Andrea Phipps, the matriarch of the Phipps Stable, died Tuesday in New York City after a short illness. She was the wife of Ogden Mills Phipps, the longtime chairman of The Jockey Club, and her family said a private celebration of her life will be held later.
For readers searching now, the news lands as the loss of a family figure tied to one of racing’s most familiar names. Phipps was the co-owner and breeder of Golden Tempo, which the family identified as a 2026 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner, a line that places her at the center of the stable’s modern story even as the announcement comes on a Tuesday in the present.
Phipps was a native of Oneonta, NY, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and later pursued a career as a registered nurse. That path gives the obituary a shape that goes beyond racing alone: she came from outside the rail-side world, built a life around service, and still became the person described by the family as the matriarch of the stable.
The Phipps Stable name carried weight long before this week. Over the past 20 years, the family campaigned graded stakes winners including Smuggler, Good Reward, Pine Island, Peristently, Point of Entry, Boisterous, Imagining and Mr. Speaker, a record that helps explain why her death is being read as a family and racing loss at once. The family also asked for donations to Let's Win Pancreatic Cancer or The Jockey Club Safety Net Foundation in lieu of flowers.
Andrea Phipps is survived by six children, 24 grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Ogden Mills Phipps died April 6, 2016, and with her passing now the family legacy moves to the next generation without the woman who anchored it. What remains unanswered is the illness itself, which the family did not identify.
