by Ruthie Bowen
from SPUR, January/February 1987
Three Chimneys ventured into the stallion market with caution, but that doesn't begin to explain how they now stand three champions and two leading sires
Three Chimneys' general office is painted in one of the Williamsburg colors - distinctly Early American. The frame building seems unpretentious, but actually it is rather grand - probably just the way owner Robert Clay likes it: an appearance of simplicity but on inspection rich with quality.
Hardwood floors are covered with oriental rugs; large window-walls give views of the new stallion barn where the farm's five stallions are housed including the newest arrival, Nijinsky's classic-winning son Sharistani The quality is also mirrored by the display of the three Eclipse awards won by Three Chimneys' studs during their racing days.
Clay's involvement with Thoroughbreds began early; his father, Albert G. Clay, was an owner-breeder who was instrumental in forming the American Horse Council. With that lobbying organization the father helped thwart a national tax bill that could have devastated horsemen. Yet with that background and an already successful Thoroughbred farm it was only a few years ago that the son made his bold move into the stallion business.
"I had thought quite a lot about getting into the stallion end of the business, but I told myself that I wasn't going to make that kind of move until the right horse came along," Clay recalls.
The horse fitting that description came along in 1983 in the form of talented 3-year-old Slew o' Gold. From the first crop of Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, Slew o' Gold was bred by the Hancock family at their Claiborne Farm. He was part of a foalsharing arrangement with the Equusequity Stable racing syndicate managed by two of Seattle Slew's owners, Dr. Jim Hill and Mickey Taylor. In addition to his attractive sire line, Slew o'Gold also was from a very desirable female family. A son of Buckpasser mare Alluvial, he was a half-brother to 1979 Belmont Stakes winner Coastal.
When Slew o'Gold finally did go to stud it was to Three Chimneys which Clay founded in 1971 with the purchase of 100 acres of bluegrass between Lexington and Midway, Kentucky. Clay made the move into the Thoroughbred industry with some good experience under his belt including a bachelor's degree in business administration from William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia - probably explaining his taste in architecture - three years as a United States Naval lieutenant and a partnership with his father in the Burley Belt Fertilizer Company which later became Top Yield Industries.
During graduate school at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Clay expanded what he had learned of the Thoroughbred business from Spendthrift Farm broodmare manager Harry Schmidt, making rounds with veterinarian Jim Smith, and helping in Spendthrift's foaling barn. It was not the idle lifestyle of youth but it was a surefire way to learn the practicalities of the horse industry.
When he decided to buy his own farm he picked the name because the main residence on the property had three chimneys. Clay paid $1,000 per acre for the undeveloped farmland; since then he has paid as much as $13,000 an acre for developed property just across the road.
Initially the farm housed 10 broodmares in a converted tobacco barn. After a year of operation, the farm offered a one-horse consignment to the Keeneland Fall Yearling Sale as agent for the breeder - Clay's father. The yearling brought about $37,000 and turned out to be major graded-stakes winner George Navanod.
Three Chimneys expanded rapidly after that and Clay credits much of the growth to the late breeder, Captain A.D.D. Rogers, founder of the famous Airlie Stud in Ireland. The farm now has four different farm sites which are distinct divisions; it is a plan which Rogers used for Airlie.
"There is not always enough land in one place to handle all the needs of a farm," Clay says, "so while this arrangement is something that sort of evolved it is something that I find very much desirable. In fact, it was Tim Rogers who first made me aware of its advantages."
Rogers had purchased a yearling from Three Chimneys' growing consignment then came to the farm to see the mare. Clay liked the Irishman and invited the captain to stay on as his house guest.
"After I had invited him to come stay with us," Clay says, "I drove him through this farm that was for sale. He looked it over and said, 'If you want to buy this farm, I'll take half.' "
The land was a 100-acre tract located near Clay's original plot.
