Phipps Stable’s blue-blooded Candy Ride (Arg) mare Dance Club hails from one of the most highly sought-after families in Thoroughbred breeding and racing, a family that includes a Hall of Famer, champions, Breeders’ Cup winners, grade 1 winners, and multiple active sires. She also has the distinction of being last foal out of Storm Flag Flying who died from complications during the foaling of Dance Club. Storm Flag Flying followed in the footsteps of her dam My Flag and granddam Personal Ensign to become the only line of three consecutive generations of Breeders’ Cup winners.
Trained by Hall of Famer Claude R. “Shug” McGaughey, Dance Club made two career starts, both at the age of two at Saratoga. In her debut, a five and a half furlong dirt sprint for juvenile fillies, she was checked at the start and recovered, rallying to take show honors behind two future black-type earners. Those crossing the finish line ahead of her were Justin Phillip filly Lady T N T, who went on to win the Charles Town Oaks (G3), and Into Mischief filly Into Mystic, an eventual three-time stakes winner who started in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1).
Above: Dance Club with jockey Jose Ortiz aboard before her career debut at Saratoga.
Dance Club followed up her debut four weeks later at The Spa by stretching out to seven furlongs. Despite a clean trip, the distance proved to be too much for her, finishing off the board in a race won by champion Havre de Grace’s Tapit filly Graceful Princess who went on to win the Molly Pitcher Stakes (G3).
The Phipps Stable homebred is a full sister to a graded stakes-placed sire and two producers of graded stakes winners. She is a full sister to sire Revved Up, runner-up in the Arlington Handicap (G2) who entered stud in 2021 at River Oaks Farms in Oklahoma. Dance Club is a half-sister to St. Elias Stable’s Street Cry (Ire) mare Playtime, dam of Appalachian Stakes (G2) winner Jouster who sold as a broodmare prospect for $1.5 million at the 2022 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. Playtime also has a promising 3-year-old colt by Curlin named Classicist who broke his maiden in July at Saratoga and came back to win his first allowance start in September at Aqueduct. Dance Club is also a half-sister to Smart Strike mare Beat the Drums, dam of Suburban Stakes (G2) winner and Kentucky Derby (G1) runner Dynamic One.
Dance Club is out of Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps’s champion 2-year-old filly Storm Flag Flying who won the honor after three consecutive top-level wins, including the Matron Stakes (G1), Frizette Stakes (G1), and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1). She added a fourth elite win in the Personal Ensign Handicap (G1), an extra special victory since it was her granddam’s namesake race.
Storm Flag Flying is a half-sister to a multiple graded stakes winner, a producer of a multiple group 1 winner, two producers of multiple graded stakes winners, and other black-type earners and producers.
She is a half-sister to A.P. Indy mare With Flying Colors who earned blacktype with a victory in the Floral Park Heatherten Stakes and is the dam of St. Elias Stable’s Teresa Z, by Smart Strike, winner of the Monmouth Oaks (G3) and Turnback the Alarm Stakes (G3). With Flying Colors is also the granddam of Team Valor’s Queen Azteca, by Sharp Azteca, this year’s United Arab Emirates Oaks (G3) winner at Meydan.
Her other siblings include Parading, by Pulpit, winner of the Dixie Stakes (G2) and Ben Ali Stakes (G3); grade 2-placed Protesting, by A.P. Indy, dam of Performer, by Speightstown, winner of the Discover Stakes (G3) and Fred W. Hooper Stakes (G3), as well as Breaking the Rules, by War Front, winner of the Tropical Park Derby who also placed in multiple graded stakes; Sound the Trumpets, by Bernardini, dam of Miles D who placed in the Travers Stakes (G1) and won the Discovery Stakes; grade 3-placed On Parade, by Storm Cat, who is granddam of Madras Check, by Malibu Moon, a multiple stakes winner in Japan; and Viva La Flag, by Rahy, dam of Kentucky-bred Manyuz, by Run Away and Hide, a multiple group 1 winner in Peru, and granddam of Brocknardini, by Palace Malice, winner of the Selima Stakes.
Going back another generation, Dance Club’s granddam is Ogden Phipps’s homebred My Flag, the daughter of two Phipps homebred Hall of Famers in her sire Easy Goer and dam Personal Ensign. My Flag earned her first elite win in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) and added three more prestigious victories to her resume, including the fillies classic Coaching Club American Oaks (G1), Ashland Stakes (G1), and Gazelle Handicap (G1). She also notably placed against males in the classic Belmont Stakes (G1), finishing behind Editor’s Note and future Hall of Famer Skip Away.
My Flag is a half-sister to two grade 1-winning sires, a sire of a dual-classic winner, a grade 1 producer, and two granddams of grade 1-winning sires.
Her half-brothers include trio of sires by Mr. Prospector, including Miner’s Mark, winner of the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1), Traditionally, winner of the Oaklawn Handicap (G1), and Our Emblem, a multiple grade 1-placed sire of Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness Stakes (G1) winner War Emblem.
My Flag is also a half-sister to multiple graded stakes-placed Salute, by Unbridled, dam of sire Mr Speaker, winner of the Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes (G1) who entered stud in 2016 at Lane’s End and now stands in Texas at Forks of the Paluxy; Title Seeker, by Monarchos, granddam of Charles Fipke’s homebred Seeking the Soul, by Perfect Soul (Ire), winner of the Clark Handicap (G1) and runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) and Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) who entered stud in 2021 at Ocala Stud in Florida; and Possibility, by A.P. Indy, the granddam of Zedan Racing’s Arabian Lion, by Justify, winner of the Woody Stephens Stakes (G1) who entered stud in 2024 at Spendthrift Farm. Possibility is also the granddam of Clearsky Farms-bred Major Dude, by Bolt d’Oro, winner of the Ft. Lauderdale Stakes (G2), Pilgram Stakes (G2), Penn Mile Stakes (G2), and the Kitten’s Joy Stakes (G3).
While some super fillies fail to replicate their racing success as broodmares, such as Zenyatta and Winning Colors, that was not the case for Dance Club’s great-granddam Personal Ensign, as noted above in My Flag and her accomplished siblings. An undefeated champion from 13 starts, Personal Ensign won eight grade 1 races, and her Hall of Fame career was appropriately capped off with an unforgettable marquee victory over Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1).
Despite Dance Club being winless from two starts, a lack of success on the track has not prevented dams in her family from becoming successful broodmares. Such is the case for the above-mentioned Jouster’s dam Playtime, Dynamic One’s dam Beat the Drums, Queen Azteca’s dam Princesa Helena, Miles D’s dam Sound the Trumpets, and Seeking the Soul’s granddam Title Seeker.
Above: Dance Club crossing the finish line in her career debut at Saratoga.
As a broodmare, Dance Club has two foals racing age, including I Am On The List, a 4-year-old colt by City of Light, and Rhythm Quest, a 3-year-old filly by Nyquist. She also has a yearling colt by Tapit and a weanling filly by Essential Quality, both of which have the same female family and sire line as the above-mentioned Comely Stakes (G2) runner-up Parade. Dance Club is in foal to Good Magic and it will share the same female family and sire line as the above-mentioned Travers Stakes-placed Miles D.
Personal Ensign’s legacy carries on through her successful descendants and Dance Club’s progeny will hopefully continue to bolster it for years to come.
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