Golden Tempo Leads the Next Generation Phipps Runners

To say that the success of the esteemed Phipps Stable is all in the family is an understatement, with the historic operation now headed by the fourth generation of one of racing's most revered families. When the stable's patriarch Ogden Mills "Dinny" Phipps passed away in 2016, it was his children who assumed the task of managing a band of some of racing's finest broodmares along with a stable of top prospects on the racetrack. Daisy Phipps Pulito took up the day-to-day operations, with her brother, Ogden Phipps, II, concentrating on business matters. "Doing the matings, seeing them as a foal, a weanling and beyond, they sort of are like your cats or your dogs," said Phipps Pulito. "You get to know them and their personalities, and that's something I love about our sport. What my great-grandmother started 100 years ago is amazing, and the mares that she bought back then and the horses my grandfather and father cultivated, my brother and I get to do that now, and that's special." Phipps Stable has bred and campaigned a "who's who" in the sport's history, including seven Breeders' Cup winners, across 100 years of excellence. Founded as Wheatley Stable in 1926 by Phipps Pulito's great-grandmother Gladys Mills Phipps and her brother Ogden Livingston Mills, Phipps Stable has gone on to campaign the likes of Hall of Famers Personal Ensign, Easy Goer, and Inside Information, among others. In 2013, Phipps Stable won their first Kentucky Derby (G1) with the Shug McGaughey-trained Orb, a significant milestone for a stable that would soon undergo a transition following the passing of Dinny Phipps in 2016 at the age of 75. With Phipps Pulito and her siblings now at the helm, a new era began with another generation ready to take the reins for the fourth time in a century. The stream of superb quality continues to flow through Phipps Stable, evidenced by their seventh-generation homebred Golden Tempo, who is on target for the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1). Trained by Cherie DeVaux, the classy son of Curlin looks to put an exclamation point on a tremendous sophomore campaign that saw him bring the Phipps family back to the winner's circle on the first Saturday in May with a last-to-first victory in the Kentucky Derby ahead of a similar deep-closing score in the Belmont Stakes (G1) in June at Saratoga Race Course. Co-owned and co-bred by St. Elias Stable, Golden Tempo is out of the Grade 3-winning Bernardini mare Carrumba, making him a descendant from the line of Reine-de-Course broodmare Lady Pitt. "Going to the Breeders' Cup is special—there's a lot of hearts and hands that have been on him and his dam, her dam, and the whole family," Phipps Pulito said. "That whole family has meant a lot of us, so to be rewarded with a horse like that is pretty special—he's a special horse to us." A well-bred horse is evident not just by their physical build and a robust pedigree, but in the way they carry themselves in their daily routines. Enrique Miranda, DeVaux's assistant and a regular exercise rider of Golden Tempo, said the colt's class is clear when he climbs aboard in the mornings. "I've been on quite a few horses and have had the privilege of riding very nice (and) very well-bred horses, but with the history that the Phipps family has and the breeding underneath this horse, it's been something next-level," Miranda said. "It's amazing." For Phipps Pulito, the readiness each generation of the family has felt to assume their roles in the stable stems from their experiences during their formative years at the racetrack. She treasures the moments she spent attending the races with her grandfather and father, and said making new memories with her children is important to her. "When my brother and my sisters and I were the same age our children right now—between 15 and 19—my parents and my grandfather had (horses like) Easy Goer, Seeking the Gold, Miner's Mark, Personal Ensign, My Flag, so we got to experience those big days at the races that made us all fall in love with horse racing," Phipps Pulito said. "The last five years or so, we haven't had a superstar horse, so Golden Tempo stepping up and doing what he's done this year allowed all of my kids, nieces and nephews to experience the same things we did when we were their age. Hopefully, they will love and respect the sport the same way that we do." 100 years from its inception, Phipps Stable has a chance to add another milestone to its glowing list of accolades, and Phipps Pulito said Golden Tempo would be a sentimental candidate to give them their long-awaited Classic victory. "Phipps Stable has never won the Classic," she said. "It's a race that has been a goal of mine for the past 30 years, and it's one of the most important races in America. I would love to win it." Now at the forefront of one of the most prestigious stables in racing, Phipps Pulito said one lesson from her father rings truest in her decisions. "I think 1000 percent it was doing what's best for the horse," Phipps Pulito said. "If you do what's best for the horse, you'll be rewarded, and that's always in the forefront of my mind."