Barn Tour: Cherie DeVaux is winning 50% at Saratoga

Is Cherie DeVaux's budding stable coming into full bloom?

Consider this: After working as an assistant for Chad Brown, she saddled her first winner in 2018 and has $3.2 million in earnings from 312 starts. This year, she has earnings of $1.5 million from 111 starts.

Her Saratoga record also shows growth. She got off to a good start in her first meet at the Spa last year, with a record of 0-3-2 from five starts. This year, she has three wins from six starts.

One of those wins came when Bayerness, a 4-year-old filly, scored in the listed Shine Again Stakes last week.

DeVaux provided updates on Bayerness and other top horses in her stable for the latest edition of Horse Racing Nation's Barn Tour features.

Bayerness, who has a 10: 4-1-3 record under DeVaux. "She came out of the race in good shape, we're going to point her towards the Ballerina," a Grade 1 race at Saratoga on Aug. 28. "But she has to be doing just as good if not better going into that race for that level of competition. She's back on track. We'll have to see how she's breathing and how her condition is."

Another option is the Gallant Bloom, DeVaux said Tuesday. "She's run there well," finishing third in the Bed o' Roses (G3) in June.

Blissful, a 2-year-old who won her debut at 1 1/16 miles on Aug. 1 at Saratoga. "Blissful came out with just a minor issue. We're not going to be able to make the P.G. Johnson, but she should be fine to point her towards something like the Miss Grillo (G2, Oct. 2 at Belmont) or the Jessamine (G2, Oct. 13 at Keeneland)."

Tarabi, another 2-year-old who won on debut, with a 5 1/2-length win at six furlongs at Ellis Park on Friday. "Tarabi came out of the race in good shape. She arrived at Saratoga this morning," DeVaux said. "The plan had always been to let her run at Ellis and if she ran as impressive as she trained that we would bring her to Saratoga to point her towards the Spinaway (G1, Sept. 5). … She's trained really forwardly and really nicely and acted like she had a lot of ability. Blissful was a little different. We were a bit surprised because we thought she would need the race and the experience. Turabi we felt pretty confident that she would run as well as she did."

Coastana, a 4-year-old filly who began racing in January and has a 5: 2-2-0 record, with an allowance win at Saratoga on Friday. "Coastana came out of her race in good shape. We have to just see. They have the Waya (G3, 1 3/8 miles) at Belmont. We would just wait for the right race for her, which is a (longer) distance. We'll just have to see. I actually need to look at the stakes schedule in Canada for something for her. But I'm weighing different options, something like the Waya. But it needs to be the right distance for her because running her shorter than a mile and a quarter is not going to do her any good, especially in stakes."

Reagan's Edge, a 4-year-old filly who has not won since May 2020 and finished seventh in the Honorable Miss (G2) on July 28. "We're going to regroup with Reagan's Edge. She really hasn't shown as much interest in racing as she did last year. Give her a break just because she had a tough campaign. And she's really just been a bit disappointing with her effort in the Honorable Miss, so we're going to regroup with her and point her towards an allowance race."

Gam's Mission, a 3-year-old who started the year with three straight wins and finished fifth in the Saratoga Oaks (G3) on Sunday. "Her race at Saratoga was her first disappointing effort. So we're just going to monitor her. So far she looks OK. The distance, it doesn't look like she wants to go that far. And she tried at Belmont. Here at Saratoga, she just took a step back. So we just really need to focus and make sure she comes out of the race in good shape. She's training well, and we'll come up with a plan after we're confident that she's doing as well as she should be doing."

Our Super Freak, a 5-year-old who finished third in the Molly Pitcher (G3) and Ruffian (G2) after a runner-up finish to Monomoy Girl in the Bayakoa (G3). "She's at Saratoga. She's doing well. Probably not in consideration for something like the Personal Ensign. We'll point her towards the Locust Grove (G3, Sept. 18) at Churchill."

Slow and steady growth

Asked about the experience of getting her own stable off the ground – with the help of her husband, bloodstock agent David Ingordo, DeVaux said, "I'm going to sum it up with a statement somebody made. And then I'm going to go back and explain. Somebody wrote, 'well, I think Cherie wished her career would have took off faster.' And that's not the case.

"When my husband and I set out to do this, we knew that it was going to take some patience and persistence because we are developing horses. So that statement came on the heels of somebody tweeting about winning four races. Well, two of those were Bayerness and Coastana. And I had those two in my barn three years ago and was confident that they had a lot of ability. They just took time to come around to be where we hoped that they would be and what they were showing us.

"So in growing, it's taken a while, but we've built a really good team, a solid team, a solid group of clients. And I'm very fortunate and grateful for them, both my clients and my team. So we really built it with a steady foundation. If you grow too fast, it almost can bite you in the rear end because it's hard to find employees. It's a lot of money to just grow at an exponential rate, with tack, with payroll with everything that you put out. So the way that it's developed, I'm very pleased with that. I wouldn't change anything."