>> Hi and welcome to Inside Louisville where we introduce you to the people, places and things that make up Kentucky's largest city.

This week we go beyond the finish line at Churchill to meet horse trainer Cherie DeVaux, who made history winning the Kentucky Derby with Golden Tempo.

Now, she may not be from Kentucky, but you'll hear why she calls Kentucky home.

And we take a closer look at Churchill Downs beyond the Kentucky Derby, how the organization isworking to give back to the Louisville community and the thoroughbred racing industry, and that includes Second Stride, organization dedicated to helping those thoroughbreds after their racing career is over.

We'll take you there, too.

But first, take a look at the newest exhibit over at the Kentucky Derby Museum, dedicated to Golden Tempo.

And that historic derby win.

>> Golden Tempo her two.

[APPLAUSE] Year.

>> She was there when it happened, but when trainer Cherie DeVaux saw Golden Tempo Derbywin on the big screen theKentucky Derby Museum, she was brought to tears.

>> Walking through the museum has really brought.

I think, all of us back to a couple weeks ago, where Golden Tempo won the Derby.

It's been a really busy couple of weeks since, so I've been looking forward tocoming here and just letting it all sink in.

>> The 2025 Kentucky Derby winner is now prominently featured in the museum's winner's dedicated exhibit showing fans the journey from Sherry's lucky shoes and jacket to the Kentucky Derby trophy.

>> It's really important to have the whole team highlighted and spotlighted because in the nature of the business that we do, we can't do it without every single person.

So, you know, thank you to everybody and.

>> Cherie DeVaux is here joining us.

I am so excited to have you here.

I know busy, busy person, which is why we haveto connect remotely.

But so tell us, just going back to that time, we just saw that video of you emotional at the Kentucky Derby Museum, seeing Golden Tempo in that winner's circle.

What's it like for you now?

Almost, >> Almost a year removed, almost.

>> Well, it is been a busy summer with with Golden Tempo and everything kind of just nature of our business.

We gear up to November or end of October for our championships.

So really still setting in.

Hopefully after Breeders Cup we can take a little breath, all of us, and we can reallyjust feel what it like, really what it means to us.

It's special, but it just really continues to set in little by little as time passes.

>> Going back to exhibit, I want you to tell us the story about those fabulous shoes.

>> So I have a knee replacement, which kind of limits some of theshoes.

I used to like wearing little heels or, you know, just littlesomething to be a little bit different.

I think I joke that as a female, we get to do some fun, more fun things than guys.

So I always said, you know, I'd like to get a pair of custom horse that has has his face on it.

And so we did.

And little did I know that they would be part of history.

>> They are.

Yeah.

And the jacket you were wearing too is now on display at the Kentucky Derby Museum, which is such a cool part of the story.

I think.

>> Yeah, yeah.

No, it's fun.

It's it's I have pinch me moments that did I ever think a pair of a bracelet of mine would be part of history?

No, but it is the case.

>> Yeah.

How has life changed for you since that derby win?

I expect dramatically.

>> Most definitely.

So I always preface what I'm about to say with I couldn't take a compliment to save my life before this, and that hasn't changed.

So it's very awkward for me when people come up and recognize me, just not theKentucky area.

I've been in Florida, I've been in airports, and it's just a bit profound that people have such an emotional reaction to it.

And yeah, so that's been a little bit of getting used to.

>> Yeah.

I mean, you're internationallyfamous now.

And, and I know I've heard some interviews with you where you said, youknow, I didn't set out to make history.

And that is, trainer to win the Kentucky Derby.

But that and that's a narrative you've you've kind of learned, I guess, to lean into from people that you've heard from.

>> Well, yeah, I don't take for granted that winning the Kentucky Derby and being in a business that is underrepresented by women is a huge milestone.

And I actually have of responsibilitythatcomes with that.

And just because I didn't set out to doit, something like this as a female doesn't mean that other females don't see that as a source of inspiration.

