Bill and Donna Shively's connection with Lush Lips (GB) has come full circle at Keeneland. Six months after falling for the daughter of Ten Sovereigns (Ire) during last year's Fall Meet, the owners of Dixiana Farms are hoping the star filly can help deliver their first Grade I victory as owners in Saturday's GI Jenny Wiley Stakes.
Dixiana Farm is a long-time sponsor of Keeneland's GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes. In the paddock ahead of last year's race, the Shivelys singled out Lush Lips as the physical standout of the field.
Then owned by the partnership of Medallion Racing, Parkland Thoroughbreds, Hoffman Thoroughbreds, Mrs. Paul Shanahan and Mrs. M.V. Magnier, Lush Lips had never finished worse than second since joining Brendan Walsh's stable at the end of her 2-year-old season and was coming into the Queen Elizabeth II off a strong runner-up performance in the GI Del Mar Oaks.
The Shivelys' eye for talent proved prophetic when Lush Lips stalked the pace and handed the undefeated Laurelin (Ire) (Zarak {Fr}) her first loss, securing her own top-level breakthrough. It was a perfectly timed final victory for her Medallion Racing-led ownership group before she headed to the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
A few weeks later, Lush Lips was the first horse the Shivelys sought out when they went to shop the November Sale.
“We looked at some other horses, which were very nice as well, but when Bill asked me which one was my top pick, I told him it was Lush Lips,” Donna Shively recalled. “We thought, 'How much fun would it be if we had a horse that we owned together to watch race and see what she does in the future?'”
In recent years, the Shivelys have had good luck purchasing racing prospects at the Keeneland November Sale that would one day join their commercial breeding operation. In 2022, they went to $75,000 to buy the 4-year-old stakes winner Grand Ave Girl (Runhappy). The filly made five starts at the subsequent Turfway meet, scoring in the Wintergreen Stakes before retiring to Dixiana.
The Shivelys were confident Lush Lips could be the next standout success, though they recognized that securing a filly of her caliber would require a higher level of investment than their previous racing-to-broodmare ventures. When the dust settled on a spirited bidding war, it was the Shivelys who had landed the winning bid at $3.7 million.
After the hammer dropped, Medallion Racing's Phillip Shelton reflected on their partnership's experience of being the sellers of what would ultimately be the sales topper.
“All the stars aligned and full credit to the team at Keeneland,” he said. “Every major buyer in the world looked at her. We would have been happy at $3 million. I think anything less and she sold, we would have been a little bit disappointed. If she went out and won a bunch of Grade I races next year, which we hope she does for Dixiana, we might have been kicking ourselves wondering what should we have done. But at $3.7, I'll be Dixiana's biggest fan.”
Lush Lips wins the 2025 GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes | Coady
It didn't take long for Lush Lips to give Shelton and her new buyers something to cheer for. Remaining under the tutelage of Brendan Walsh, the filly returned to the winner's circle just three weeks after the sale for the GII Mrs. Revere Stakes. She further validated the Shivelys' investment in her 4-year-old debut this February, extending her win streak to three with a score in the GIII Honey Fox Stakes.
Lush Lips is the 5/2 morning-line favorite in a 10-horse field for the Jenny Wiley. The only filly to have won the Queen Elizabeth II and return the following race meet to capture the Jenny Wiley was Rushing Fall (More Than Ready) in 2019, but the Shivelys are fully confident their stable star is up to the challenge.
“Her last race was pretty spectacular in terms of numbers,” Bill Shively said. “I always tell everyone that in horse racing, it's one of those sports where if you win 20% of the time, you're doing okay. But I think she'll be tough and I think she's ready.”
While the Shivelys have bred several Grade I performers, Lush Lips would be the first to carry their colors to victory at the top level. Operating primarily as commercial breeders, the family typically races only a handful of homebred fillies. Their shift toward purchasing racing prospects to eventually bolster their broodmare band is a more recent endeavor.
“We've done it over the last four or five years,” said Shively. “But as soon as you do one thing and everybody else does it, you should do something else. You cannot stand still and you can't go with one plan, so what we've done in the past may not be what we do in the future. We'll see where the market opportunities are.”
He continued, “It was never our goal to be the top racing farm, but it was always our goal to breed a really good racehorse.”
Lush Lips tops the Keeneland November Sale, going for $3.7 million to Dixiana Farms | Keeneland
Since the historic property was purchased by Shively in 2004, Dixiana Farm's reputation as a breeder has grown. In recent years, graduates include Grade I winners Express Train (Union Rags) and Fionn (Twirling Candy). At last year's Keeneland September Sale, the operation sold its highest-priced yearling to date when a Flightline colt out of Layla, the Dixiana-bred full-sister to Express Train, brought $1.4 million. At the same auction, their colt by Jackie's Warrior brought $1.3 million.
With a broodmare band of about 50 mares, Dixiana Farm was listed as a top 10 breeder in North America last year.
“What makes this business fun for me is you can't do it quickly and you have to build it inch by inch,” Shively explained. “I feel like we've really spent the time building a good broodmare band and it's starting to show. For the number of mares we have, we were pretty high up on the breeder rankings. We feel like we're farmers growing a crop and our primary business is to grow a good crop.”
Breeding for turf has also become a priority for the Shivelys over the past decade.
“It literally says on the board of our conference room, 'Establish the legacy of Dixiana Farms as a leader in American turf racing and breeding,'” Shively shared. “We love grass racing. We love the full fields and when there are a lot of horses at the finish. Over the last 10 years, grass racing in America has come a long way.”
Lush Lips prepares for her bid in the GI Jenny Wiley Stakes | Sara Gordon
Another one of the Shivelys' goals is to win a race that their farm sponsors. They hope that one day, Lush Lips might have a daughter who could fulfill that dream if she were to compete in the Queen Elizabeth II.
While Shively said his son has a soccer game in Ohio on Saturday, they've worked out the logistics of making it back to Lexington for the Jenny Wiley's 5:16 post time.
“I always try to explain to my kids that all the horses in the field can run about equally fast,” he shared. “It's about who really wants to win. I mean, it's not like Lush Lips is out there killing the track record every time. She just seems to have that desire to win.”
Looking back, Shively admitted that at the time, the $3.7 million investment felt like a massive leap of faith, but he is grateful for the journey Lush Lips has already taken them on in these opening chapters together.
“After 25 years, you get a lot more confident in what you really want,” he said. “I wouldn't have done this in the first 20 years, I can tell you that. But I think we've seen what good horses can do, and she really fits the bill. We think she could win two or three Grade I races this year and it would be fabulous if she made it to the Breeders' Cup to close out her career. The fact that we are hosting the Breeders' Cup at Keeneland this year doesn't hurt either. She has won over a million dollars now and is a very special horse.”
The post Keeneland Case Study: Lush Lips a Full-Circle Success for Dixiana Farms appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