"I spent the rest of that morning on the phone trying to find out who this guy really was, and we bought it," Clay recalls. "It was perfect. It was lO0 acres; I knew I needed more land, but I just couldn't afford it."
In addition to a good friendship, Clay maintains that he and Rogers had a "perfect" partnership. The tract of land, named Kenirey (a combination af a the first three letters of the words the Kentucky and Ireland) was a 50-50 partnership. And Clay and his wife Blythe still are friends with the captain's widow Sonja, owner of major of stakes winner Glow.
Kenirey remains part of the Three Chimneys operation. The whole operation is known as Three Chimneys but there are four sub-units. Clay's current holdings include the his original Three Chimneys and the Kenirey property, which both serve as broodmare farms; the 135-acre Sheffield Farm, which is the yearling division; and a 92-acre stallion complex located just across the road from the main tract. Each location operates somewhat independently but all are supervised by general manager Dan Rosenberg along with separate division managers.
Rosenberg who came to Three Chimneys eight years ago from Calumet where he was the farm's broodmare manager, says Clay is a very involved owner. "He does all the syndications, partnerships, long-range goal planning financial and policy (decisions). He's not the kind of boss that second guesses you and breathes down your neck. He's extremely intelligent and has unquestionable integrity. We work very well together."
And the four divisions work together under Rosenberg and Clay.
"There are two primary reasons for setting up an organization in divisions," Clay says. "The first reason is that you can employ really top people who want to be in charge of their own domain. They can manage and hire their own work force, and they have their own set of responsibilities.
"The second reason is that in the case of an outbreak of a contagious disease, like the equine viral arteritis (EVA) outbreak a couple of years ago, you could avoid having to close your whole place down; only part of the operation might be affected."
Despite Clay's assuredness in the soundness of his system of operations it took some maneuvering to reach the position the farm now holds in the breeding industry. The big step came with the decision to obtain Slew o' Gold to stand at Three Chimneys.
The large, striking colt was raced throughout his career by Equusequity. While he won two of his three starts as a 2-year-old in 1982, he did not even begin to come into his own until his 3-year-old season. His entry into the national racing scene came when he captured a division of the prestigious Wood Memorial Stakes. His next start was the Kentucky Derby and it was in that race the colt first attracted Clay's attention.
In the Derby, there was some question about the colt's racing position. Clay thought Slew o'Gold had found himself boxed in between horses and did not find his racing room until it was too late. He finished fourth to Sunny's Halo.
In spite of that losing effort, Clay thought the colt had the pedigree, conformation and basic racing potential to prove an attractive stallion prospect. It was then Clay first approached the Equusequity partners about syndicating the horse.
"I wrote Jim and Mickey a letter," Clay recalls, "and explained what I wanted to do with my operation. I told them I thought this horse had exactly what I needed."
The colt won the Peter Pan Stakes by a 12-length margin and ran an impressive second in the Belmont Stakes to Caveat. Shortly after, Jim Hill told Clay the partners were working on a deal to stand the colt in New York.
Clay was disappointed, but the saga continued into August when Clay was in Saratoga. Slew o' Gold finished second in the historic Travers Stakes to Play Fellow. Then Clay was told the deal with the New York farm had fallen through.
Clay was still very much interested in the colt so, that fall, he avidly followed the young horse's career. He was on hand, again, to talk with Equusequity partners when Slew o' Gold won the Woodward Stakes against older horses.
"I saw Jim and Mickey in the paddock in New York and by then I knew that the other deal had fallen through," recalls Clay.
The Clays were on their way to Europe with friends and traveling companions John A. and Anne Greely. The two couples were scheduled to meet in London, travel to Spain for a few days, attend the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in France, then spend another few days in Ireland before returning home.
"It was in Spain, about three o'clock in the morning when Mickey called from Washington state," says Clay. "There we were, half-way around the world from each other and he asked me if I still was interested in the horse.
