DeVaux (3 stakes wins!) takes MJC’s $50,000 trainer bonus
First Female to Top Standings Thanks to Friday Stakes Triple
Maryland Jockey Club release and photo
BALTIMORE – Her first career three-win day, all in stakes, helped earn Cherie DeVaux the top prize of $50,000 in the Maryland Jockey Club’s $100,000 trainer bonus offered to horsemen for their participation in stakes races over Preakness weekend, May 17 and 18, at historic Pimlico Race Course.
DeVaux is the first female to claim top honors. A former assistant to trainers Chuck Simon and Chad Brown, the upstate New York native went out on her own in 2018 and has won 170 races and more than $14 million in purses. DeVaux owns 11 graded-stakes victories including She Feels Pretty in the 2023 Natalma (G1) and Vehva in the May 4 Derby City Distaff (G1).
On the weekend, DeVaux started horses in five stakes and won with all three of her runners on Friday’s Black-Eyed Susan (G2) Day program – Pyrenees in the historic $250,000 Pimlico Special (G3), She Feels Pretty in the $100,000 Hilltop and Shotgun Hottie in the $100,000 Allaire du Pont Distaff. Her two starters on Saturday’s Preakness Stakes (G1) card were Blissful, who ran fourth in the $150,000 Gallorette (G3) and Beatbox, eighth in the $500,000 Dinner Party (G3).
DeVaux finished with a total of 34 points, four more than runner-up and four-time top bonus winner, Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen.
To be eligible for the bonus, trainers had to run a minimum of five horses in the 15 stakes, eight graded, worth $4.3 million in purses offered during Preakness weekend. Points were accumulated for finishing first (10), second (seven), third (five), fourth (three) and fifth through last (one).
The trainer with the most points earned $50,000, followed by $25,000 for second, $12,000 for third, $7,000 for fourth, $4,000 for fifth $2,000 for sixth.
This marked the eighth straight year the MJC has offered the trainer bonus program. Asmussen earned the top prize in 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2022. Brad Cox (2019), Mike Maker (2020) and Graham Motion (2023) have also led the standings.
Asmussen has won more races than any trainer in Thoroughbred history with over 10,500. He did not register a victory over Preakness weekend but ran second in the Hilltop with Just Ready; respectively third and fourth with Harlocap and Red Route One in the Pimlico Special; fifth with High Class in the $100,000 The Very One; eighth with Recharge in the $300,000 Black-Eyed Susan (G2); 11th with Closing Act in the $150,000 Miss Preakness (G3) – all on Friday – second with Cats by Five in the $200,000 Chick Lang (G3), third with Imperial Gun in the $100,000 Sir Barton and fifth with Jaxon Traveler in the $100,000 Maryland Sprint (G3) on Saturday.
