- 1 day ago
Daisy Phipps Pulito, the Racing Manager for Phipps Stables, co-owner of the 2026 Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo, appears on the first edition of the TDN Writers' Room Overtime. The Phipps family has been in racing for 100 years, and this was the first time that their iconic black and cherry silks were feted in the winner's circle. Phipps talks about what the historic achievement meant, and admits--with apologies to her children--that it was the best day of her life.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:17well so many wonderful people to talk to after this very memorable kentucky derby win by golden
00:23tempo we thought what we would do is we would create a second and even a third podcast we're
00:30going to have a regular podcast and then we're going to have the tdn writers room over time
00:34we stole that from 60 minutes by the way you ever notice that they have the 60 minutes over time
00:39and daisy phipps polito is going to be our first ever guest on a new concept here with the tdn
00:46writers room over time and and daisy welcome and first of all obviously congratulations on the
00:51great accomplishment uh representing the phipps family as the co-owner of golden tempo thank you
00:57thank you again yet no and i don't think it ever will and i hope it doesn't always totally sink
01:03in
01:03because uh these are life goals and dreams and i think they should be stay alive for a long time
01:10and daisy it was so one of the things that was so remarkable about this was the history of your
01:15family and uh in an earlier segment with sheree devoe randy talked about it going all the way back
01:21to the wheatley stable which would might have been your great grandmother perhaps yeah yeah and and uh
01:27and all the the just wonderful horses that the phipps have run over the years now the phipps family did
01:33um win a kentucky derby previously that was in uh with stewart janney uh the co-owners of orb but
01:40as i
01:40remember orb wore the janney colors yeah so this would be the first time that iconic cherry and
01:47black silks was lauded in the winner's circle at churchill downs on kentucky derby day how'd that
01:55make you feel proud really proud i mean what my grandfather and my father and my great-grandmother
02:01built that i got to reap the rewards of on saturday is absolutely amazing and that is not lost on
02:07me
02:08in the slightest bit and winning it um for saint elias and phipp stable in the phipp stable silks
02:15is something really special your grandfather registered those silks in 1932 when you get when
02:21you think about that that's just incredible it is incredible it's our 100 year anniversary this year
02:25oh my gosh so look almost all of the historic old school family dynasties and horse racing are gone
02:33they all disappeared phipps tables just about the last of the mohicans and what typically happens
02:39is that the family patriarch or matriarch passes away and the sons and daughters are just not interested
02:46in continuing in the sport and then they disappear yet your family has been intent on maintaining
02:53the tradition of the phipps family stable so what makes the phipps family different in that regard
03:00you know for for my generation and my brother and sisters and i that that own the stable together
03:06i think the one difference is and is my grandfather and my my father gave us unbelievable
03:15experiences at the racetrack with horses when we were growing up and we were 13 14 15 years old
03:21they had murderers row down in saratoga you know it was seeking the gold personal lens and
03:27easy go or miners mark you know all those horses and we got to to watch those and um and
03:35those were
03:35big days for us huge days for us we didn't play travel sports we went to the racetrack on the
03:41weekends
03:41like that's what we did you had school clothes and you had racetrack clothes like that's what we did
03:48and and we got to have those experiences and we were lucky enough to to have those experiences and
03:54and my family and i have talked a lot about it since the kentucky derby and the violas too like
04:00what happened on saturday we gave our children that experience and hopefully phipps stable can carry on
04:07after us do you feel pressure in maintaining the legacy of your family absolutely and i should
04:15i do i respect the sport immensely i respect the history of the sport immensely i respect what
04:22uh my dad my grandfather and my great grandmother built before me that that i get to to nurture now
04:28like yeah i feel immense pressure and i should it's an honor so daisy once again well bloody done
04:36um how did the old guard meet the new guard i know a lot of people are kind of wondering
04:43how did
04:43those famed cherry red and black silks join up with saint elias how how did that come about because you
04:51had
