Respected Thoroughbred bloodstock author and columnist Frank Mitchell has a new story on his Bloodstock in the Bluegrass blog about the sensational Flightline and his accomplished Phipps female family.
He begins the story highlighting the four-year-old colt’s memorable win of the G1 Pacific Classic, writing that “[t]o win a race so impressively that it’s fleetingly compared to one of the great events, like Secretariat’s Belmont Stakes, is a major accomplishment for a racehorse and its owner and caretakers. To actually run a race that is comparable … boggles the mind.”
Mr. Mitchell’s story does a fine job of highlighting Flightline’s accomplished Phipps family. Phipps mares in his tail-female line include second dam Receipt, third dam Finder’s Fee, fourth dam Fantastic Find, fifth dam Blitey, and sixth dam Lady Pitt, the last of which was acquired by Ogden Phipps in 1969.
Of foundation mare Lady Pitt, he writes, “Phipps patriarch Ogden Phipps, breeder and owner of champion Buckpasser, was always open to freshening the broodmare band and took the opportunity to purchase 1966 champion 3-year-old filly Lady Pitt (Sword Dancer). A winner of the Coaching Club American Oaks, Delaware Oaks, and Mother Goose, Lady Pitt was a medium-sized chestnut more notable for toughness than brilliant speed.”
The story is a reminder that one of the legacies of the Phipps family is the cultivation of female families bred to the best sires over multiple generations that have given them and other breeders fortunate enough to buy their mares a deep foundation on which to build the elite stars of today.
Photo: Flightline, courtesy of Kate Jones.
Phipps Stable Fan 