How Much Money Did Golden Tempo Win at Belmont Stakes? Plus Full Payouts for Each Horse

Golden Tempo was jockeyed by Jose Ortiz, seen celebrating above. | Al Bello/Getty Images

It really is Golden Tempo’s year.

The 2026 Kentucky Derby winner continued his banner run during the Belmont Stakes in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. on Saturday evening, where he again took the top prize after outrunning favorite Renegade and second-place finisher Commandment. The thoroughbred horse—owned by Vinne Viola, trained by Cherie DeVaux and jockeyed by Jose Ortiz—has now won two out of the three Triple Crown events after opting to sit out of the Preakness Stakes, and is also the second horse to win multiple Triple Crown races since Justify won the Triple Crown in 2018.

His final time was 2:03.49.

Golden Tempo has done it!!

The Kentucky Derby winner wins the @belmontstakes! pic.twitter.com/T5ee0ryuuT

— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) June 6, 2026

“Golden Tempo is amazing. Jose is amazing,” DeVaux said of the win, per The Associated Press. “I think he needed to do this to kind of show that he was meant to win the Derby and that he is a horse that belongs in that conversation of being one of the top 3-year-olds.”

The full purse at the Belmont is $2 million, which is distributed across the race’s eight places. As the top finisher, Golden Tempo received $1.2 million, which brings his Triple Crown earnings to $4.3 million on the year. Here's a look at how each horse and its team fared both in the standings and financially:

Horse	Place	Payout
Golden Tempo	1st	$1.2 million
Commandment	2nd	$360,000
Renegade	3rd	$200,000
Chief Wallabee	4th	$100,000
Emerging Market	5th	$60,000
Growth Equity	6th	$40,000
Vitruvian Man	7th	$20,000
Ottinho	8th	$20,000
Powershift	9th	$0

Why didn't Golden Tempo race in the Preakness?

Golden Tempo and his team opted to rest rather than race in the Preakness, which is becoming an increasingly common move as of late.

“Golden gave us the race of a lifetime in the Kentucky Derby, and we believe the best decision for him moving forward is to give him a little more time following such a tremendous effort. His health, happiness and long-term future will always remain our top priority,” DeVaux, Golden Tempo’s trainer, wrote in a statement on May 6, two weeks following the Derby.

Forde: History-Making Horse Trainer Cherie DeVaux Isn’t for Everyone. But She Did It Anyway.

Golden Tempo is the second consecutive Derby winner to skip the Preakness, and also the third Derby winner to do so in the last five years (most recently, Sovereignty and trainer Bill Mott opted against the famed race in 2025; like Golden Tempo, Sovereignty would win the Belmont that same year).

All three legs of the Triple Crown are contested within a tight, five-week period, which can be quite brutal on a Thoroughbred's body. In skipping leg two, the horse gets an actual chance to recover before taking on the stakes again for Belmont.

Racing authorities could shift the calendar if they really wanted, but the Triple Crown is also a time-honored achievement that's meant to be difficult (only 13 horses in history have done it, with the most recent being Justify in 2018). Is it more important to keep the tradition or maximize participation?

“It’s not something I'm going to think about,” DeVaux said Saturday, asked if Golden Tempo could’ve found himself among that upper echelon if given the chance. “We made our decision and he won today and we're going to be happy about that.”

---