The 2026 Kentucky Derby is a storybook win for the Phipps family who are celebrating 100 years of success in Thoroughbred racing and breeding
by B. Jason Brooks
“First Lady of the Turf” Gladys Mills Phipps began the Phipps family’s Thoroughbred racing dynasty in 1926. Her Wheatley Stable’s first winner came quickly, with James E. “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons-trained Sturdy Stella winning a quarter-mile dash on February 2nd of that year at Miami’s fabled Hialeah Park. A century later, the Phippses remain U.S. racing royalty, winning the Kentucky Derby this past Saturday with homebred Golden Tempo – bred and owned in partnership with Vinnie and Teresa Viola’s St. Elias Stable.
As recently noted on this blog, the Phipps’s accomplishments over the last century are staggering, having bred more than 300 stakes winners, 7 Breeders’ Cup winners, 29 champions, and 8 Hall of Famers, including Seabiscuit, Searching, Bold Ruler, Buckpasser, Personal Ensign, Easy Goer, Inside Information, and Heavenly Prize.
Each successive generation has been a part of a homebred male classic winner, starting with Glady Mill Phipps’s Wheatley Stable colt Bold Ruler in the 1957 Preakness Stakes, Ogden Phipps’s Easy Goer in the 1989 Belmont Stakes, and Phipps Stable – led by family patriarch Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps – with Orb in the 2013 Kentucky Derby (bred and owned by the Phipps family in partnership with Dinny’s cousin Stuart S. Janney III, also a grandson of Glady Mills Phipps). Bold Ruler was trained by James E. “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons and Easy Goer and Orb were trained by Claude R. “Shug” McGaughey, both of whom are Hall of Famers. And, each of the Phipps family’s classic winners were born and raised at the Hancock family’s legendary Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky.
Since Dinny’s passing in 2016, breeding and racing has remained a family affair for the Phippses, with Daisy Phipps Pulito as their racing manager, supported by her siblings and their mother Ande. Trained by Cherie DeVaux, Golden Tempo’s Kentucky Derby win represents a remarkable fourth successive generation leading the family stable to a victory in a Triple Crown race.
Besides their successful colts in Triple Crown races, the Phippses have won six of the two undisputed fillies classics: the Kentucky Oaks with Dispute in 1993 and the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) with Edelweiss in 1933, High Voltage in 1955, Christmas Past in the 1982, My Flag in the 1996, and Smuggler in 2005. (This does not include 9 wins of the Acorn Stakes (G1), 6 wins of the Alabama Stakes (G1), 2 wins of the Mother Goose Stakes (G1), and 4 wins of the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (G2), each significant a race of which was considered a part of the New York or National “Triple Tiara” at some point.)
Adding to their success in the U.S., Ogden Phipps’s European stable won the St. Leger Stakes (G1), the final leg of the English Triple Crown, with Boucher in 1972 and the One Thousand Guineas, an English fillies classic, with Quick As Lightning in 1980.
In summary, Golden Tempo became the fourth Phipps colt to win a U.S. classic. When adding six Phipps fillies who won the Kentucky Oaks or Coaching Club American Oaks, as well as two English classic winners, that’s an ultra-impressive dozen classic wins for the Phipps family!
While the family stable is not as large as it used to be when Ogden Phipps had 40 or more horses in training, Phipps Stable currently has 17 horses in training and a broodmare band that typically ranges from 15 to 20 mares.
Their recent success has included more than a dozen stakes wins over the last five years (see a list of these stakes winners in the recent blog story “Kentucky Derby Contender Golden Tempo Carries on the Phipps Legacy”.) No stranger to recent Triple Crown races, they were represented by grade 2-winner Dynamic One in the 2021 Kentucky Derby (G1) and stakes winner Perform in the 2023 Preakness Stakes (G1), both co-owned in partnerships and finished off of the board in their classics.
The next step for Golden Tempo is still to be finalized. His trainer Cherie DeVaux indicated on NBC’s TODAY Show on Monday that a final decision is expected by the end of the week on whether to point him to the Preakness Stakes (G1) at Laurel Park on May 16th or the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on June 6th. Notably, Golden Tempo has the opportunity to become the Phipps family’s first horse to win multiple classics, an impressive feat when considering the greats noted above whom they have bred and raced.
THE PHIPPS FAMILY’s DOZEN CLASSIC WINNERS
Edelweiss – 1933 Coaching Club American Oaks
High Voltage – 1955 Coaching Club American Oaks
Bold Ruler – 1957 Preakness Stakes
Boucher – 1972 St. Leger Stakes (ENG)
Quick as Lightning – 1980 One Thousand Guineas (ENG)
Christmas Past – 1982 Coaching Club American Oaks
Easy Goer – 1989 Belmont Stakes
Dispute – 1993 Kentucky Oaks
My Flag – 1996 Coaching Club American Oaks
Smuggler – 2005 Coaching Club American Oaks
Orb – 2013 Kentucky Derby (with Stuart S. Janney III)
Golden Tempo – 2026 Kentucky Derby (with St. Elias Stable)
B. Jason Brooks (𝕏 at @bjbrooksNY) is a Thoroughbred racing and pedigree researcher, writer, and social media manager residing in Saratoga Springs, New York.
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