"I immediately woke up Bud," Clay continues. "I think we must have talked for about a half hour and then I called Mickey back and told him that we had a deal."
The initial deal offered Clay an option of taking 10 shares in the horse at $400,000 each. After his holiday, Clay arrived at home on a Wednesday, then took a turn-around flight to New York to meet Taylor and Hill on Friday. They cemented the deal and Clay returned home on Sunday. By Monday, he had sold the initial 10 shares as well as an additional four shares that had been allotted for the $400,000 each. The following Saturday, Slew o' Gold won the Jockey Club Gold Cup.
Slew o'Gold was 3-year-old Champion at the end of that season and it was agreed that he would race again at four. Clay sold another 16 shares for $465,000 each and the colt began his 1984 campaign. He made his comeback, an impressive winning effort in a New York allowance race, then captured Saratoga's Whitney Handicap. He became the first horse to sweep New York's fall handicap series (the Woodward, Marlboro, and Jockey Club Gold Cup) before finishing a gallant second in the inaugural running of the $3-million Breeders' Cup Classic. He earned $2,627,944 that year (for a career total of $3,533,534) and was voted Champion Older Male at the end of the season.
Only a couple of days after his race in the Breeders' Cup, Slew o' Gold arrived at Three Chimneys. That day, Clay had a whopping consignment for the Keeneland November sale. It included a number of top-priced mares and Love Sign, who Clay sold for $4.1 million. With his first stallion in his barn, another one in his pocket, and a dozen years experience behind him, Clay had taken the plunge; he had sold his Top Yield Industries and was completely devoted to his farm.
During the fall of Slew o' Gold's 4 year-old campaign, racing's spectators also were eyeing a talented 2-year-old named Chief's Crown, a grandson of Northern Dancer from the first crop of Danzig. Chief's Crown, like Slew o' Gold, boasted an attractive sire line as well as a strong female family. Out of a stakes-winning daughter of Secretariat, Chief's Crown was the maternal grandson of Chris Evert, Champion 3-year-old Filly in 1974.
Bred by the late Carl Rosen, Chief's Crown raced in the name of Star Crown Stable. Star Crown was the late Rosen's family stable and was being managed by his son, Calvin Klein executive Andrew Rosen.
In addition to the young Rosen and Calvin Klein himself, another company executive also was involved in the Thoroughbred business, Chairman of the Board Barry Schwartz.
"One of the shareholders in the Slew o' Gold syndicate was Barry Schwartz," relates Clay. "I think it was partially through him that Andrew heard about us and he approached me."
Rosen contacted Clay after Chief's Crown won the Norfolk Stakes in California. The colt had suffered only one loss to that point and looked like the favorite for the Breeders' Cup race for 2-year-old colts.
"I bought half of him for $10,000,000 after the Norfolk" Clay recalls. "You can imagine what writing a check like that does for a person. I don't remember when I was so nervous."
As with Slew o'Gold, Clay's racing luck continued and Chief's Crown captured the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. That same day Slew o' Gold completed his last race. Clay was bringing his first stallion to the farm, and his second stallion had just clinched a championship.
Slew o'Gold clearly was the turning point in Clay's career. The stallion's very presence dictated the direction of the operation. Rosen admits he approached Clay primarily because of Slew o'Gold. In the meantime Clay's association with the Taylors and the Hills also had grown stronger.
In 1985, at the urging of Taylor and Hill (and upon approval of 75 percent of the syndicate vote) Slew o' Gold's sire, Seattle Slew, was moved from Spendthrift Farm to Three Chimneys. Clay's farm became the home of a leading sire as well as the home of two champions. Soon the farm was to house two leading sires. Nodouble, also under the auspicies of the Taylors and the Hills, was moved from Florida to the Kentucky farm.
Clay stood major European winner Shadeed for a year at the request of his owner, Sheik Maktoum bin Rashid al Maktoum. Shadeed in 1987 stands in the United States at Sheik Maktoum's own farm in Lexington.