So it's incredibly profound to me that I get that honor.

And I hope that, you know, those that that do feel a little bit of inspiration and it go out and that that's something that's super special.

>> Yeah.

And I, I'd heard you say too, that you have young girls and women coming up to yousaying like,you're an inspiration and something that, that, and that surprised you in andof itself.

>> It did.

Again, I've said this a few times that I didn't really allow myself to dream that we would win the especially on the first trip.

I was just hoping that Golden Temple would have a goodrace.

So really kind of took me for a loop when he won.

And what that meant.

I'm just a person that likesto set realistic expectations, and maybe it would have been better for me mentally ifI if I actually dreamed that we would win.

It's just because the Derby is such a huge event and it's bigthing and it's so meaningful.

But yeah, no, it is, it is.

And and it's somuch fun.

It's, it's fun to see little girls with this little spark when they come up to me and talk tome and, and want to meet me.

And it's, you know, it gives me a lot of joy that I wasn't exactly anticipating.

>> Yeah, I bet, I bet.

So tell me about your background.

You're not from Kentucky, but you've grown to call Kentucky home >> Yeah.

So I was kind of a bit here,there and everywhere.

I was born in New York, raised in Southwest Florida, and it's funny, I have my best friend from college in Florida.

She lives in Seymour, Indiana.

So it's about an hour from Louisville.

And one time I came and visited her and I was just getting into the race track and I said, wouldn't it be fun if I movedto Louisville and working at Churchill, and I moved toKentucky, and little did I know, that would be my life.

I, I did, I, I came to Louisville my first year of galloping horses and kind of when I dedicated myself to the craft of, you know, working in the thoroughbred industry and I lived there for six years in that area on and off.

And I always wanted to come home.

Kentucky felt like home.

I met my Lexington, and so that was an easy, easy choice for me to get married and move backto Kentucky.

>> Yeah.

So talk about living here in Louisville and working at Churchill Downs.

How how was that an integral part of your story?

>> So it just, I actually live in Lexington, but when I did live in Louisville, it, you know, I just loved loved the city.

I everyone is for horse racing in Kentucky.

And that extends Louisville to every part of of the state really.

But it it just everyone's been so friendly and welcoming.

And I just feel like that was really the main aspect that got me hitched to it.

Yeah, to living here.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

So and on in that same vein, how about Churchill Downs and what's I think a lot of understand the real community that is.

Churchill Downs.

So explain a little bit about what it what it's like being part of that community.

>> So Churchill Downs is wonderful.

One of the greatest things about winning the Derby and, and having my career take me back here, is that a lot of the same people that were at Churchill when I was bright eyed, bushy tailed 22 year are still working there.

So they have watched me grow from this, you know, little young, right?

Fresh out of college, up to up to where I am now.

And when when we won it, it was like a win for all of them.

Like I was their sister or their long time friend or, you know, daughter.

So that's exciting.

And, and the race and Churchill Downs itself, it's unique inthe fact that a lot of other there's quite a bit of turnover and Churchill Downs that's not there's a lot ofthe same folks that have worked there now that have worked there over 20 years ago.

That's unique in, in, in our industry with so many moving parts.

And you get that sense of community because they're invested, they're invested in Churchill Downs, they're invested in the folks that work there.

Theyhave backside learning.

great chaplaincy program.

So they, they do become invested because that is their family and extension of their family.

>> And so as far as what's next for you, what what are wegoing to see you doing next?

>> True.

Hopefully taking a vacation.

>> Yeah, you've earned it.

>> Yeah.

A lot of our two year olds are getting started,which is exciting because we're looking for the next Golden Tempo.

be a mic dropmoment, that I'd do a one and done at the Derby, but I don't think that's the case.

So we're looking, you know, looking for the next year's Derby and Oaks.

Maybe we can add Oaks to the resume now.

And you know, just really lookingforward to taking a breath and starting to work on things that are a bit more meaningful to me.

Want to do a charity and I justhaven't had the time to reallysit down and put pen into an actionable.

