Daisy Phipps Pulito leaned over the wooden ledge of her clubhouse box and hugged Cherie DeVaux. An owner-and-trainer cocoon of an embrace amid the bedlam of celebration as Golden Tempo galloped out after winning the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Saturday evening.
Bred and owned by the Phipps Stable and St Elias Stable and ridden by Jose Ortiz, the 3-year-old son of Curlin posted bookends in this year’s Triple Crown. An upset victory after lagging 17 lengths off the pace in the Kentucky Derby and an authoritative win after lurking just 6 lengths back in the Belmont. The first for St Elias and the first for the Phipps Stable since Easy Goer won it in 1989. Thirty-seven years. Nothing’s changed, well, other than the celebrations in the bulwark of down-and-to-the-right boxes at the finish line of the grandest stage. Ogden Phipps II turned away from the track and raised his hands to the roof. Kids, grandkids, cousins, friends and family played the same playbook. It looked more like a Rage Against the Machine concert than a Saratoga celebration. Neither Gladys, Ogden or Dinny would have done it. But they would have loved it.
“I’m so proud of my family, so proud of Cherie, so proud of the horse, so happy for St Elias and Phipps Stable, for Claiborne Farm who foaled him,” Pulito said on her way down the stairs to the winner’s circle. “It’s just amazing, it’s just incredible, this is what we wake up for every day.”
Golden Tempo woke up in the Derby and stayed up for the Belmont, stamping himself as the clear leader of the 3-year-old class this year. Sent off fourth choice in the field of nine, the bay colt finished 1 1/4 miles in 2:03.49. Commandment bounced back from a seventh in the Derby to finish second while Renegade, runner-up in the Derby, finished third.
Without the expected pace of the Derby but in a field nearly half the size, this was going to be a different test for Golden Tempo, a late-running, stamina-laden colt who needed every stride of the Derby’s 10 furlongs to get the job done.
From the outside stall, Golden Tempo broke to the right and brushed the door, Ortiz slapped him on the shoulder twice and the miscue was erased in a matter of strides.
“I was able to drop back but in contact with them,” Ortiz said. “That was the key for me today with the lack of speed, I thought I could be last but in contact with them, that was my plan.”
Tic-tac-toe.
Maiden winner Powershift cleared from post two to lead into the first turn. Peter Pan winner Growth Equity set up to his outside. California longshot Vitruvian Man slid into third on the rail. Emerging Market, 10th in the Derby, slotted into fourth. Second choice Chief Wallabee bumped and bounced before finding a spot in fifth. Blue Grass runner-up Ottinho followed him. Favorite Renegade eased back into seventh. Commandment loped along on the outside. Golden Tempo angled to the rail, last but a zip code closer than his first turn position in the Derby.
Powershift took the field through the first quarter mile in :23.96 and a half in :48.29. The field tightened leaving the backside as Growth Equity took over and Chief Wallabee ranged to his outside after three quarters in 1:12.38. Irad Ortiz Jr. waited with Renegade before sliding out. John Velazquez looped Commandment in the clear. Jose Ortiz maneuvered Golden Tempo inside Commandment, following Renegade before splitting those two at the quarter pole. Game on.
“I was just there, traveling good,” Ortiz said. “Just asking him to go little by little because it takes a few askings until he gets going.”
Growth Equity clawed from the rail. Chief Wallabee looked poised and then hit pause. Renegade shot through a chasm and struggled to finish it off. Commandment and Golden Tempo hooked up widest of all, battling past the sixteenth pole. Golden Tempo gradually, resolutely pulled away, a head, a neck, a half-length and in the end a cool 1 1/4 lengths in front.
“He’s showing signs physically and mentally that he’s going to take another step forward. It was a lot slower of a pace, but he put himself in a better position. He’s just a lot more mature. Jose had to take back and save ground around the turn which was the right thing to do,” DeVaux said. “I’m not surprised he won, we are really grateful he did. I’m a little overwhelmed. It’s fun. It’s great. Everyone is excited. Again, it’s going to be one of these things that takes a little while to set in. Surreal as a word is overused but that’s what this is.”
For Pulito, it was way beyond surreal. It was a culmination or at least the continuation of a plan that her great grandmother Gladys Mills Phipps began when she established Wheatley Stable a century ago. Pulito’s grandfather, Ogden Phipps, and her father, Dinny Phipps, continued the legacy, focusing on breeding to race. And race in classic distances on the dirt. Nobody did it better. When Dinny Phipps died in 2016, the stable was left to his widow, Andrea, Pulito and her siblings Ogden II, Lilly and Samantha to keep it going or shut it down. They chose the former while making changes. Adding St Elias as a partner three years ago was one of those changes. Vinnie and Teresa Viola’s stable have partnered on all the Phipps Stable-bred colts ever since.
“Ogden and I, Lilly, Sam and my mom all love it but when you don’t have good horses for a couple of years, it gets hard. It’s hard to get a good horse. Golden Tempo came at the right time. I would say, he came at the right time,” Pulito said. “We breed classic horses. My great grandmother, my grandfather and father didn’t set this up to breed 6-furlong horses on the turf. That’s what we breed for, to win the classic races. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. I stay the course. I’ve got to stay the course. It’s in my blood.”
And in Golden Tempo. A sixth-generation homebred and a 57-year odyssey.
Ogden Phipps purchased Lady Pitt privately in 1969. The daughter of Sword Dancer fit the program. Ten wins, 14 seconds, five thirds in 47 starts in those iconic breed-shaping races – Coaching Club American Oaks, Mother Goose, Kentucky Oaks. Joining the Phipps’ broodmare band, she produced Blitey who began her own family tree of brilliance. She won the Test, the Maskette, the Ballerina and placed in the Imp, the Delaware Handicap. Seven furlongs to 10 furlongs, yeah, that kind of depth. She produced the likes of Home Leave, Dancing All Night, Dancing Spree, Fantastic Find, Oh What a Dance, Sabbatical and Furlough, there’s not enough space on this page to explain their exploits. The limbs expanded from there, breed to race. Colts ran, daughters ran and produced. And here came Golden Tempo, a late-developing, late-running, dirt-on-dirt throwback.
“My dad, my grandfather, my great grandmother, this is what they wanted to do. This is what they bred their horses to do. We got to reap those rewards today. All the hard work, the foundation that they put into those mares, that Claiborne put into those mares,” Pulito said as she and her 14-year-old son Charlie walked to the Carmen Barrera Room to celebrate. “They would be over the moon to see how this horse was campaigned and how our family can all be together. Everybody lives in different places, everybody has kids, horse racing brings us all back together. We’re rolling 25 strong in just immediate family. I was Charlie’s age when we had murderer’s row over there. Personal Ensign, Seeking The Gold, My Flag, all those horses. That’s what made us love horse racing. Now they get to experience a little bit of that and hopefully carry it on.”
Charlie smiled. A fifth-generation-horse-racing smile.
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