04:51a couple of lean years and it seems like you've kind of moved everything around a little bit
04:55so we had to move some stuff around and we had to make some changes um i can't remember exactly
05:03how
05:03we met vinnie and theresa um but we did and we were selling a colt in the september sale dynamic
05:12one
05:12and uh vinnie offered us a piece of his half of the horse and uh we campaigned that together and
05:21he
05:21got to the kentucky derby it didn't run very well but we had a great time and after that um
05:28you know
05:28we have a lot of meals together we talk together vinnie has been since my father passed away a very
05:34good person for me to lean on on different things and we just started talking about different ways that
05:40we could we could do stuff and one of the ways that he proposed to us is how about we
05:44partner on
05:45some colts out of your mares and um and we did that and and dynamic one is the first group
05:53that
05:53we did that with it allowed phipp stable to breed to the to the top stallions and now you're a
06:00florida
06:00panthers fan i do follow the panthers i do love them they've had a hell of a run those last
06:06two years
06:06good for them it's fantastic growing up how you grew up and being able to watch those famed horses
06:14throughout the years were you a bit more appreciative of it this time around would this go down as like
06:21one of the biggest days of racing for you in your life that you had so much to do with
06:26it yourself and
06:27your brother and sister i am incredibly proud of what saint elias and and us accomplished on saturday
06:34um you know i think it's very different from how most people do it randy you were saying it before
06:41most people go to the yearling sales or the two-year-old sale we breed it like we and i
06:46think
06:46that i don't know if that makes it more special or if it doesn't make it more special because i
06:50haven't done it the other way but the fact that me and walker uh walker hancock and bradley purcell
06:56sat in the claiborne office and did this mating eating jimmy john sandwiches and he was full there
07:03and he was raised there and his mother is you know his dam's there and her dam's there and her
07:09dam was
07:10there you know like i just it's all cool and you know there's a lot of history and hands over
07:17a long
07:17time that touched that horse and that is very special to me and daisy where and how did you and
07:24the violas come up with sherry devoe because let's not leave her out of the equation of course she's
07:30probably the most integral part of this right so um you know i i know that uh you you partnered
07:37with todd pletcher before obviously the phipp stable has a long long history with shug mcgay
07:41how does this horse uh wind up in sherry's barn monique monique delke who works for saint elias
07:49is in ocala she lives in ocala she's she's there year round she sees those horses when they're down
07:55there more than i do i'll go down once or twice a winter and check on them but monique and
07:59i are are on
08:00the phone a lot talking about the horses uh that are at barry iceman's and so we kind of just
08:05go
08:05through those and and decide what colts should go where uh we thought he was a perfect one for sherry
08:11we needed someone to be patient with him he wasn't the most forward horse probably he was always nice
08:18he was always a very nice horse but he probably needed a little bit more time which we gave him
08:22and
08:22and so we decided to send him to sherry um who had trained a couple others of ours and um
08:30and it worked
08:31out really well for all of us since saturday has anything surprised you or did orb sort of give you
08:38a good dress rehearsal for what to expect i don't think you know my father was in charge of the
08:47stable
08:47and and my cousin steward janney were in charge of this that horse at the time um but i this
08:56is
08:56overwhelming it really is it's overwhelming where would you rank this on days in your life
09:04it's the best day of my life my kids will be upset but this is my life
09:11child labor is not that fun
09:20i mean i they're great now i have a lot of joy with them it's great but that single-handedly
09:26was
09:26the greatest day of my life that incorporated everything you know when you have a plan like
09:32that and it takes so long to put together i mean that's four years in the making that anything can
09:38happen and this is everybody's dream and everybody's goal you know that doesn't normally happen
09:47so he didn't you gotta get there right yeah he didn't he didn't get to sherry till october of his
09:54two-year-old year what were the thoughts what did barry eisman tell you you know we just needed a
09:59little time he was kind of like a pudgy guy he wasn't like that fit you know he came into
10:05keelan and
10:05we kind of joked he had a big stomach on him and and he was here for a few weeks
10:11or a month and then
