Jerry Namy & Philip A. Sims

Trainer and co-owner Phil Sims, a 53-year-old native of Flemingsburg, Ky., began attending the races at Keeneland in Lexington, 60 miles from his family’s farm, when he was seven years old. His family raised cattle, grew tobacco and dabbled with Thoroughbreds. While he was in high school, Sims claimed fillies from the track, bred them and re-sold the ones that became pregnant. He raced the others. “I started training by default,” he said. Sims saddled his first horse in 1980. He stables his horses year-round at Keeneland and uses his 70-acre farm in Georgetown, 15 miles from Lexington, as a lay-up and training facility. Sims’ first Grade I stakes victory was with his long-time owner Nelson McMakin’s Hot Cha Cha in the 2009 Queen’s Elizabeth II Challenge Cup. Sims spoiled her with sweet potatoes, carrots and peppermints. Jerry Namy, a geologist who bought into Don’t Tell Sophia when she was three, fell in love with racing after his dad showed him the entries for the 1947 Kentucky Derby. Namy survived a 2009 plane crash that took the life of his friend, owner Kendall Hill, and of his business partner, Bob Schumacher. Namy races horses by himself and in partnership with Sims.