Loved her! Greatness and class – how old was she and what happened to her? I couldn’t access the article.
PennyG
She was really special, especially as she ran most of her races with pins in a hind ankle that she fractured at 2.
I was privileged to see her twice, once grazing next to Shug’s barn at Saratoga, and then at Churchill when she won the Breeders’ Cup. The friend who took me to the barn also pointed out a promising colt that had just won a maiden race - his name was Easy Goer.
TKR, she was 26 and the articles said she died of natural causes. She was born and raised at Claiborne Farm, and lived there after her racing career.
I know she nearly hemorrhaged to death after the birth of her last foal (or maybe it was the second-to-last baby, can’t remember).
Talk about prepotence. She really passed on that attitude as well as ability - My Flag and Storm Flag Flying were supposedly really tough to handle as well. Not a cuddly mare in the lot!
I sent my condolences to Claiborne through the website and received a very sweet note back from Daisy Phipps. I think they appreciate the thoughts; Personal Ensign was special indeed and it’s good to know that that hasn’t been forgotten.
A lovely article in today’s Bloodstock Journal:
Personal Ensign, undefeated Hall of Famer, dies
Personal Ensign was a phenom both on and off the track
Undefeated Hall of Famer PERSONAL ENSIGN (Private Account), who capped her 13-for-13 career with a dramatic win in the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1), died Thursday, the Phipps family announced Friday. The first high-caliber North American Thoroughbred to retire unbeaten since Colin in 1908, the 26-year-old mare succumbed to natural causes at her longtime home of Claiborne Farm near Paris, Kentucky.
Personal Ensign has been buried at Claiborne’s Marchmont Cemetery, where the Phipps family’s Easy Goer, Private Account, Numbered Account and Relaxing are also buried.
A homebred campaigned by the late Ogden Phipps, Personal Ensign was trained by Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey and ridden in all but one of her starts by Randy Romero.
“Personal Ensign was the first Breeders’ Cup winner for my grandfather and for Shug, and she was just a very special horse to everyone in our family,” Daisy Phipps Pulito said. “After her racing career ended, she was a big part of our broodmare operation. It’s a very sad day for all of us.”
McGaughey echoed those thoughts.
“She was a wonderful filly who overcame injury to win 13 straight races,” he said. “She certainly was one of my all-time favorites. She was a career-maker.”
Sired by Phipps standardbearer Private Account, and produced by the Hoist the Flag mare Grecian Banner, Personal Ensign was foaled at Claiborne on April 27, 1984. Her pedigree featured 5 x 4 inbreeding to 1937 Triple Crown winner, War Admiral.
Before she made her career debut as a juvenile, her year-older brother, Personal Flag, showed talent by placing in the 1986 Haskell Invitational H. (G1), Travers S. (G1) and Woodward S. (G1). Although Personal Flag went on to become a millionaire, capturing such major events as the 1987 Widener H. (G1) and 1988 Suburban H. (G1), his accomplishments were destined to be overshadowed by the historic career of his younger sister.
Personal Ensign made quite an impression in her first start. Dispatched as the 4-5 favorite, she romped by 12 3/4 lengths in a seven-furlong maiden at a muddy Belmont Park in late September 1986. The bay filly revealed her battling qualities next time out in the Frizette S. (G1), where she dueled early and ultimately prevailed by a head as the 1-5 choice.
Then Personal Ensign’s promising two-year-old campaign was brought to a sudden halt, and her entire racing future threatened. She fractured her left hind pastern, which was surgically repaired by the insertion of five screws. The force of her own unique personality was even stronger than those metal screws.
Brought back with the greatest care by McGaughey, Personal Ensign reappeared from her 11-month convalescence in a Belmont allowance, and the 3-5 shot proceeded to dust Ashland S. (G1) winner Chic Shirine by 3 3/4 lengths. After an even more emphatic, 7 3/4-length allowance triumph in her next outing as the 1-5 choice, she returned to the graded stakes level. Personal Ensign dominated the Rare Perfume S. (G2) in front-running fashion, as a 4-5 chance should, defeating Canadian champion One from Heaven by 4 3/4 lengths.
