by Amy Gregory
from THE THOROUGHBRED RECORD, January, 1985
(Photos by Z)
Robert Clay has expanded his Three Chimneys Farm to 850 acres and has a champion as the first resident of his stallion complex
In late 1971, Robert Clay purchased 100 acres of prime farmland just off the Old Frankfort Pike between Lexington and Midway, Kentucky. He paid only $1,000 an acre for the property, a fact which brings a smile to his face these days. After completing the purchase, Clay immediately remodeled a tobacco barn to house 20 broodmares.
As a businessman, Clay realized that the prospects for success of his venture lay in defining a plan of action, and then giving it ample time to develop. His course of involvement proved easy to chart, mainly because he had been mulling it over in his mind since his days in graduate school at the University of Kentucky. During that time, Clay spent many nights at the Spendthrift Farm foaling barn. In the mornings, he would make the rounds with Harry Schmidt, then broodmare foreman at Spendthrift, and later spend several hours riding with veterinarian Jim Smith, before going to class in the afternoon. The exposure piqued his interest in bloodstock, and Clay eventually sought to develop his Three Chimneys Farm into a top-quality commercial breeding establishment.
Today, Clay says he never dreamed the farm would grow to its present size. His current challenge is to maintain Three Chimneys as a small, personalized operation. Clay has adhered to his initial goals and assumed new responsibilities during the farm's development over the past 14 years.
Three Chimneys now encompasses roughly 850 acres; the original 100-acre tract having been expanded to include three additional farms, each one averaging between 200 and 250 acres. Clay's holdings include Three Chimneys and Kenirey Stud, both broodmare farms, the latter of which was owned in partnership with the late Capt. A. D. D. Rogers; Sheffield Farm, which is the yearling division; a 92-acre stallion complex located directly across the road from Three Chimneys; and Canewood, which Clay purchased in March of 1984 from Dr. William Lockridge's Ashford Stud, and is yet undeveloped. Clay originally acquired 500 acres from Ashford, though he later sold half of the land to Sheik Maktoum bin Rashid al Maktoum's Gainsborough Stud.
The farm's physical growth is due in large part to the increase in the number of horses falling under the Three Chimneys domain. From his initial beginnings with 20 mares boarded in the converted tobacco barn, the figures have increased to a total of 113 broodmares, 90 of which are boarded for farm clients, with the remainder owned by Clay and various partners. Three Chimneys has shown additional growth in the area of sales preparation and selling of both breeding stock and yearlings.
One facet of the breeding business Clay did not originally pursue was that of standing stallions at Three Chimneys. That has changed within the past 1 1/2 years, however, during which time he successfully syndicated champions Slew o' Gold and Chief's Crown.
"For several years, Dan Rosenberg (Three Chimneys's farm manager) and I said that we were not going to get into the stallion business until we got a break on a really good horse," Clay said. "We thought it might be a horse we raised ourselves, or perhaps one of our clients would give us an opportunity to stand a top horse. However, we got the break we had been looking for when we were given the opportunity to stand Slew o' Gold."
Bred by the Hancock family's Claiborne Farm on a foal-sharing arrangement with Equusequity Stable, Slew o' Gold is a member of the first crop of Seattle Slew and is out of the Buckpasser mare Alluvial, thus making him a half brother to 1979 Belmont Stakes winner Coastal. The colt raced in the name of Equnsequity (of which Dr. Jim Hill and Mickey Taylor are managing partners) throughout his career. He won 12 races during three seasons, and earned $3,533,534. He was voted champion three-year-old in 1983 and earned honors as champion older male in 1984. His sweep of Belmont's Fall Championship Series, as well as his second-place finish in the Grade I Breeders' Cup Classic, has made the colt a leading contender for Horse of the Year.
Slew o' Gold first attracted the attention of Clay at the 1983 Kentucky Derby. Despite the colt's fourth-place finish behind winner Sunny's Halo, Clay concluded at the time that Slew o' Gold offered the right blend of pedigree, conformation, and potential racing ability to make him a promising stud prospect.
"Slew o' Gold had won the (Grade I) Wood (Memorial Stakes), and in the Derby he got boxed in and never had a chance to run until it was too late," Clay said. "So I wrote a letter to Jim and Mickey, and explained what I wanted to do with this whole operation. I told them that this horse had everything I thought he needed. He had the pedigree, the conformation, and obviously he had the ability.
"I saw Jim in July after Slew o' Gold had subsequently run second in the Belmont, and he told me they were working on another deal, so of course I was disappointed," he added. "But when I ran into them again in August, they told me the deal had fallen through. I then went to New York to see the colt run in the (Grade I) Whitney (Handicap) and the (Grade I) Marlboro (Cup Invitational Handicap). Afterward I left for Spain, where Mickey called me from Washington state and asked me if I was still interested in standing the horse."
Clay was indeed still interested, and an announcement that the colt would eventually stand at Three Chimneys was made during early October of 1983, before Slew o' Gold triumphed in the Grade I Jockey Club Gold Cup.
