photos BY STEWART BOWMAN, THE C-J Grooms bathed a stallion named Atticus one early morning at Three Chimneys Farm in Woodford County. The monument at left commemorates Seattle Slew, who won racing's Triple Crown in 1977 and moved to Three Chimneys in 1985. The farm stresses treating horses as individuals. Exercise rider Brian VanSteenbergh gave the stallion Rahy an early-morning workout. Few farms ride their stallions because of injury concerns. Three Chimneys stallion manager Sandy Hatfield knows the risks, but she also believes these morning workouts keep the horses fit and happy. The stallions are ridden six days a week on a mulch track near their barn.

Shortly after 7 a.m., attendants at Three Chimneys scatter through veils of fog into the farm's paddocks. The grass is still soaked in dew. One of the farm cats, Socks, reclines on the neat brick-lined walking track, licking her white front paw.

One by one, some of the world's finest retired thoroughbreds are led into the stallion barn. By 7:30, exercise rider Brian VanSteenbergh emerges on Silver Charm, the 1997 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner. Within minutes, the speckled white-and-gray horse whisks past under a controlled jog.

Few farms ride their stallions because of injury concerns. Three Chimneys stallion manager Sandy Hatfield knows the risks, but she also believes these morning workouts keep the horses fit and happy.

"After all, this is what they are bred to do," Hatfield said. "They enjoy it."

Take note, Smarty Jones. You have this to look forward to once your racing days are over.

Three Chimneys landed Smarty Jones' breeding rights last month after a recruiting war with nine elite Central Kentucky stud farms. The addition of Smarty Jones, who came within a length this spring of being racing's first Triple Crown winner since 1978, will give the farm another star racehorse at stud.

2001 Horse of the Year Point Given, who won the last two legs of the Triple Crown, stands at Three Chimneys alongside dual classic winner Silver Charm. So does Breeders' Cup Mile winner War Chant.

"It certainly continues to shine a very bright spotlight on a very successful farm," said breeder and former Kentucky Gov. Brereton Jones, owner of Airdrie Stud in Midway.

But Smarty Jones is not headed for the breeding shed just yet. He is expected to race twice before being shipped to Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, for the October Breeders' Cup. Then his future appears to be in the hands of owners Pat and Roy Chapman and trainer John Servis.

When Smarty does retire to stud, he'll join the other stallions on their ride six days a week on an undulating mulch track that encircles a paddock not far from the stallion barn.

"There's not many exercise riders who say they ride multiple classic winners," VanSteenbergh said. "Maybe Bobby Frankel's exercise rider — but not too many."

Riding the stallions is VanSteenbergh's sole job on the farm. It's just one example of the "boutique" approach to life and work at Three Chimneys, where the slogan emblazoned on workers' shirts tells the story: "The Idea Is Excellence."

Three Chimneys says its stallion philosophy is to provide owners a farm with a limited number of stallions where each horse gets personal attention and promotion. The farm stood nine stallions during the 2004 breeding season. None bred with more than 110 mares.

"The individual attention is key to the whole thing," said Dan Rosenberg, president of Three Chimneys. "The horses are individuals. They have distinct personalities. They have needs that are constantly changing."

Three Chimneys owner Robert Clay, who founded the farm on on 100 acres in 1972, has carefully expanded its size and scope over the years.

When Rosenberg started in 1978, the farm encompassed 100 acres, 20 mares and three employees ‹ himself included. "I was looking for a farm that wanted to grow," Rosenberg said. "Robert was looking for a farm manager who wanted to grow with him."

Having started Three Chimneys as a boarding operation, Clay added the farm's first stallion, Slew o' Gold, in 1985. Soon after, Seattle Slew arrived.

Today the farm sprawls across 1,700 acres in Woodford County and has 130 employees. Three Chimneys houses 225 mares year-round, with the number rising to 300 during the winter breeding season. It has seven divisions specializing in boarding mares, foaling babies, standing stallions and preparing yearlings for auction.

Rosenberg said the sales business is "certainly an important source of revenue for us." Still, the emphasis at Three Chimneys is on keeping auction consignments small and selecting the best horses for sale."

"I think we've carved out a pretty good niche doing that," said sales director Braxton Lynch. "We're concerned about quality over quantity."

Three Chimneys sold 75 yearlings at last September's yearling sale at Keeneland, including a sales-topping Gone West filly, who fetched $3.8 million. While the total number of horses sold was half as many as other sales agencies with larger consignments, Three Chimneys yearlings garnered nearly $11 million.

And Three Chimneys Sales consigned the record $2.4 million weanling Storm Cat colt sold at Keeneland's November breeding stock sale.

Rosenberg puts it this way: "I'd rather be Tiffany's instead of Wal-Mart."

The Chapmans clearly didn't want a department store. In announcing where Smarty Jones would stand at stud, Roy Chapman noted that Three Chimneys had experience handling visitors around stallions like Seattle Slew, Point Given and Silver Charm.

"They believe in limiting a stallion's book of mares, and they are experienced in standing an important horse and making him a success as a sire," Roy Chapman said.

Especially Seattle Slew. The only undefeated 3-year-old to win the Kentucky Derby until Smarty Jones matched the feat this year, Seattle Slew won racing's Triple Crown in 1977 and moved to Three Chimneys in 1985.

In the breeding shed, Seattle Slew sired more than 100 stakes winners, including 1992 Horse of the Year and last year's leading sire A.P. Indy. He was also a fan favorite. Since Three Chimneys stood its first stallion, the farm has become used to thousands of tourists ‹ including an estimated 10,000 annual visitors for Seattle Slew before his 2002 death.

"They know how to keep the horses contented yet expose them to the publicity they generally get," said Robert Lawrence, director of the University of Louisville's equine industry program. "And certainly Smarty Jones will get it."

The farm expects to draw more than 10,000 people a year to see Smarty Jones. But Rosenberg said any disadvantages caused by the addition of Smarty Jones will be minor inconveniences.

"When you have thousands and thousands of tourists, thousands and thousands of visitors, 99 percent of them are great," he said.

Three Chimneys also grabbed headlines in 1993 when Genuine Risk, the 1980 Kentucky Derby-winning filly, finally gave birth to her first foal after years of failure.

Genuine Risk owners Bert and Diana Firestone of Upperville, Va., continue to board all their mares at Three Chimneys ‹ the only Kentucky farm where the Firestones send mares.

"I have nothing but good things to say about them. They do a super job on their horses, and when the horses come back they look perfect and they're usually in foal," Bert Firestone said.

"They are really nice people to work with. They're very professional, very knowledgeable, and if anything happens ‹ the horse gets a scratch ‹ they're on the telephone telling you about it."