Just eight days later, Personal Ensign took on older distaffers in the 1 1/4-mile Beldame S. (G1). For the only time in her career, she was not sent off as the odds-on favorite, with that honor going to a five-pronged entry comprising Wayne Lukas and Nerud family interests. The betting public would not make the same mistake again. Personal Ensign, the 6-5 second choice, duly rolled home by 2 1/4 lengths from the classy five-year-old Coup de Fusil, who had won three straight Grade 1 events going into the Beldame and was part of the entry. With four terrific efforts compressed into roughly six weeks, she was put away for the rest of the year.
Personal Ensign kicked off her championship four-year-old season by powering to a 1 3/4-length score in the 1988 Shuvee H. (G1) at Belmont. Next time out in the nine-furlong Hempstead H. (G1), she galloped by seven lengths in a sharp 1:47 3/5, spotting runner-up Hometown Queen 14 pounds in the bargain. Personal Ensign then overcame a 125-pound impost, as well as a rough trip, en route to an eight-length demolition job in the Molly Pitcher H. (G2) at Monmouth, her first sortie away from Belmont.
Having established her supremacy over fellow distaffers, Personal Ensign set her sights on males in the historic Whitney H. (G1) at Saratoga. In a short field of three, she beat eventual champion sprinter Gulch by 1 1/2 lengths in the slop, with the veteran King’s Swan 17 lengths astern in third. Gulch was finishing runner-up in the Whitney for the second straight year; in 1987, he was collared late by Java Gold. Back at Belmont, Personal Ensign reeled in Kentucky Derby (G1) heroine Winning Colors by three-quarters of a length in the Maskette S. (G1) in a quick 1:34 1/5 for the mile, and coasted to a 5 1/2-length title defense in the Beldame in her farewell to Big Sandy.
Personal Ensign put her perfect mark on the line in the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Churchill Downs, in what turned out to be one of the most exciting contests in racing history. While future Hall of Famer Winning Colors tried to emulate her wire-to-wire Derby victory at the same track, and was bowling along on the lead, Personal Ensign was spinning her wheels in the mud and found herself far back turning for home.
For a filly who had routinely raced on, or within striking distance of, the early lead, Personal Ensign appeared to be up against it. But the bespattered bay somehow dug deep, and willed herself to gain traction, down the stretch. Rallying boldly, she began to erase the deficit, and the only question was whether the wire would come in time for Winning Colors. A relentless Personal Ensign thrust her nose in front in the nick of time, to enshrine herself forever in the annals of racing lore.
Retired to Claiborne Farm with a bankroll of $1,679,880, Personal Ensign was named champion older female for 1988. In tandem with full brother Personal Flag, she lifted their dam Grecian Banner to Broodmare of the Year honors in 1988. Only five years later, Personal Ensign was voted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame. Another tribute was forthcoming when the New York Racing Association renamed the John A. Morris H. (G1), a 1 1/4-mile test at Saratoga, in honor of Personal Ensign in time for the 1998 running.
Personal Ensign was also a highly successful producer. Honored as Broodmare of the Year herself in 1996, she produced three Grade 1 winners from 11 foals, and her offspring have earned $3,727,623. Her first foal, Miner’s Mark, won six of 18 races, including the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) in 1993, and earned $967,170.
Her fourth foal, My Flag, tallied four Grade 1 wins during her career – the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies in 1995 and the Ashland S., Coaching Club American Oaks and Gazelle H. in 1996. Overall, My Flag won six of 20 starts, earned $1,557,057 and subsequently produced champion and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Storm Flag Flying. A four-time Grade 1 queen and $1,951,828 earner, Storm Flag Flying scored a poignant triumph in the 2004 edition of the Personal Ensign.