Slew o' Gold was syndicated into 40 shares, with Equusequity originally retaining 26 shares, 16 of which were sold in 1984. Those who purchased shares in the colt at his time of syndication in 1983 participated in his purse earnings.
'One of the things I wanted to do was to attract a top group of people to participate in my first syndicate," Clay said, "and fortunately, I was able to attract a group of top shareholders." Among those who originally purchased shares in Slew o' Gold are Mrs. Richard C. duPont, Stavros Niarchos, Sheik Maktoum al Maktoum, Will Farish and Warner L. Jones Jr., Bert Firestone, Walter Haefner, Arno Schefler, Albert Clay, and John C. Mabee.
At the time of Slew o' Gold's syndication in 1983, Clav remarked that he hoped "that if we start with a top horse, others will come along." The premise held true, though the reaction to Slew o' Gold's successful syndication elicited interest from others sooner than Clay had anticipated.
Following Chief's Crown's victory in the Grade I Norfolk Stakes at Santa Anita on October 27, 1984, Clay received a call from the Rosen family inquiring about his interest in syndicating the colt for racing and breeding purposes. They contacted Clay after a shareholder in Slew o' Gold passed a copy of that colt's syndicate list to the Rosens, and Clay said that the syndicate put together for Chief's Crown was composed of essentially the same shareholders as that of Slew o' Gold. The Rosens sold a half-interest in Chief's Crown for a reported $10-million, retaining 20 shares in the colt, with the remaining 20 shares offered at $500,000 each.
Bred by the late Carl Rosen, and racing in the colors of the Rosen family's Star Crown Stable, Chief's Crown's performances at two aided his sire, Danzig, in setting an earnings record as both a juvenile sire and a first-crop sire. Chief's Crown descends from the champion mare Chris Evert, whom Carl Rosen campaigned to win New York's Triple Crown for Fillies in 1974. As in the case of Slew o' Gold, Clay realized success almost immediately after the colt's syndication. On November 10, Chief's Crown galloped to victory in the Grade I Breeders' Cup Juvenile, clinching his bid for two-year-old champion, and establishing him as the early favorite for the spring classics.
Three Chimneys could be called something of a family affair as Clay credits his wife, Blythe, for her active role in entertaining clients and in customer relations for the farm. The Clays have two children‹Heather, 13, and Case, 11.
Clay is the son of Albert G. Clay, a Harvard graduate who served as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, vice chairman of the University of Kentucky board of trustrees, chairman of the Burley Auction Warehouse Association, and operator of Clay Tobacco Company. The elder Clay, a founding member of the American Horse Council, became interested in Thoroughbred racing and breeding in the mid-1960s. He campaigned his first stakes winner, the Northern Dancer mare Aladancer, to win a division of the 1972 Firenze Handicap.
A native of Lexington, Robert Clay grew up in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, where his father continues to breed Thoroughbreds. Clay graduated from William & Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia, with a B. A. in business administration and later attended graduate school at the Universitv of Kentucky. He served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy from 1969-'71, when he returned to Lexington to become a partner with his father in the Burley Belt Fertilizer Company. The Burley Belt company developed into Top Yield Industries, which Clay sold to Minneapolis-based Cargill, Inc., in March of 1984.
"Eighty percent of my time was spent taking care of the Top Yield business," Clay said. "When Slew o' Gold came along, I decided to sell the company and enjoy the farm."
Today, Clay not only channels his energies toward the growth and upgrading of Three Chimneys but the Thoroughbred industry as a whole. He presently serves as a member of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, Inc., and the American Horse Council, as well as president of the Thoroughbred Club of America.
"I think basically all the organizations in the industry are somewhat fragmented now in purposes and direction," Clay said. "The first step is to get everyone together and coordinate a plan among themselves as to how this business should go about creating more demand for our product.
"There is a leadership void in the industry, and we are not able to compete with the other entertainment sports because we don't have a central marketing program. We have many organizations, and leaders, but not any one organization has taken the lead to say this is our plan of attack and this is how we are going to go after the entertainment dollar. Until we clearly define the way in which we want to compete and take affirmative action to carry out that plan, then we are in serious trouble.
"I would like to see racing on television, possibly cable television, every afternoon," he added. "Educate and interest children in the sport of racing. The argument has been made that if you have televised racing, you are going to hurt track attendance. But the more people know about a sport, the more they are inclined to attend and participate. I don't think tennis would be as popular a sport as it is today without the help of television.
"People are looking for places to go, and we should work on enhancing racing's image. For example, at Saratoga and Oaklawn Park you can see where they have done a good job marketing the sport of kings. They have the family involved, and going to the races becomes a social event. I know it's not a simple problem, especially in metropolitan areas. It's a situation that is going to take a very concentrated effort."
|n all facets of Clay's business, he continually returns to the idea that success can be achieved if one develops a course of action and then has the tenacity to stick with that plan despite setbacks or frustrations.
