Three Chimneys

It was almost a year ago that Case Clay stepped away from his position at Three Chimneys Farm to focus full-time on his company, Case Clay Thoroughbred Management. With services including bloodstock auction and private purchases, portfolio management and equine insurance, he has stayed busy since going solo. Clay was in Australia for the Inglis Easter Sale this spring to oversee a successful auction for his clients offering yearlings there. They celebrated several lucrative sales, including a Dundeel (NZ) colt out of Kevikki (Aus) (Smart Missile {Aus})--a mare that Clay...

Surely there's not much that hasn't been said about the inimitable Gun Runner. A top 3-year-old--Grade I winner who placed in the Kentucky Derby, Travers, and Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile--he was nearly perfect at four. After a runner-up finish behind Arrogate halfway across the world in the Dubai World Cup, he never lost again, reeling off a string of Grade I scores which included the Breeders' Cup Classic. He hasn't broken stride at stud either, currently and remarkably ranked second on the U.S. general sires list with only his third...

On the spectrum of Thoroughbred stallions, you won't find too many either side of Gun Runner and Despot. One, charging $250,000 a dance at Three Chimneys, is the most immediately accomplished sire of recent times. The other was claimed for $350 at Waterford Park, some 50 years ago, before being set to work annually producing a handful of half-breds in rural Maryland. "Liver chestnut son of Stevward," says the man whose career unites this unlikely pair. "You should have seen us trying to figure out how to breed mares on...

Gun Runner has joined Into Mischief and Curlin on top of the roster of 2024 stallions with a $250,000 fee, Three Chimneys announced Friday morning. He is the first sire in history to have sired nine individual millionaires with just two full crops. He currently ranks second on the TDN's General Sire list, behind only Into Mischief, with over $14 million in progeny earnings. Counted among his 13 stakes winners and 31 stakes performers in 2023 are Grade I winners Gunite and 'TDN Rising Stars' Echo Zulu and Locked, the...

The niece of Dan Rosenberg, who served Three Chimneys Farm in a variety of roles for three decades, and her husband were among those killed by Hamas in their attacks on Israel, according to a story from NBC affiliate WLEX TV in Lexington. Deborah Matias and her husband Shlomi died shielding their 16-year-old son Rotem, who survived after Hamas fighters stormed their apartment. "There is not a single Israeli who doesn't know somebody personally who has been killed," Israeli-born Rosenberg told reporter Leigh Searcy. "Imagine if every single American knew...

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis LEXINGTON, KY - With the very first horse through the ring bringing $1.3 million, the second session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale was off to the races Tuesday and the action didn't slow down throughout the day as the second-to-last offering brought $1.25 million. In between, 13 other yearlings sold for seven figures, including a colt by Into Mischief who brought top price of $3 million from the partnership of Chuck Sonson, West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford. With eight million-dollar yearlings Monday, the...

First-crop yearling sire Volatile got his first seven-figure sales yearling early on the second day of the Keeneland September sale with Hip 215, a filly out of MGISW Love and Pride (A.P. Indy), who sold for $1.15 million. Three Chimneys Farm, LLC bred the Apr. 25 filly, whose dam has already produced two stakes winners and is a granddaughter of GISW Cara Rafaela (Quiet American), the dam of late champion and sire Bernardini. Volatile stands at Three Chimneys. Mike Rutherford was the purchaser of the Taylor Made Sales-consigned filly.  ...

2nd-Saratoga, $105,000, Msw, 7-14, 3yo/up, 1 1/8m, 1:49.71, gd, 6 3/4 lengths. DREAMLIKE (c, 3, Gun Runner--Time to Tap, by Tapit) began his career Feb. 11 in Hallendale, where he finished second in a mile maiden contest and in a 1 1/16-mile Mar. 11 main track race before shipping north Apr. 8 to Aqueduct to try his hand in the GII Wood Memorial S. Third in that Derby-qualifier with a blanket finish separating him from winner GSW Lord Miles (Curlin) and runner-up GSW Hit Show (Candy Ride {Arg}), he was...

Three Chimneys Farm's multiple-leading sire Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) will stand to Southern Hemisphere time and they are offering a AU$500,000 bonus to any progeny that wins the G1 Golden Slipper S., Doug Cauthen, the vice chairman of Three Chimneys Farm, told TTR AusNZ. The farm's stud fee of $65,000 (AU$98,000) is slightly less than the $75,000 (AU$110,000) he commanded last year on Southern Hemisphere covers. They are hoping to attract anywhere between 20 and 40 Southern Hemisphere mares this spring. "The goal is to make him appealing," Cauthen...

It was with great interest that I read Earle Mack's recent TDN Letter to the Editor and Bill Finley's Week in Review piece supporting Mr. Mack's opinion that a major switch to synthetic racing surfaces is called for to save the Thoroughbred Industry. Although I do not know either of these men personally, I respect their accomplishments in our business, their intentions, opinions and intellect. With that said, as much as I agree that training and racing surfaces are critical to horse safety and synthetic tracks have lower catastrophic injury...

1st-Belmont, $87,300, Msw, 5-4, 2yo, f, 5f, :59.35, my, 6 1/2 lengths. PRINCESA CELINA (f, 2, Quality Road--Lastofthsummerwine, by Sky Mesa) kept her trainer's momentum from the Keeneland spring meet rolling with an impressive performance to open Belmont's spring/summer meet. Bet like a sure thing at 1-5, the imposing bay broke alertly and chased outside of the early speed of Leslie's Loot (Fast Anna) through a quick quarter in :21.98. Kept under a hand ride by jockey Jose Ortiz, Princesa Celina easily maneuvered past her rival as they swung off...

Owners Leslie and Pierre Amestoy have been involved with a bunch of good horses, some of them stakes-winning Quarter Horses, but never anything like Practical Move (Practical Joke). The winner of the GII San Felipe S. and the GI Santa Anita Derby so far this year, he will be among the favorites in the upcoming GI Kentucky Derby. The TDN Writers' Room podcast, presented by Keeneland caught up with the Amestoys this week to find out more about their operation, their background and their thoughts on Practical Move. They were...