Monday Morning Message with Jason Beem Aug. 31, 2026

Jason discusses Golden Tempo's trip and third-place finish in the Travers (G1) on Saturday. 

A good Monday morning to you all! I talked about this on the podcast for today, but it’s worth echoing here in the column as well. I was so pumped for the Travers S. (G1) this weekend. What a fun race with a ton of good storylines and all the top contenders hooking up in one spot for over a million bucks. Just awesome. Also, so happy the weather gods cooperated and we had good surfaces for the big day at Saratoga. 

All credit to Leading Change for the win, and for starting his career 3-for-3. It’s amazing that when the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness (G1) were being run, he hadn’t even debuted yet. Shows you how quickly things can change in this game, including divisions. A win in the Travers would have all but cemented Golden Tempo’s claim to the three-year-old Eclipse Award, but maybe now a Classic (G1) win by one of the other top three-year-olds could maybe push them over the top? Obviously Golden Tempo is going to be tough to beat for that award with his resume. 

Golden Tempo was certainly involved in much of the pre- and post-race conversation. Of course, when you’re the Derby and Belmont winner, that is going to happen most of the time he runs in his career. And rightfully so, he’s earned his fame.

 So when he finished third in the Travers on Saturday, it made sense that there would be lots of thoughts from people about the effort. I saw many folks saying he was too far back or that he should have gone outside instead of stay down on the inside when turning for home. Some people said the rail wasn’t good Saturday at Saratoga. All these are perfectly good conversations to have after a race like this, so let me insert my two cents on it below. 

Personally, I thought Golden Tempo for the most part ran his race. He was far back, and they weren’t going that fast, and maybe that was a bit of his undoing. I mean the horses who ran 1-2 were the top two at the start of the race and were first and third for a good portion of the middle stages. 

Golden Tempo spotted them a good 12 to 15 lengths in the middle stages. But he saved ground on the far turn, made up quite a bit of ground, and in midstretch, I thought he had a real chance to get to them. He had a hole in the two path, and it kind of narrowed, and I think that little shift kind of spelled the end of him getting to the win end of things. He was beaten a couple of lengths by two good horses who both had very good trips. To me, that’s OK. 

Deep closers like Golden Tempo are always going to be a little reliant at these top levels. If this was a lower-level stakes or something, maybe he can just always outkick them and win those races regardless of setup or trip. But in a Grade 1 race like the Travers, to come from behind, you’re often going to need pace help up front and traffic help down the lane. Obviously his two big wins back in the spring, he came wide and didn’t have traffic, but he did lose ground. He was just able to get a big enough head of steam going and outkick his rivals to win. 

Golden Tempo is a very nice horse and a deserving Derby champion. I hope he’s able to bounce back and run a few more big races, and hopefully we see him compete as an older horse at the age of four. Like many horses, he might take a step forward with age. We shall see. 

But horses lose races, and I think many fans have gotten used to the top horses winning all the time, and it’s just not the case. As I said in a column a couple of months ago, it’s good for horses to have career arcs. Ups and downs and wins and losses make for a much more interesting ride. 

Have a great week everyone!