Phipps Stable maintained it’s multi-generational reputation for excellence in 2022, winning three stakes races, including a Grade 2, and co-owning a well-bred standout colt who has the right pedigree and team to be a Kentucky Derby contender in 2023.
From 50 starts (including partnership-owned horses), Phipps Stable won 7 races (14 percent) and finished among the top three in half (50 percent) of those races. Earnings totaled $943,520.
Nearly half of the starts (24 races or 48 percent) were maiden special weight races, 7 (or 14 percent) were allowance optional claimers, 2 of them (or 4 percent) were allowance races, and 16 of them (or 32 percent) were stakes races.
Stakes Races
Among the stakes races, Phipps Stable entries won 3 of them (19 percent) and finished among the top three in 9 of them (an impressive 56 percent).
Four-year-old colt Dynamic One earned his breakthrough graded stakes win in the Grade 2, $400,000 Suburban Stakes in July at Belmont after having won the listed $200,000 Blame Stakes in June at Churchill Downs.
Before his Suburban win, Dynamic One had finished on the board in three graded stakes races. As a three-year-old, he was a close runner-up in the G2 Wood Memorial in April at Aqueduct. As a four-year-old, he took third in the G3 Challenger Stakes in March at Tampa and second in the G3 Ben Ali Stakes in April at Keeneland.
Bred by Phipps Stable, Dynamic One was purchased by Repole Stable and St. Elias Sable for $725,000 at the Keeneland 2019 September Yearling Sale. After the purchase, Phipps Stable accepted an offer to buy back into him and join his new owners as partners.
Sired by Lane’s End stallion Union Rags, Dynamic One hails from the great Phipps female line of Breeders’ Cup champions Personal Ensign, My Flag, and Storm Flag Flying.
Five-year-old Medaglia d’Oro mare Vigilantes Way won the listed $100,000 Violet Stakes in September at Monmouth Park, giving her wins at the ages of three, four, and five years old. Her previous stakes wins include the G3 Eatontown Stakes and Miss Liberty Stakes – both at Monmouth Park – and the Tropical Park Oaks at Gulfstream Park.
Another descendent of Personal Ensign, Vigilantes Way is the fourth graded stakes winner out of Phipps mare Salute (Unbridled). Her half siblings include multiple Grade 1 winner Mr Speaker, Grade 3 winner Fire Away, and novice champion hurdler Snap Decision.
Also of note, three-year-old filly Surprisingly earned stakes-placed honors by finishing runner-up in the listed $100,000 Tropical Park Oaks in December at Gulfstream Park. Surprisingly shows good promise, having been a debut winner for trainer Shug McGaughey as a juvenile and winning two allowance races earlier this year.
Surprisingly is by Claiborne Farm stallion Mastery and out of Arch mare Vagabond, from the Phipps family of Our Country Place who was acquired by Ogden Phipps in 1993. Our Country Place’s family—described by pedigree analyst Kaitlin Free “as one of the greatest in recent history”—includes Grade 1 winners Guarana, Pine Island, Pleasant Home, and Point of Entry.
Promising Juvenile Signator
As for the standout juvenile of 2022 (full roster here), partnership-owned Signator, a gray Tapit colt out of Phipps-bred Seeking the Gold mare Pension, broke his maiden at second asking, cruising to an easy four-and-a-half length win in October at Belmont. The impressive win earned him a “Rising Star” declaration from the Thoroughbred Daily News, a designation given to those the publication identifies as likely future stakes winners and he has been identified as a potential contender for the Kentucky Derby in 2023.
Purchased for $1.7 million at the April 2022 Ocala Breeders Sale, Phipps Stable owns Signator in partnership with West Point Thoroughbreds, Woodford Racing, Gainesway Stable (Antony Beck), Ken Langone, Edward J. Hudson, Jr., and Lane’s End Racing.
Signator is out of Phipps-bred Seeking the Gold mare Pension who was sold to Gainesway at the Keeneland November 2008 Breeding Stock Sale and shares the same sire and Phipps female family as the sensational Flightline.
While it may have been a somewhat quiet year for Phipps Stable, the stakes results and a very promising juvenile from one of elite Phipps female families demonstrates that the iconic racing stable continues to succeed among the highest levels in Thoroughbred racing.
Photo: Graded stakes winner Vigilantes Way in the winners’ circle with jockey Paco Lopez at Monmouth Park after earning her four career stakes victory in September.
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