Shortly after bringing out Golden Tempo for the media, DeVaux ventured over to the adjacent stall to do the same with Grade 1 Woody Stephens presented by Mohegan Sun-winner Englishman, who earned a 115 Beyer for his 5 3/4-length trouncing of the seven-furlong sprint for sophomores.

The win, which made Saturday a special day for the barn even before Golden Tempo’s Belmont triumph, came on the heels of a pacesetting second to returning foe Crude Velocity in the Grade 2 Pat Day Mile on May 2 at Churchill Downs. The son of Maxfield had no trouble handling his familiar rival in the Woody Stephens, drawing clear of him in the lane for the win in a final time of 1:20.40, equaling the track record of 1:20 2/5 set by Darby Creek Road in 1978 when times were clocked only in fifths instead of hundredths.

“I’m not surprised that he ran so well,” DeVaux said. “I mean, you’re not expecting him to equal a track record, but he’s a horse that’s always had a ton of ability. He’s just naturally fast, and the Pat Day Mile was his first time really being challenged. I’m just glad to see that after that, he came and moved forward. He had an excuse to kind of regress, and he didn’t.”

With his name now among the top sprinters in the country, regardless of age, C R K Stable’s talented colt will target the Grade 1, $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial on August 29 here, with an eye to the Breeders’ Cup in October at Keeneland. DeVaux noted she is unsure if or where Englishman will have another start before the Jerkens.

“The main goal is the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, I think he’s one of the top horses – even though he’s three – sprinting in the country,” she said.

And while Golden Tempo and Englishman are the stars of the DeVaux barn, the conditioner made it clear that her love and respect for the horses runs through the entire roster of around 120 trainees.

“Having horses that run on Saturday afternoons the way the two did yesterday is what makes your career. We do this every day and have a stable full of horses, and we give the attention to those as we do with these two, but going out there and them winning on the big days, that’s what we work for when we go to the sales, and all the hard hours before they even come into my barn,” she said. “The buying, the breeding, the breaking process, all of that. We put a lot of work into it, and it means a lot when it comes to fruition, but we’re very much trying to do that with every horse, and they don’t have to be a top horse. It can be a claiming horse – we’re just trying to make them the best that they can be.”

source: NYRA