visit our Stebbins cousins in Washington DC in the summer of 1995. She was 9, Marc 12, Chris 14. Margaret and I were … 45.
Today Andi, playing in the pool with her brother Chris, is shepherding three creative, enthusiastic sons. Chris and Melissa (and friends, one of whom spends lots of time working in the Illinois State Capitol) took lots of photos yesterday at Jack’s first prom. And their daughter Aly is 14 today. Oh, it is so so cool to watch the earth move from 1995 to 2026, two and a half decades of life after life after life, and praise God together for all of us.
And we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
 (Acts 6, Psalm 33, 1 Peter 2, John 14)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
