Taking Stock: New Era for Phipps Stable

The iconic Phipps Stable is doing the unprecedented. For the first time, it is selling its entire crop of yearling colts. This is set to go down next week at the Keeneland September sale through Claiborne, as agent. No need to sound the alarm, however–Daisy Phipps Pulito, who co-owns the elite Claiborne-based operation with her mother, brother, and two sisters, said the stable is not going anywhere. Known for racing homebred colts and fillies by top-notch sires and out of mares from some of the most storied families in the Stud Book–most of them developed and nurtured over decades by various generations of Phippses–the family is breaking new ground so that it can grow the operation in other directions. “We just want to spread some risk,” she said. And she assuaged the fears of some inquiring minds on Twitter last week when she unequivocally tweeted: “We are not leaving. Phipps Stable is 100% committed to breed and race.”

Pulito said the plan is to race the fillies and to keep improving the broodmare band with an occasional purchase or two, as the stable did a few years ago when it bought two well-bred yearling daughters of Tapit and Malibu Moon at Keeneland to introduce new blood into the broodmare band. The $675,000 Malibu Moon filly is Grade II winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Fly So High, who is from the family of Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}).

“Part of selling these colts is, it lets us do a few things. It spreads our risk out a little bit, and it allows us, if we want to go to [Keeneland] November and buy a broodmare, we'll have some money to do that with, or if we want to wait until next September and buy some fillies and put those in our broodmare band when they're done racing, it allows us to do that,” she said.

“We don't have a blank checkbook anymore, so we do run this as a business, but we're going to stay in it. We love it, and it's part of what we deal with in our everyday lives. I don't ever see that coming to an end.”

The Phippses have eight colts in the sale, three of them in Book 1. “But we're not giving these colts away by any means,” Pulito warned. “There will be reserves set on them. We'll see what they go for. If it's someone we like [who buys one], and they want a partner, maybe we'll stay in for a leg. And that'll be great. There's not a huge downside, right? And, you know, we'll have partners to have some fun with. I'm very excited about selling these colts.”

Having partners is another new concept for the Phippses, who've always gone it alone save for the occasional cousin or friend in a horse or two, but partnerships have become a sustainable model that's commonplace nowadays at all levels in the business, particularly at the top with expensive colts, and Pulito and her family are amenable to the idea of participating. “You have to change to stay current. Don't you think that's the way the whole thing is going? We're the only ones that don't [participate]. It's 2019, so maybe it's time for us to spread a little risk,” Pulito said. She has, on her own account, been in Gatewood Bell's Hat Creek Racing partnerships but noted that because of her family's long history of breeding and racing their own horses, the Phipps Stable doesn't get the partnership offers others do.

“You know what our problem is? You get a really nice colt like Performer (Speightstown), for example. Really nice horse, he's run three times, won twice and won the other day [at Saratoga, on Aug. 24]. If there was anybody else but us, their phones would be ringing off the hook. 'Can we buy a part of this horse, can we get a piece of this horse?' But nobody is calling us for a horse like that because no one knows that we're interested in doing that,” Pulito said.

There's a lot of fan interest in the Phipps Stable, however, because it's the last of the great American homebreeding dynasties. Pulito and her siblings Ogden ll, Samantha, and Lilly–the children of the late Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps and Ande Phipps–are the fifth generation of a racing family that came to prominence with businessman and financier Ogden Mills, who raced horses in Europe with Lord Derby and won the vaunted Grand Prix de Paris in 1928 with Cri de Guerre when it was the greatest race in France. The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe was just in a fledgling state in 1928, but Mills also won it that year with Kantar.

One of Mills's daughters was Gladys Phipps, who established Wheatley Stable in 1926 with her brother and raced, among many, many others, the outstanding racehorse and sire Bold Ruler in the stable's purple and gold silks. Her twin sister Beatrice, later Lady Granard, inherited their father's European stable and raced many fine runners abroad in her name, including Bold Ruler's champion Irish-bred son Bold Lad, not to be confused with Wheatley's champion Bold Lad, also by Bold Ruler.

Gladys Phipps's son Ogden Phipps was the father of Dinny Phipps and grandfather of Daisy Phipps Pulito and her siblings. Ogden Phipps introduced the black silks and cherry cap of his grandfather Ogden Mills to the American turf in the 1930s (Mills's partner Lord Derby's all-black silks with a white button and cap had no doubt been his inspiration) and raced too many good horses to list, but among them were Buckpasser (Tom Fool), Easy Goer (Alydar), and Personal Ensign (Private Account). Buckpasser, Easy Goer, and Private Account all descended from mares tracing to the imported La Troienne (Fr), lines that Phipps had developed from Idle Hour stock, and Personal Ensign, whose female line is so vibrant now, was a granddaughter of the imported Dorine (Arg) (Aristophanes {GB}), a Haras Ojo de Agua mare that Phipps had long coveted. Performer, the promising Speightstown colt that Pulito referenced earlier, traces to Personal Ensign, as does the stable's Grade III winner Fire Away (War Front), Grade I winner and Lane's End first-crop sire Mr Speaker (Pulpit), and Charles Fipke's homebred Grade I winner Seeking the Soul (Perfect Soul {Ire}).

Dinny Phipps also used the same silks as his father, but with cherry cuffs, and his long list of notables included champions Inside Information (Private Account) and Smuggler (Unbridled) as well as G1 1000 Guineas winner Quick As Lightning (Buckpasser)–all from the same Grey Flight family that was cultivated by Wheatley. The more recent Phipps graded winner Reload (Hard Spun) is from the family, too.

The Yearlings

The eight Phipps-bred colts in the sale are Hips 58 (War Front), 254 (Union Rags), 345 (Curlin), 594 (Munnings), 611 (Uncle Mo), 829 (Union Rags), 1317 (Lemon Drop Kid), and 2190 (Point of Entry). Pulito said she and her family put the entire crop in to avoid the impression that they were “cherry picking” horses to sell. “Our colt crop this year is larger than it will be next year,” she said, which means that pickings will be less next year. The yearlings have been named, so potential buyers get a Phipps moniker in the transaction as well.

Hips 58 and 345 trace to La Troienne through Numbered Account.

Hips 254, 611, 1317, and 2190 are from the immediate family of Personal Ensign.

Hip 594 goes back to Blitey/Lady Pitt.

Hip 829 is from the Grey Flight family and is from a daughter of Smuggler.

There's history and pedigree depth to the families of these colts that will potentially make any of them–some more than others–valuable stallion prospects should they become Grade l winners.

And any of them have the license to do just that on pedigree alone.

Sid Fernando is president and CEO of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc., originator of the Werk Nick Rating and eNicks.