10:12he went down to the fairgrounds and just things started really turning around for him and he
10:18is a horse i'm not sure i've ever been around a horse that's that good that's that uncomplicated
10:27he's easy to be around um he's very straightforward he tries hard he you know he's just he's
10:36uncomplicated love it can you talk quickly about the dynamic between yourself sherry and monique
10:45because i mean you all three of you are unique in your own special ways i've known monique for a
10:50number of years from crew p she is a consummate horsewoman who's kind of always been in the
10:55background this is like her coming out party yeah and she deserves it she deserves it she
11:01deserves it she has done a hell of a job she is a pleasure to work with we work really
11:06well
11:06together uh we communicate really well together and i think she and sherry and i um it's just been
11:15it's been a joy where sometimes these things again get complicated and dacy you were mentioning
11:22you know the time when you were uh you know in your teens or even younger than you called it
11:26murderers
11:27row and and and seeing that great line of easy go and personal ensign and and all these great champions
11:33but um how aware are you of of even the earlier era and the greatness of the phipps family and
11:43the
11:43wheatley stable for instance you know what what did your father or grandfather ever tell you about bold
11:49ruler what did they ever tell you about buck passer what did they ever tell you about the fact that
11:54they own seabiscuit for a day and a half yeah or something like that how in tune are you to
11:58the
11:59history going back beyond the you know the great era that yeah i mean that's all the rewards we're
12:06reaping right now is all of that we've you know we still we can trace all your stuff all the
12:11way back
12:11to that it is incredible what they what they all did and and of course so much of the success
12:17was
12:17the broodmare band i i mean that you guys didn't go to the sales but you just churned out one
12:24great
12:24horse and they were all homebreds and uh is that still the main philosophy or yeah 100 okay so we're
12:32not going to see you spending a million dollars at the keeneland sale in september you might see me
12:36spending some money at the keeneland sale in september to buy a couple more phillies okay to put into
12:41our broodmare band to maybe support him when he goes to his dying career we spoke to sheree and
12:49she was obviously they had a camera on her for abr and we watched her root her horse home and
12:56she was
12:56very proud of the fact she didn't drop any f-bombs and it was all kind of very pc where
13:02were you
13:02how were you rooting and what were your thoughts when he hit the line in front
13:08i was in one of those winter circle suites the churchill gives you uh we were with our whole
13:13family and with uh vinnie and theresa and monique and it was uh i was behind my kids you probably
13:21saw
13:21that video of them all going nuts my my kids and my sisters and my brother's kids which is great
13:26those
13:27are those experiences that make you want to come back that's the greatest day of their life i've gotten
13:30texts from every single one of them thank you so much i love this that was the best day of
13:35my life
13:36you know they went back to school on monday they were heroes it was it's awesome this is what it's
13:43about that's so encouraging to hear that's fantastic yeah i mean and that is what for samantha lily
13:50ogden and i that run phipp stable and my mom that's what it's about and for vinnie and theresa and
13:56his
13:57kids and his grandchildren to have that experience to fall in love with the sport to fall in love with
14:03the horse it's for people who love horses and who love this sport that is yeah the best you want
14:11to
14:11pass it down yeah yeah very cool very good well well daisy thanks so much and and you said one
14:19thing
14:19that really resonated with me let's hope the phipp stable is still around a hundred years from now
14:25and it looks like you're laying the groundwork for that so that your grandchildren are going to have
14:31the same sort of success that you your father your grandfather and your great-grandmother had
14:37yeah that would be amazing and as randy said earlier it's so remarkable because we've seen
14:42virtually every one of these great stables disappear but the phipp stable so thank you and and and your
14:50mother and your brother for keeping the fifth name alive and again uh let's see those cherry black
14:56colors win the uh 2072 kentucky that would be fantastic i will be watching from above cheering
15:03on all right very good daisy thanks so much for being our guest and and once again congratulations
15:10thank you thank you
15:12thank you
15:15thank you
15:15thank you
15:17for getting started
15:19thank you
15:19thank you
15:19thank you
15:19You
Comments