Personal Ensign’s sixth foal, Traditionally, won five of 20 starts, including the Oaklawn H. (G1) in 2001, and banked $495,660. Personal Ensign also produced multiple Grade 1-placed Our Emblem (who sired 2002 Kentucky Derby victor War Emblem), Grade 2-placed Salute and Grade 3-placed Proud and True. Her final foal, a Forest Wildcat colt, died as a yearling in 2007. When Personal Ensign was barren that same year, she was retired from the breeding shed and lived out the rest of her days as a pensioner.
Personal Ensign continues to exert a legacy through her daughters. Current Kentucky Derby hopeful Interactif (Broken Vow), a leading contender in Saturday’s Blue Grass S. (G1), claims Personal Ensign as his third dam. Kentucky Oaks (G1) aspirant Seeking the Title (Seeking the Gold), a close, dead-heat third in her stakes debut in the March 26 Fair Grounds Oaks (G2), is a granddaughter of Personal Ensign.
Personal Ensign was much in the news last year, when Zenyatta (Street Cry [Ire]) equaled her unbeaten streak in the Lady’s Secret S. (G1) in October, then surpassed it by extending her mark to 14-for-14 in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) in November. Zenyatta padded her resume to 15-for-15 in the March 13 Santa Margarita Invitational H. (G1).
Hence it was ironic, one of those sublime twists of fate, that news of Personal Ensign’s death should come on Friday, just hours before Zenyatta was to seek continued perfection in the Apple Blossom (G1) at Oaklawn Park.
**
“Looking back, even her maiden race was impressive. She had trained well going into it, but you always like to see them put it out there on the racetrack, and she did.”
—trainer Shug McGaughey on undefeated Hall of Famer PERSONAL ENSIGN’s (Private Account) 12 3/4-length maiden romp at Belmont Park on September 28, 1986
“I hadn’t been getting on her in the mornings, but her exercise rider had told me she could really run. She was very frisky before that first start, and was slow breaking from the gate, but when I asked her, she swooped to the lead and never looked back. It took one race for me to know she was the best I had ever ridden.”
— Randy Romero, Personal Ensign’s regular rider, on what her maiden win told him
“They ran the Matron (G1) the same day (as her maiden race), and she ran faster than the winner (1:22 4/5 versus Tappiano’s 1:23 2/5 in the seven-furlong Matron), which is why I nominated her to a Grade 1, the Frizette, in her next start. She had to run a little bit in the Frizette (scoring by a head), which is the day I think she learned what it was all about.”
—McGaughey on why he pitched Personal Ensign straight into the Frizette off her maiden race
Personal Ensign subdued champion Gulch in the Whitney (Courtesy of NYRA)
“I’ll never forget the Whitney. It was a muddy day, and Gulch and King’s Swan were battling it out on the front. I was able to get Personal Ensign to settle in third, and at the five-sixteenths pole I urged my mare and she just swallowed them. She was much the best that day.”
—Romero on Personal Ensign’s victory over males in the 1988 Whitney H. (G1) at Saratoga
“I was very anxious for most of her races, because there were a lot of variables for each – facing colts, running in a Grade 1 coming off a seven-month layoff – but the one race I really enjoyed watching was the 1988 Beldame. I remember telling myself as we walked out of the paddock, ‘She’s the best. Just sit down and enjoy it.’ I had confidence going in that she would run well, and if she broke well, I knew she would run well.”
—McGaughey on Personal Ensign’s title defense in the 1988 Beldame, where she rolled home by 5 1/2 lengths
**
Also from Bloodstock Journal, The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) has uploaded the replays from all 11 races that undefeated Hall of Famer PERSONAL ENSIGN (Private Account) won on the NYRA circuit, from her dominant two-year-old debut to her stirring Maskette (G1) victory over Winning Colors. The races are available on NYRA’s official YouTube site, located at http://www.youtube.com/user/NYRAvideo#grid/user/8ADBB2A90288191C
Thanks for the correction. I knew that both My Flag and Storm Flag Flying both won the Filly Juvenile, but couldn’t remember which one beat Cara Rafaela. Anyway the picture of that finish and the one of Personal Ensign and Winning Colors are eeriely similar.
Had a grandson of hers, lovely horse. Great mind.
R.I.P.
