'We Owe Him A Good Retirement': Kentucky Derby Runner Dynamic One Retired To New Vocations After Keeneland April Sale

Dynamic One, a Grade 2 winner who competed in the 2021 Kentucky Derby, was purchased privately by Phipps Stable after Friday's Keeneland April Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale, and he was retired to begin training for his next career at New Vocations.

The 6-year-old son of Union Rags finished under his reserve during Friday's sale with a final bid of $95,000, and Phipps Stable bought out partners Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable with a $100,000 private purchase after the horse returned to the barn.

Daisy Phipps Pulito of Phipps Stable said the plan going into the sale was to purchase and retire Dynamic One if he did not meet his reserve. The horse will be gelded before going into his new career.

"Phipps Stable bred him and sold him," she said. "We were lucky enough to be able to stay in and enjoy him racing. He gave my family a lot of memories and enjoyment watching him run and rooting for him. I think everyone from owners, breeders and trainers, exercise riders, bloodstock agents and grooms should be good stewards of the industry, its history and its future. Dynamic One doesn't owe us anything but we owe him a good retirement."

New Vocations is a Thoroughbred retraining and adoption operation with locations in Kentucky, Louisiana, New York, Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania. Over 9,000 ex-racehorses have been placed in new homes through New Vocations.

"They have rehomed a few horses for us along with Stephanie Brennan's Final Furlong," Phipps Pulito said. "They both do a fantastic job and I have a good relationship with them."

Phipps Stable bought back in for a share of Dynamic One after selling him to Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable for $725,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. 

He was placed in the barn of trainer Todd Pletcher, and got off to a rather slow start, breaking his maiden in his fourth career race in March of his 3-year-old season. From that effort, he was entered in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial Stakes, where he made a closing move and was in the lead late, but he was caught by a head at the wire by 72-1 shot Bourbonic.

Dynamic One exited the Wood with enough qualifying points to make the gate for the 2021 Kentucky Derby. He was bumped early in the race, which left him unsettled throughout the rest of the race, ultimately finishing second to last.

Regardless of the outcome, Phipps Pulito said the Derby was one of her fondest memories of Dynamic One's racing career, for the opportunity it offered to get her family together in the same place.

"There are a lot of us spread throughout the country with busy schedules, and we cherish time that we all get to spend together with our children," she said.

After the Derby, Dynamic One reemerged at Saratoga Race Course to target the G1 Travers Stakes. He won the listed Curlin Stakes as a prep for the Travers, where he finished seventh to finish his season.

Dynamic One had arguably the most successful season of his career at age four, when he won the listed Blame Stakes at Churchill Downs, then parlayed that victory into a score in the G2 Suburban Stakes at Belmont Park. 

Racing at six this year, Dynamic One finished seventh in the G1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes. After finishing fourth in the G3 Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, he made his final start in the G3 Ben Ali Stakes at Keeneland, running six days before he went through the ring.