Thing, yet Louisville is a great city, and it's been sokind to me, and I'm really blessed and grateful for that.

>> Well, you know, a lot of different people have a lot of different connections to Churchill Downs.

And that is why we are talking withMark Whitten, director of community relations.

So I want to ask you first about a new campaign you guys are focused on kind of getting these stories from people and how Churchill Downs is such a part of the fabric of our community.

This is called my Churchill.

So explain.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

And I think you hitthe nail on the head when you said that Churchill Downs is such an integral part of the fabric of this community.

And one of the things that we had the thought of is because we are so involved in this community that everybody has a story about Churchill Downs, everybody in Louisville, most people in Kentucky, you know, when you think of Churchill thinkof whether it be your first experience, whether it be your best experience, whether it be your most recent experience.Everybody's got a story.

And so we are excited to engage in this campaign and gathering people's stories and what they remember.

Churchill forand what they've done.

And, you know, Derby in 1994 or whatever that might be.

And we're excited to seewhere that goes.

>> Yeah, there are a lot of different stories.

So that's going to be that goes.

But this is part of a broader initiative by Churchill Downs for community engagement in a lot of differentways.

And you all have identified three specific areas that you all want to touch on.

And so tell us about those.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

And one of the things thatwe have really tried to do this year is knock down our focus areas into, again, those three specific buckets because werealize if we want tomake an the community, we need to be doing it in a targeted and focusedway.

We need to have a plan and be intentional about the nonprofits we're engaging with, about the communities that we're investing in.

And so alongwiththat, we've released three new pillars, the first of whichis neighborhood investment, right in the neighborhood surrounding our properties.

So here in Louisville,we've got three properties.We have the track, we have Derby on Poplar Level Road, and we have Derby City Gaming downtown.

And so our focus in that bucket is to really invest in that downtown area and South Louisville.

And so we're taking care of the neighborsright in our backyard.

We're investing in things like neighborhood projects, neighborhood cleanups, we're investing in education initiatives that are specific to those areas and things like that.

So that's the first bucket.

Thesecond general economic development.

The reason for that is because we fully believe that in order forany city, especially Louisville, to be a vibrant place tolive and work and raisea family, we need tohave a thriving economy,a thriving downtown, a thriving culture scene, and wewant to make sure that we're a part of contributing to that.

And then the third one is support of our industry.

You know, our equine athletes, our jockeys give so much to us and to that we want to make sure that we're taking care of them after their career on the track.

And so that's supporting things like thoroughbred aftercare, like the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund and things that will makethoroughbred racing sustainablefor generations to come.

>> Yeah.

And so tell me about the inception of this.

Where did this come from and, and why now?

>> Yeah.

So what we realized is we've beenoperating in this community since 1875.

You know, we've been herefor as of next May, it'll be 153 years.

And so that's not an insignificant amount of time.

And so we realized that we want to be making sure we're making the most targeted impact that we can in the community thattakes care of us.

You know, we, Louisville and the South End community and Louisville as a whole have really been there for us.

As for the past years and making surethat we have a home here and that we can do what we do.

And so we want to make sure that we are giving back to them too.

And so we realized in order to do that, it's a really good idea to actually have some targeted focus areas so that we can accomplish some real change.

>> Yeah.

Talk a little bit more about the, the neighborhood there around Churchill Downs, because I think itis a really stark contrast between this beautiful facility.

Downs, and the neighborhood around it.

So what does that look like investing in that neighborhood?

>> Yeah, absolutely.

We are incredibly proud to be in the South End in those South Louisville neighborhoods that have been there for so long.

And we just love our neighborhood.

And so we want to make sure that it's the best that it can be.

And so that involves things like building relationships with our neighbors, that involves things like neighborhood cleanup.

We have Corporation that come out every year after Derby and help our team put on a wide neighborhood cleanup throughthe whole area as a way tosay, you know, thank you for putting up with us disruptingyourneighborhood for an entire week in May.

