Ten years ago, Phipps Stable’s fifth-generation homebred Carrumba battled down the stretch and got up nearing the wire to win the 2016 Top Flight Invitational Handicap (G3) at Aqueduct with then 22-year-old jockey Jose Ortiz aboard. It was the second graded stakes race for the 4-year-old Bernardini filly trained by Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey.
Despite having bred more than 300 stakes winners in the 90 years they had been in the game, Carrumba’s victory was a very special one for the Phipps family, as it was their first start after the loss of racing scion Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps earlier that week. As Dinny’s son Ogden Phipps II stated after the race, “Absolutely this win was emotional. Our first time back at the races and it’s obviously a big part of how we grew up with my dad. Coming back here and seeing a filly that he really loved and winning a stake is very emotional.”
Carrumba was retired in 2017 after her 15th career start. In addition to her grade 3 Top Flight win, she placed in seven graded stakes, including the grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes.
Following her retirement, she joined the Phipps broodmare band at Claiborne Farm. Her first two foals include Hype House, by Candy Ride (Ire), who was winless from three starts, and Tarnished Truth, by Blame, who never made it to the starting gate. It was her third foal, Golden Tempo, by Curlin, who would deliver the mare her first win from the broodmare shed.
Carrying on a new hope for the next generation of this special family line for the Phippses, Golden Tempo made his career debut on December 20th at New Orleans’ historic Fair Grounds Race Course. Co-bred and co-owned with Vinnie and Teresa Viola’s St. Elias Stable, the juvenile broke a step slow and settled in as the trailer on the ten-horse maiden special weight race that went six furlongs. A decade after guiding Golden Tempo’s dam Carrumba to victory in the Top Flight, jockey Jose Ortiz confidently guided Golden Tempo six wide around the far turn before displaying an impressive stretch drive down the center of the track to win by a length and a half.
The valiant victory created a buzz. The win earned the up-and-comer “Rising Star” honors from the Thoroughbred Daily News, a designation awarded to promising horses early in their careers who are likely to become stakes winners. Racing analysts also began touting Golden Tempo as a horse to watch on the Kentucky Derby trail.
In training at Fair Grounds for conditioner Cherie DeVaux, Golden Tempo remained in New Orleans for his second start, a two-turn test in the ten-horse Lecomte Stakes (G3) on January 17th. Retaining Jose Ortiz for the mile-and-a-sixteenth race, he settled off the pace in ninth place and weaved through traffic in the far turn, hitting the top of the stretch in fourth. He moved to a clear path on the rail and sustained a powerful drive to win going away by three-quarters of a length.
The Lecomte win awarded Golden Tempo 20 points towards a starting position in the Kentucky Derby, placing him first on the official leaderboard at the time. Since then, five other Derby prospects – Silent Tactic, Renegade, Intrepido, Plutarch, and Nearly – have earned points, moving Golden Tempo down to his current sixth-place spot in the rankings.
Having turned three years old on February 7th, Golden Tempo will put his undefeated record on the line as he continues on the Fair Grounds trail to the Kentucky Derby. He makes his third career start in the Risen Star Stakes (G2) on Saturday, February 14th, stretching out to a mile and an eighth and retaining the services of jockey Jose Ortiz.
The Phipps-St. Elias colt enters the race as the second favorite with 3-to-1 odds. Remsen Stakes (G2) winner Paladin gets the nod as the morning-line favorite at 8-to-5. As the May 2nd Kentucky Derby draws closer, the points awarded for prep races grow larger. In the Risen Star, 50 points will go to the winner, 25 to the runner-up, 15 for third place, 10 for fourth, and 5 for fifth.
Well-bred Golden Tempo shares the same Curlin-Bernardini cross as grade 1 winners Clairiere and Paris Lights, grade 2 winners Cezanne and Point of Honor, and grade 3 winners Cornishman and Spice Is Nice.
Golden Tempo hails from the accomplished Oh What a Dance branch of Phipps foundation mare Lady Pitt. Unraced mare Oh What a Dance was out of blue-hen mare Blitey who also produced grade 1 winners Dancing Spree, Furlough, and Fantastic Find, the last of which is the fourth dam of Flightline.
Oh What a Dance is the tail-female line descendant of eight grade 1 winners. She is the first dam of Hall of Famer Heavenly Prize and Oh What a Windfall, second dam of Good Reward and Dancing Forever, third dam of Persistently and Instilled Regard, fourth dam of W Heart Bond (JPN), and fifth dam of Queen Goddess.
2026 is the 100th anniversary of the Phipps family entering Thoroughbred racing and it is fitting that the racing dynasty has an exciting Kentucky Derby prospect out of a mare that has a special place in their history.
B. Jason Brooks is a Thoroughbred racing and pedigree researcher, writer, and social media manager residing in Saratoga Springs, New York.
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