Golden Tempo’s Belmont Stakes victory is being hailed as both a historic breakthrough and a missed opportunity, depending on who is telling the story. The same race that cemented trainer Cherie DeVaux’s place in the record books also revived debate over what really counts as Triple Crown greatness.

Liberal-leaning outlets frame the win primarily as a landmark for gender progress in a tradition‑bound sport. The Guardian highlights how “Golden Tempo adds Belmont to Derby win as DeVaux makes more history,” stressing that she is the first woman to win multiple Triple Crown races and linking that milestone to her Saratoga roots.¹ CBS News likewise emphasizes that Golden Tempo’s Derby–Belmont double “made Cherie DeVaux the first woman to train a Kentucky Derby winner” and the second woman ever to train a Belmont winner, underlining the symbolic weight of her breakthrough in a still‑male‑dominated profession.²

Those stories also pitch the moment as historically rare in sporting terms. CBS notes that Golden Tempo became just the 13th horse to win both the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont, and describes the Belmont as the “third and final win of the Triple Crown,” rhetorically elevating the two‑race sweep despite the colt having skipped the Preakness.² The focus is on legacy, not what was left on the table.

Conservative‑leaning coverage pulls in the opposite direction, cutting against any implied coronation. Fox News opens by stressing that Golden Tempo “sat out the Preakness Stakes, forfeiting a shot at the Triple Crown,” framing the same campaign as a strategic choice rather than an unalloyed triumph.³ The piece foregrounds odds, payouts, and betting angles, listing exacta and trifecta returns and noting that Golden Tempo closed at 6‑1, aligning the story more with gambling economics than with social progress.³

Where liberal coverage celebrates DeVaux’s barrier‑breaking narrative and effectively stretches the idea of a Triple Crown moment, conservative coverage narrows the frame to tactics, money, and the fact that this was, in the end, two jewels—impressive, lucrative, but not the crown itself.

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