And so we're going totake that and we're going to actually invest back in making itclean and cleaning itup after that.

So things likethat.

We also partner with a lot of nonprofits here in Louisville that are focusing their work specifically on that part of town, whether that be, again, New Directions Housing Corporation, because they do a lot with their what's called repair affair program.

And so what that is, is free home repairs for elderly folks that couldn't necessarily afford theirhome repairs.

It allows them to age in place.

It allows the community to take care of their own, essentially.

And so that's a really big way that we invest.

We've done things with a lot of thelocal school districts down there,you know, specifically Semple Elementary, Frazier Elementary, Jacob Elementary.

We've done things where we'll bring some kids out to the backside to reach a horsewith.

I would rather be reading or we've done things like they did a tree planting out there on Longfield Avenue with trees.

Louisville.

there's just a whole bunch of different things that we try to do to make sure that the South End community is a great place to live andwork.

>> Yeah.

So, you know, Churchill Downs is such a part of the Louisville community, like we mentioned, and Louisville is such a part of Churchill.

Downs.

So how does that relationship work in a bigger picture of the the partnership >> Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I think we have a wonderful relationship with the city.

We're verythankful for the mayor and for Metro Council and for everybody that's involved in being a stakeholder here in theLouisville community.

And so that second bucket is really kind of that response to that right economic development piece.

We realized that Louisville is a special place.

It's a it's a really interesting vibrant.

It's a great place to raise a family.

And so we want to makesure that it continues to be that way, thatwe are drawingin talent across sectors from across the the country, acrossthe world, to make sure that Louisville is a great place for them to call home.

And so a big part of that is supporting downtown development, because we want to seea thriving Louisville.

Part ofthat is supporting things like festivals and cultural affairs, like the Kentucky Derby Festival, for instance, because we want to make sure that those institutions stay in our city supporting things that involve and invest into the entire city.

>> And then when it comes to the thoroughbred aftercare organizations, I know this has been a big push for youall recently, getting into some of those aftercare organizations and helping the these athletes.

After their racing career is over.

So, and one of those things isgallop for good.

So tell us about that.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

So this year we were really, really thrilled to have the inaugural year of gallop for good, which was a nationalonline day of giving specifically to support thoroughbred aftercare.

We realize at Churchill Downs and not just at Churchill Downs, but at horse racingtracks all over the country.

We realize that our thoroughbred athletes are giving so much to our sport during their racing career.

They are training so hard.

They are making sure that they're doing their best every day.

When they show up on the racetrack.

And so we want to be a part of the solution to making surethat those thoroughbred athletes have a great life after they retire.

Thoroughbred horses can live into them are retired from racing.

But by the time they're ten yearsold.

And sothere's a really significant part of their life in which they aren't racing.

And we want to make sure thatthat second part of their life is just as meaningful as the first.

Yeah.

So with that, we introduced thoroughbred orexcuse me, gallop for good.

And it was a national online day of giving.

We did it this year on Stephen Foster Stakes Day.

really privileged to raise over $300,000 for thoroughbred aftercare.

>> Wow.

And so what type?

Where does that money go to organizationsin our area specifically?

>> Some of them are in our area.

Some of them have been around the country.

So we actually had a couple of aftercare organizationsfrom as far away as Californiaand Puerto Rico that were involved in this day.

And the great thing about it is that they could engage their donors, their network, and fundraise through this platform.

And so it gave thoroughbred industry.Excuse me, thoroughbred aftercare organizations, the tools to do that across the country.

We did partner specifically with a couple here in Louisville, specifically thoroughbred Retirement Foundation and Second Stride, both of which are doing some great workout in prospect.

>> Yeah.

So Second Stride is one So tell us about the partnership with that organization.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

Second Stride is a great organization.

They do amazing things in the thoroughbred aftercare space.

They are up in prospect out on the way to Goshen at ChorleywoodFarm, and they have several horses out there that they are either trying to rehome or retrain into maybe a second career some of them as well that just stay and live at the facility.