The farm's most recent acquisition is the H. H. Aga Khan's 3-year-old Sharistani. Clay, aware the horse's connections wanted to stand the horse in this country, approached Ghislaine Drion, the Aga Khan's racing manager about the deal. A "neat little" son of Nijinsky II, 15.3-hand Sharistani defeated Dancing Brave in the Epsom Derby and won the Irish Derby as well. Parts of his campaign mimicked that of the kidnapped Shergar, also owned by the Aga Khan.
"We syndicated him during the July summer sales, but unfortunately we didn't have as much luck with his subsequent races as we did with Slew o' Gold's and Chiefs Crown's," Clay says. "However, I feel very good about this little horse. The Aga Khan's female families are phenomenal and he has only imported four other stallions to this country - Blenheim, Mahmound, Nasrullah and Blushing Groom. They were all astounding."
Clay ultimately wants six stallions in his complex and is pleased with the interchangeable bloodlines he has attained as well as the bloodlines that prove an outcross for each other: two with Northern Dancer blood (Chief's Crown and Sharistani), Seattle Slew and his son Slew o'Gold and Nodouble by Noholme II who "is an outcross for almost everything" says Clay adding that he would like to have a son of Mr. Prospector if he could find the right horse. Odds are he will.
But neither Clay nor farm manager Rosenberg are in a hurry to add a stallion. "Our standards are terribly high; we set goals eight years ago," Rosenberg says. "Our long-range goals were to have a small stallion operation with nothing but champions.
"We have a barn with six stalls and have five stallions. We are planning not to build another stallion barn. We want just a small number of high-class stallions. And if it takes 10 years to fill the barn, it takes 10 years.
"Though we've had goals and plans, a lot of our success can be attributed to luck. You can have goals and plans but things still have to fall into place," Rosenberg claims. "We were lucky in that we syndicated Slew o' Gold in the middle of his 3-year-old year and he was later named Champion; we syndicated Chief's Crown in the middle of his 2-year-old career and he was later named Champion. So luck has a lot to do with it. We've been lucky and I'd rather be lucky than smart."
But Clay and Rosenberg don't rely on luck. "In looking for stallions we look at race performance, pedigree and conformation at a price that will be attractive to the syndicate owners and the breeders," Rosenberg says, adding they also would like to have a Raise a Native stallion.
Clay announces his stallion fees openly: Chief's Crown, $150,000 live foal; Nodouble, $50,000 life foal; Seattle Slew, $350,000 live foal; Sharistani $100,000 live foal; Slew o' Gold, $150,000 live foal. He believes in being candid about such information and he realizes that his fees are not in the ballpark for all horsemen.
Clay and Rosenberg plan to keep all facets of the farm operating at a high level.
"We've been among the leading consignors over the years - before the stallions," says Rosenberg. "We've never thought of ourselves as a sales agency. We don't want to put emphasis on being a sales agency. We want to board, raise and sell the yearlings for our current clients. We're not seeking to add to our broodmare or client population. We're really not interested in going after new business," he says.
Never one to remain stagnant, Clay has been quoted as saying some day he might incorporate a racing stable into his operation. For now, though, with many of his previous goals already accomplished, Clay seems to want to stick with what worked before and do what he can to promote the industry.
In the majority of his farm advertisements, a field in which Clay has taken an active part, severe close-ups are used to depict the day-to-day personal care horses require. The slogan is "Keepers of the Art" and the idea is simple: offer the best care possible and try to raise good, healthy horses.
In his latest print effort, advertising the farm, Clay uses obscure prose: "Have you checked your bellies lately?", to force the reader to stop on the page. The rest of the copy tells the reader that racing is great and it attracts all sorts of important people.
"I don't know," he says, "it may be a waste of money, but if you can get one Carl Icahn or Gene Klein to come to the races, then you just might have paid us all back."
