[Deathwatch] Owner Phipps, Thoroughbred Owner, 93

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Thoroughbred Owner Phipps Dead at 93 
Mon Apr 22, 2:46 PM ET 

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Ogden Phipps, a longtime cornerstone of
the thoroughbred racing industry, died Monday at Good Samaritan Medical
Center after a short illness. He was 93.

Phipps was a member and past chairman of The Jockey Club, and trustee
emeritus of the New York Racing Association. His daughter, Cynthia,
owns Kentucky Derby prospect Saarland.

"Racing has lost one of the truly great men of the 20th century," said
Barry K. Schwartz, chairman and CEO of the NYRA. "When one speaks of
'improvers of the breed,' no one epitomized it more than Mr. Phipps."

Phipps was a hands-on owner.

"He loved it, it's that simple," said his son, Dinny Phipps. "He loved
the breeding side, the foals and the mares. He went every 10 days this
winter to see his new crop of 2-year-olds. He got more excited by the
breeding side the older he was."

Dinny Phipps said his father was intently interested in Saarland and
the horse's prospects in the Kentucky Derby — a race his family has
never won.

"He talked about it last Wednesday and wished her well in the Derby,"
Dinny Phipps said. "He's been keeping up and was excited for his
daughter to have a shot."

Saarland's presence in the May 4 race gives Phipps' longtime trainer
Shug McGaughey his first Derby starter since 1989, when favored Easy
Goer finished second to Sunday Silence.

Sunday Silence also won the Preakness that year but his Triple Crown
bid was upset when Easy Goer won the Belmont Stakes. Phipps called that
race his greatest thrill in racing.

"I had waited a long time to win the Belmont Stakes," he said.

Dinny Phipps recalled his father's reaction to that victory. "I defy
anyone to be as overwhelmed with joy as he was that day," he said.

"I was not only blessed to have trained for Mr. Phipps, but I was also
blessed to have known him as a person," McGaughey said. "He was not
only an icon in this sport, but in this country as well. There are not
many people like him left in our world. He was a great man."

Phipps was actively involved with thoroughbred racing for about 70
years and raced stakes winners such as Buckpasser and the undefeated
Personal Ensign.

He won Breeders' Cup races with Personal Ensign in 1988, Dancing Spree
in 1989, and My Flag in 1995, and won Eclipse Awards as the nation's
leading owner and leading breeder in 1988 and as the nation's leading
owner in 1989.

Dinny Phipps said Personal Ensign was his father's favorite filly.
"Personal Ensign personified everything he believed," he said. "She
just had a foal the other day."

Personal Ensign retired undefeated, winning all 13 of her races even
after being sidelined with a broken left hind leg preparing for the
1986 Breeder's Cup Juvenile Fillies. She was named champion older filly
in 1988, completing her perfect career by beating Derby winner Winning
Colors in the Breeders' Cup Distaff in 1988 at Churchill Downs.

Phipps was a seven-time United States Court Tennis champion in the
mid-1930s and mid-1940s and won the British Amateur championship in
1949. He was inducted into the International Court Tennis Hall of Fame
in 2001.

He attended Harvard and was a Commander in the U.S. Navy (news - web
sites) during World War II.

Besides Cynthia Phipps and Dinny Phipps, he is survived by another son,
Robert L. Phipps, several grandchildren and great-grandchildren; and a
sister, Mrs. Hans C. Seherr-Thoss.

Funeral arrangements will be private.