Andit's areally great way to make sure that those arethose those horses are havinga great life after they retire.

>> Yeah, itwas really cool for us to see that side of it.

Of thoroughbred racing, because a lotof people don't think of that like, what happens to these horses after the fact?

Well, Second Stride, as we mentioned, sanctuary, it also offers rehabilitation, retraining, and then ultimately adoption.

And so we had the chance to visit their farm.

As you mentioned, in Oldham County.

Here's a look inside.

Second Stride.

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] What does it look likewhen a proathlete reaches retirement?

>> Good boy.

Super.

>> Well, in Kentucky, most of the professional athletes here are thoroughbred racehorses.

>> Look >> Kentucky is the largest producer of thoroughbreds.

It's a it's a $4 billion.

Economy to the state.

We have 85% of the broodmares in.

In the United States.

Live in Kentucky.

>> But a horse's racing career can only last five years at most.

And most thoroughbreds will live much longer.

>> This is Ori.

So Ori is a little gelding.

>> All the horseshere have been born.

They are treated like royalty.

They're developed like real athletes.

And then something happens.

Finances.

They're hurt or they finally say, I don't want to gate anymore.

That's where they transition.

Here to Second Stride.

Andwe basically give them another Second Stride.

>> Founded in 2005, the nonprofit has helped more than 2000 horses find their well Second Stride.

that means a new career.

>> The new jobs are endless for thoroughbreds because they are an athletic and versatile breed.

They've done military reenactment, search and rescue work, physical therapy.

They'll use them for with learning programs for disabilities.

We've had them go on to do polo, polo, lacrosse, just about any kind of career trail riding, family horses.

There's something foreveryone in this breed because of their versatility.

>> Kim Smith is the executive director and founder of Second Stride.

She created the organization to fill a gap she saw in the industry.

Jeannie.

>> The industry, the thoroughbred racing industry has this unique problem where they have hundreds of horses at the racetrack training here in Kentucky for jobs to race.

It's fun.

It's industry.

But where do they go when they either are not fast enough to compete or their owner doesn't want to race them?

Or they have some sort of a limiting ability that keeps them off the racetrack.

>> See,you can doit.

>> At Second Stride.

These thoroughbreds get professionally evaluated, rehabilitatedif needed, and then assessed to find out what they are best suited >> Once they get here and we'll put them in a round pen for a few days,which is a 60 by 60 circle for them, and theycan run and buck and jump and kick anddo all the things burnoff that energy, realize they don't have to go to workevery day.

And that and they're, their attitudes and energy levels just drop.

It doesn't take long for them to really decompress and retirement.

Yeah, it's retirement.

>> But getting these athletes into their Second Stride takes resources.

>> The thoroughbreds, when they come tous, they don't make us any money.

We're funded off of grants and private donations and community corporate sponsors.

It costs us roughly about $2,200 a month per horse, and we keep about 30 to 40 horses in the program.

So just to maintain the grooming, riding, all the things, it's quite expensive.

>> That's where Churchill Downs comes in.

Corporate sponsors, small grants and individual donations arewhat keep after care organizations like Second Stride running.

>> It's the transition.

It's taking the athlete, finding a good home and knowing that the care and the management that these guys do is really special.

>> Because it's what after the finish line that might be the most special part of all.

>> You know, they'll live to be 30 and they, you know, racing's maybe 1% of their entire lifespan and they've got a long time.

They usually retire by age five at the most, really.

So they've got a lot of life left todo and a lot of love to give.

Come on.

>> Good boy.

>> You can stream and this episode anytime.

You can find it online at ket.org slash Inside Louisville.

Plus, follow us onsocial media.

You can see some of those horses up close and personal.

Yes, they still love being in the spotlight.

You can find us on Instagram at KETN LOU.

Thanks for spending a little time getting to know Louisville.I hope we'll see you here nexttime.

Until then, make it a great week.