"This business requires a lot of knowledge and constant action, and the best advice I could give someone just entering the industry is to find a good adviser‹someone you can trust, who will be honest with you concerning the risks involved, and will help you to develop a plan of operation. I see a lot of people come in and buy mares, yearlings, and stallion shares, and then they might decide io sell weanlings. There is total inconsistency as to whether they are developing breeding stock or a racing stable. Many people make sporadic decisions and don't stick with any one course long enough to be successful."
Clay sold his first yearling as part of a onehorse consignment in the 1973 Keeneland September yearling sale. Consigned by Three Chimneys Farm, as agent for his father, Clay sold a colt by Bold Tactics out of the Native Dancer mare Jungle Beat to Frank Donovan for $37,000. That colt turned out to be George Navonod, winner of the De Anza, Cabrillo, Sunny Slope, and Norfolk Stakes, who was weighted below only Foolish Pleasure and L'Enjoleur on the 1974 Experimental Free Handicap. George Navonod represented not only the first stakes winner to be campaigned by Donovan, but the first added-money winner bred by Albert Clay.
From that initial one-horse consignment, Clay has gradually developed Three Chimneys into a leading consignor and buyer at the summer select yearling sales, as well as the Keeneland November and January breeding stock auctions. Last year, Three Chimneys sold a colt by Northern Dancer out of the Round Table mare Zonely to Darley Stud Management for $2.4-million at the Keeneland summer select sale. Four months later, Three Chimneys, as agent, became the leading consignor, in average among those with three or more sold, at the Keeneland November breeding stock sales. Three of the four mares sold in the consignment brought over $1-million, including the multiple stakes-winning mare Love Sign, in foal to Seattle Slew, who went to Arthur Appleton for $4.1-million. Three Chimneys also sold the sale's top-priced weanling, a full sister to champion Gold Beauty, who was included in the dispersal of the horses of Philip and Georgia Hofmann. The filly was purchased by BBA (England) for $625,OOO.
In addition to those mares boarded for clients, Three Chimneys owns some 20 mares in various partnerships. These broodmares are acquired both privately and at public auction, such as the stakes-winning and stakes-producing mare Sweet Rhapsody, purchased in foal to Ela-Mana-Mou for $630,000 at the 1984 Tattersalls December sale, and Show Lady, a daughter of 1982 Broodmare of the Year Best in Show, who was bought in foal to Nijinsky II for $1.3-million at the 1983 Keeneland November sale. Clay said he looks for young mares with depth in their families, and who have the credentials to produce a select sale yearling.
Three Chimneys owns shares in such stallions as Fappiano, Foolish Pleasure, *Forli, Raise a Native, Raja Baba, Shareef Dancer, Sharpen Up (GB), Stop the Music, Halo, and Vigors, in addition to those shares in Slew o' Gold and Chief's Crown.
"There are so many stallions around that you've got to be selective," Clay said in reference to future prospects for the farm's growing stallion corps. "You've got to wait a long time for the opportunities. We designed our six-stall stallion barn so that it cannot be expanded. Of course, we would ultimately like to stand six stallions, but it's the caliber of the horse that we're concerned with."
The recently completed stallion complex is the centerpiece of Three Chimneys. It houses six stalls, each measuring 16x16 feet, and each fitted with two doors that lead to the outside and one door which leads to the center of the barn, allowing the stallion views in three different directions. The center of the barn is an open area designed for showing the stallions in case of bad weather. The center area measures 56 feet across and features a skylight overhead. Clay said the entire barn was designed with proper ventilation as the main concern. A 40-foot circular breeding shed is currently being completed and will be attached to the back of the complex. In addition six paddocks lie adjacent to the stallion barn, averaging approximately two acres each.
The various farm divisions are separate physical properties, each not more than 250 acres, and staffed by individual farm managers. Dan Rosenberg, who came to Three Chimneys in 1978 after working as broodmare foreman at Calumet Farm, supervises the entire farm operation. Clay feels that several small, individual farms aid in proper disease control and allow for more personalized attention.
There are a total of 11 barns, all but two of which have been contructed bv Clay. Sheffield Farm boasts two unique 20-stall yearling barns, one for colts and another for fillies. The barns are built of concrete block, and feature indoor walking rings which encircle the shedrows. In the center is an open-air court used for showing yearlings prior to their shipment to the sales.
Clay currently has four horses at the track, though he said it is not his intention to develop a racing stable. Among them is a Sensitive Prince colt in training with Tommy Kelly, a Halo filly with Steve Penrod, and an Alleged filly in England with Henry Cecil. A number of stakes winners have been bred or raised by Three Chimneys, including Northern Tempest, winner of Italy's Grade I Gran Criterium in 1983; French Charmer, who took the Del Mar Oaks and San Clemente Stakes in 1981; and Proctor, winner of the 1981 Rutgers Handicap.
Clay said that he enjoys racing, but at this point he is content to pursue his original plan of developing and upgrading Three Chimneys as a breeding operation.
"I think our basic goal for the future is to try to stay small," he said. "We would like to upgrade the quality of our stock, and at the same time raise good horses without abusing our land. It's not our intention to become a big, commercial operation. We would prefer to stay very personalized. That's a big challenge."
