When Golden Tempo won Saturday’s Kentucky Derby-G1, he became the first winner of a U.S. classic trained by a woman in Cherie DeVaux, the first Derby winner for his jockey Jose Ortiz (who also won Friday’s Kentucky Oaks-G1 aboard Always a Runner), and the first Derby winner for his sire, Curlin, who had otherwise already been the modern epitome of a classic stallion.
Golden Tempo also became the first winner of the Derby to carry the famed Black & Cherry silks of the Phipps family. Although the Phipps Stable — with Dinny Phipps then at the helm (his son and daughter, Ogden II and Daisy Phipps Pulito now run things) — was a co-owner of 2013 Kentucky Derby winner Orb, Orb ran in the silks of Dinny’s cousin Stuart Janney III, and was a member of a female family that had spent several generations under the stewardship of Janney and his parents, rather than Dinny Phipps or his father (another Ogden)¹.
We’re still kicking ourselves for not having even mentioned Golden Tempo in our pre-Derby post last week, given that we spent the early years of our horse racing fandom rooting for the Phipps Stable’s homebreds. Indeed, our first job in the horse racing industry was walking hots for Shug McGaughey at Belmont and then Saratoga while he was the exclusive trainer for the Black & Cherry, for the very reason that he was their trainer.
 |
And while the current iteration of the Phipps’ operation differs from the prior model — in that they operate on a smaller scale, in a more commercial manner, partner with the Violas’ St. Elias Stable to race their homebred colts, and use additional trainers, including Cherie DeVaux — the fillies in their broodmare band still trace to the same families that were present in decades past, and are still boarded at the Hancock family’s Claiborne Farm, just as they’ve always been.
That includes Golden Tempo’s dam, Carrumba, a daughter of the excellent broodmare sire Bernardini who was bred by and raced for the Phipps Stable. Carrumba was trained by McGaughey and scored four wins across her career, including the Top Flight Invitational H-G3 as a 4YO. She also placed in seven more graded stakes, with the Ogden Phipps S-G1 among them.
 |
Golden Tempo is just the third live foal produced by Carrumba at Claiborne, following the unplaced Candy Ride filly Hype House (sold privately as a broodmare, and whose first foal is a 2YO of ‘26 by Army Mule named Believe the Hype) and the unraced Blame colt Tarnished Truth. Golden Tempo is followed by a 2YO Nyquist colt who has yet to be named, and a yearling filly by Liam’s Map. Barren to Good Magic for ‘26, Carrumba is currently pregnant to Gun Runner for ‘27. This selection of sires demonstrates both the esteem in which Carrumba is held as a potential producer (now fully justified!), as well as the more commercial nature of the current Phipps Stable breeding program when compared to some of the produce records of mares further back in the family that we’ll mention below.
Carrumba is the most-accomplished of just four foals out of her dam, the El Prado mare Castanet, who finished 3rd once from her only two starts as a 2YO for McGaughey. Castanet’s first foal, Strut by Malibu Moon, never raced, was cast off cheaply as a 2YO, and never produced a live foal. Castanet’s next foal, the Henny Hughes colt Ragtime, ended up winning seven races during his career, the first two of which came for the Phipps Stable and McGaughey. Carrumba was Castanet’s third foal, and she was followed by the Parading filly Dancing All Night (the recycled name of a G2-winning full-sister to her own third dam). This latter version of Dancing All Night scored a single victory for the Phippses and McGaughey, then was sold carrying her first foal to none other than St. Elias Stable. (Unfortunately, none of this Dancing All Night’s four foals of racing age has made a start. She still has a ‘25 colt by McKinzie to come.) Unlike Carrumba, it seems clear from this fairly hodgepodge selection of stallions with which she was mated that Castanet might not have the highest of expectations upon her as a producer.
Why that would have been is hard to say, given that Castanet is out of Dancinginmydreams², a younger full-sister to Eclipse Champion 3YO filly Heavenly Prize, to Matron-G1 winner Oh What a Windfall, and to Hunting Hard, who finished 2nd in the Discovery H-G3.
Although Dancinginmydreams made just three starts, all as a 2YO, she certainly showed plenty of talent. She came from 10th and last to break her maiden first-time out going 7 furlongs at Saratoga, then made up seven lengths in the final furlong of the Matron-G1 to miss by just a head to Raging Fever in her second start. Unfortunately, and memorably for anyone that saw it, she broke down while rallying in the Frizette-G1 and never raced again³.
