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The Kentucky Derby 2026 results and payouts are in after Saturday’s race
The Kentucky Derby 2026 results are in, and Golden Tempo won the 152nd running at Churchill Downs in a furious finish.
Renegade finished second, followed by the 70-1 longshot Ocelli in third and Chief Wallabee in fourth place.
Golden Tempo was near the back of the pack until the final turn, when a strong finish put the horse with 23-1 odds just across the finish line ahead of the second-place finisher. It was a historic result, with Cheri Devaud becoming the first woman trainer to train a Kentucky Derby winner.
The Kentucky Derby took place under dry but cool conditions, with a relatively open field that had no outright favorite. The race had a shifting field, with a total of five horses scratched leading up to the race.
Kentucky Derby Results Are In
It can often take up to 15 or 30 minutes to fully verify the Kentucky Derby results and payouts, especially if there are any infractions to investigate. That was the case in 2019, when winner Maximum Security was disqualified for interference and breaking stride with other horses.
The Kentucky Derby results were expected to be wide open, with several horses stacked together with similar odds. So Happy was the favorite in the minutes before the race, coming in at 5-to-1 odds. Renegade, Commandment, and Further Ado were all closely behind at 6-to-1 odds, while Chiefs Wallabee had 7-to-1 odds. But the odds flipped quickly, with So Happy falling to the fourth-highest odds just before the starting gun.
The start of the race was delayed after Great White, a late entry into the race, reared and fell to the track. After being examined by veterinarians on site, Great White was scratched and the horses — some of them already loaded into the starting gate — were given more time to warm up.
The Kentucky Derby field had already changed in the days leading up to the race, with five horses being scratched — The Puma, Right to Party, Silent Tactic, Fulleffort, and Corona de Oro.
The scratches led to a late change in odds for the race. The Puma was seen as a favorite heading into Saturday, Cameron Drummond of the Lexington Herald Leader reported.
“On Saturday morning, The Puma — one of the trendy picks to win this year’s Grade 1, $5 million Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville — scratched out of the race,” Drummond reported. “The Puma, who is trained by Gustavo Delgado and was to be ridden by Javier Castellano, is out of the race due to a swollen pastern left front and skin infection.”
The Puma’s scratch left the field with just 19 horses.
Kentucky Derby Takes Place in Cool Conditions
While there was no significant rain for horses to contend with like some past years, this year’s Kentucky Derby results came amid a cool snap in Kentucky. As the Courier-Journal reported, it was one of the coldest years in recent memory.
“Visitors at Churchill Downs are facing chilly temperatures and light showers Saturday, with a predicted high near 56 degrees. And Derby-goers are right to note it’s not usually this cold,” the report noted. “The last time the high was below 60 degrees on Derby Day was 1989, when the high was just 51 degrees and sleet muddied the track, according to historical data from the National Weather Service.”
The all-time record low for a Kentucky Derby was 47 degrees, set in 1935 and 1957.
“Still, highs below 60 on Derby Day — as is forecasted today — have only happened 11 times since the first race in 1875,” the report noted. “By comparison, temps reached a high of 65 degrees in 2025 and 83 degrees in 2024. The warmest Derby was in 1959, when Louisville saw a high of 94 degrees.”
Nathan Dougherty is a sports reporter covering the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Buffalo Bills, Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins. Previously he wrote for the Rochester Business Journal and served as the assistant editor of athletic trade magazines Coaching Management, Athletic Management and Training & Conditioning. He is based out of Rochester, New York, and loves everything football. More about Nathan Dougherty
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