The Runnymede Tradition

When Sen. Johnson N. Camden and his wife, the former Agnes Clay, took up residence at Runnymede Farm on the Paris-Cynthiana Road, Sen. Camden distributed a small pamphlet soliciting a few boarders and outlining his plans for a modest Thoroughbred breeding operation. Emblazoned with Sen. Camden's red, white, and black racing colors, the eight-page, racing-program-sized pamphlet did not touch on the Senator's own accomplishments as a Thoroughbred breeder; it concentrated instead on Sen. and Mrs. Camden's predecessors at Runnymede.

Perhaps Sen. Camden was being modest by leaving out his own record as a breeder, or perhaps he was making a concession to his wife, whose first husband's father, the late Col. Ezekiel F. Clay, had established Runnymede as a Thoroughbred nursery some 70 years earlier. Or, perhaps, Sen. Camden just ran out of room. The Runnymede story is rich in history, and the bare-bones statistics of Ezekiel Clay's tenure more than filled the little book.

Born at Runnymede in 1841, Ezekiel Clay was the youngest of four brothers. In school in Pennsylvania when the Civil War broke out, Ezekiel Clay sided with the South, joining the First Kentucky Mounted Riflemen as a private. He finished the war as a colonel, imprisoned on Johnson's Island, where he refused President Abraham Lincoln's offer of a parole because he could not bring himself to take the required oath of allegiance to the United States.

After the Civil War was over, Col. Clay returned to the family home, and he and a neighbor, Col. Catesby Woodford, formed a partnership to breed Thoroughbreds at their Runnymede and Raceland Studs. Col. Clay also bred Shorthorn cattle for a time, but he abandoned that enterprise in 1875 as his Thoroughbred operation flourished.

Col. Clay and Col. Woodford originally planned to race the horses of their own breeding, but demand for the Runnymede runners was such that by the early 1880s a production sale was being held annually at Runnymede. It was at such a sale, in 1885, that Phil Dwyer bought Hanover for $1,350. Hanover was a son of Hindoo, an outstanding runner which Phil and Mike Dwyer campaigned, then traded to Col. Clay. Hanover had become the leading money-winner in American when he was retired in 1889 with 32 wins and career earnings of $118,887. He also was a prominent stallion, reigning as America's leading sire for four consecutive seasons.

When Hanover took over as the leading money-earner in America (in September, 1889), he displaced another Runnymede product, the filly Miss Woodford, which had become the first American-based runner to earn more than $100,000. Col. Clay and Col. Woodford bred Miss Woodford, but they are not the official breeders of record apparently due to a late transfer of ownership of the filly's dam. The mare went to the Dwyer Brothers in the trade that brought Hindoo to Runnymede.

Col. Clay carried on one of the most successful commercial Thoroughbred ventures in America at Runnymede until 1912, when he sold out, lock, stock, and barrel, to John E. Madden. Annoyed by a ban in racing in New York, Col. Clay said that he planned to divorce himself from racing, and spend "only the hottest months of the year" in Kentucky. The rest of the time would be spent at his Florida plantation.

An enviable record had been compiled at Runnymede. The farm produced the winners of more than 120 stakes races, including a half-dozen runnings of the Alabama Stakes, two Belmonts, three Champagnes, two Kentucky Derbys, two Kentucky Oaks, three Spinaways, two Suburbans, four Travers, and three Withers. Prominent stallions which stood at Runnymede included Billet (sire of Miss Woodford and Sir Dixon); Hindoo, Sir Dixon (the leading sire in 1901), Star Shoot (leading sire twice while at Runnymede), and Knight Errant.

Col. Clay also was a leader in the organizational matters of the Turf. He served as president of the Kentucky Racing Association and as chairman of the Kentucky State Racing Commission. Col. Clay also was nominated to fill the post of president of the Breeders, Owners and Trainers Association, but he declined on the grounds that he already had one position that he was "not half-filling".

Brutus Clay, a son of Col. Ezekiel Clay and a successful lawyer in Atlanta, moved back home to Runnymede shortly after his father's death in 1920. Brutus died a few years later, however, and a revival of Thoroughbred breeding at Runnymede did not begin until Brutus' widow, Agnes, married Sen. Camden and the couple moved to the Paris farm.

Sen. Camden was a prominent breeder in his own right, and the winners of some $3 million were produced at his Hartland Stud near Versailles, Ky. The best year for the Hartland runners was 1929, ironically the same year that Sen. Camden suffered major losses in the stock market crash. The Hartland breeding stock was auctioned by Sen. Camden to pay his debts, and in 1933 the 1,900-acre Hartland property also was sold. At that time, Sen. Camden told friends that he had paid all the debts he had incurred in the stock market crash and that he was ready to begin another Thoroughbred operation.

Runnymede today is in the hands of Brutus Clay's son, Catesby Woodford Clay, who followed his grandfather and Sen. Camden as a member of the Kentucky State Racing Commission and Sen. Camden as head of the Kentucky River Coal Corp. Full Extent, winner of the (1981) Gimcrack Stakes (gr.II), is one of 21 added-money winners bred by Clay, either in his own name or in one of several partnerships.

Originally published in the Blood-Horse, September 19, 1981