As a broodmare, Dancinginmydreams’s first foal was the Rahy colt Dancing Forever, whose five career victories included the Manhattan H-G1 and the Elkhorn-G2 at 5YO, while he also placed in the Breeders’ Cup Turf-G1 and Gulfstream Park Turf-G1. He was followed by three fillies (Castanet was the second of them) that never won a race, before Puzzling (by Ghostzapper) won two races and finished 3rd in the Capades Stakes at Aqueduct as a 3YO. Puzzling was followed by the winning filly Satisfaction (by Awesome Again) and the winning colt Social Affair (by Giant’s Causeway), then the placed filly Delightful (by Bernardini). The fillies were all campaigned by the Phipps Stable (Step Lively and Delightful were both sold at auction as broodmare prospects), while Social Affair’s first of three career wins came for the Black & Cherry. Of Dancinginmydreams’s other daughters, several have produced winners, and Satisfaction has also (like Castanet) produced a black-type winner in Miss Yearwood (who was also 3rd in the Jockey Club Oaks-G3). Another of Satisfaction’s foals (Tuggle) was 3rd in the Saratoga Special-G2. And Dancinginmydreams’s first filly, Remember (by Forest Wildcat), is granddam of a runner that was black-type placed at Hastings Park.
 |
As mentioned above, Dancinginmydreams is one of four black-type full-siblings by Seeking the Gold out of the unraced Nijinsky II mare Oh What a Dance (indeed, of that mare’s six foals to race, all were sired by Seeking the Gold and five were winners; her other two live foals were both by Easy Goer, and neither raced. Both Seeking the Gold and Easy Goer, of course, were Phipps homebreds).
As we’ve discussed in previous blog posts, repeated matings to the same stallion is something that is very much not in vogue among commercial breeding operations nowadays, with Coolmore as really the only operation of any size that has utilized that technique with any degree of consistency.⁴
But back in the ‘90s, the Phippses sent Oh What a Dance to Seeking the Gold ten separate years, and then her Eclipse Champion daughter Heavenly Prize went to Storm Cat four times and to one or another of Storm Cat’s sons another four times. And just like how Oh What a Dance rewarded them with four black-type runners, Heavenly Prize produced a G1 winner (Good Reward) and a G2 winner (Pure Prize) to Storm Cat.
 |
And before that, Oh What a Dance was one of four full-siblings out of Blitey, the others including G1 winner Dancing Spree and G2 winner Dancing All Night (the original version). Blitey also produced G1 winner Fantastic Find by Mr. Prospector, and G1 winner Furlough by the Phippses’ homebred Eclipse Champion and stallion Easy Goer.
Indeed, 11 of Blitey’s 18 matings were to stallions that were campaigned by the Phippses — oh how times have changed!
But even if we miss the days when the Phippses operated as the most successful of the owner/breeders, and even if the depth and breadth of their racetrack success was greater in days gone by, it is this current iteration that got them to the Kentucky Derby winner’s circle this past weekend with Golden Tempo — so they’re clearly still doing something right!
Finally, we would be remiss if we did not at least mention how well-deserved this Kentucky Derby victory was for Curlin as a sire. Third in the race himself in just his fourth career start before a victory in the Preakness-G1 and a 2nd in the Belmont-G1, three sons of Curlin had previously finished 2nd in this race (namely Exaggerator, Good Magic and Journalism) while he had already sired the winners of the Preakness (Exaggerator and Journalism) and Belmont (Palace Malice). Plus two sons of Curlin have themselves recently sired Derby winners (Keen Ice got Rich Strike, and Good Magic got Mage). So for Curlin to sire a Derby winner himself was long overdo. And, as has been mentioned in many other places, he was also the broodmare sire of this year’s 2nd-place Derby finisher Renegade (out of Curlin’s daughter Spice Is Nice) and the grandsire of this year’s 3rd-place finisher Ocelli (by Curlin’s son Connect).
 |
That family did trace back to a mare named Erin, bred and raced by the Wheatley Stable of Gladys Mills Phipps, who was the mother of the elder Ogden Phipps and his sister Barbara Phipps Janney.
Dancinginmydreams was originally named Remember Sister; it was changed before she raced.
Housatonic Recommended Matings for 2026 — Seville’s Princess |
||||||
|
||||||
 |
||||||
|
It is unusual, in this breeding landscape dominated by commerciality, to see a broodmare make multiple consecutive visits to the same stallion. Certainly, if a mare produces a good racehorse by a sire, she might be returned to him after that success becomes apparent. But she will have no doubt visited a variety of other stallions in the meantime, as b…
|
||||||
|