The Bluegrass and Beyond

Why did Central Kentucky become the center of thoroughbred breeding? One reason was Lexington — not the city, the horse.

Lexington was a big bay stallion, the best racer of his time and perhaps the best sire of all time. He was born here and spent most of his life here. But he has spent most of his death in storage at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and, well, Kentucky wants him back.

Lengthy negotiations are about complete to put Lexington’s reconstructed skeleton on display at the International Museum of the Horse at the Kentucky Horse Park.

“It looks pretty good right now,” said museum curator Bill Cooke, who is expecting a call any day from Smithsonian conservators who must release Lexington’s skeleton, officially known as Catalogue No. 16020.

The effort began more than two years ago when the horse museum became a Smithsonian associate, which allows it to borrow artifacts. “The first thing I said was we want to bring Lexington back to Lexington,” Cooke said.

“I’ve always wanted to have (an exhibit) that traces the history of the thoroughbred in Kentucky,” he said. “How did we get to be the thoroughbred capital instead of Nashville or New Orleans or New York? To a large extent, Lexington determined that we did.”

Borrowing horse bones — even famous horse bones — wouldn’t seem that complicated. But bureaucracy is bureaucracy.

At the time, Lexington was on rare public display as part of an exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History. Then, that museum closed for lengthy renovations, and nobody seemed to know if Lexington would be needed when it reopened. Just a couple of months ago, officials decided he wouldn’t.

“They have been very supportive all the way along,” Cooke said of Smithsonian officials. “They believe in the project.”

The timing is good because on Tuesday — the horse Lexington’s 159th birthday — the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau will kick off a marketing campaign built around a famous painting of Lexington — with the great horse recolored Wildcat blue.

The horse-of-a-different-color idea is an eye-catching gimmick. But using the horse Lexington to promote the city Lexington is a natural, said Ellen Gregory, a public relations executive who helped develop the campaign.

Gregory said the more she researched the great horse the more obsessed she became with him, because he had connections to so many famous people and events.

Lexington was born in 1850 at the farm of Dr. Elisha Warfield, a prominent physician, horseman and entrepreneur who treated Mary Todd Lincoln’s mother, was a friend of Henry Clay and became known as “the father of the Kentucky turf.”

Lexington, originally named Darley, won six of his seven starts, becoming the third-leading money-winner up to that time. He was retired to stud in 1855 because he was going blind and stood for 20 years at Nantura and Woodburn farms near Midway.

As a stud, Lexington was taken out of Kentucky only twice — to St. Louis for an exhibition in 1859 and to Illinois for safe-keeping in 1865, when Confederates were raiding Kentucky horse farms.

Lexington was the nation’s leading sire for a record 16 years, and many of his offspring became top sires. The blind horse fathered 600 foals, more than 200 of whom became winners. His descendants included Aristides, the first winner of the Kentucky Derby.

Another famous Lexington offspring was Cincinnati, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s favorite horse. Grant rode Cincinnati to accept Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox and let President Abraham Lincoln ride him several times.

Lexington was such a celebrity that people came to Woodburn Farm from all over the world just to see him. One was Gen. George Armstrong Custer, who later wrote that visiting the horse was like being “in the sacred presence of royalty.”

When Lexington died, the New York Times published a lengthy obituary. “He was probably more famous in his day than even Man O’ War and Secretariat were in their days,” Cooke said.

Smithsonian representatives came to Woodburn Farm on July 1, 1875, not knowing Lexington had died earlier in the day. A few months later, they arranged for his remains to be exhumed and shipped to Washington, where they have been ever since.

Once he gets the word, Cooke said he will raise the private money needed to move Lexington’s skeleton and build a special glass case for it. The Smithsonian generally makes such loans on a five-year renewing basis.

“Hopefully this is going to be a long-term deal,” Cooke said of Lexington’s homecoming. “As long as we’ve worked on it, it’s already a long-term deal.”

To many people, Henry Clay is a slightly familiar name from the distant past. Wasn’t he a politician? Didn’t he live in Lexington?

But to the 51 rising university seniors from 50 states and the District of Columbia who head home Saturday after spending a week in Lexington, Clay is now much more. Their study of his legacy may help them change the world someday.

At least, that’s the goal of the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship’s first Student Congress, which was held at the University of Kentucky and Transylvania University. The center was created last year by the Henry Clay Memorial Foundation, which operates Clay’s Ashland estate on Sycamore Road.

Clay, who lived from 1777 to 1852, was one of America’s greatest statesmen. He represented Kentucky in the U.S. House and Senate, was speaker of the House and ran unsuccessfully for president several times.

Known as ”The Great Compromiser,“ he negotiated the treaty that ended the War of 1812 and engineered compromises in Congress that stalled the Civil War three times.

The center’s goal is to promote Clay’s ideals and skills of conflict resolution, conciliation and compromise in a nation and world that badly needs them.

”If you look at the world today and the polarization – red and blue – at home, we could certainly use more compromise and win-win conflict resolution skills,“ said advertising executive Bill Giles, who co-chairs the center with Thoroughbred breeder Robert N. Clay.

The effort – one of those big ideas that makes so much sense you wonder why somebody didn’t think of it sooner – was the brainchild of several Kentuckians. It has picked up heavyweight support, both locally and around the country. The national advisory committee is chaired by retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Nancy Kassebaum-Baker, who before retirement was an influential U.S. senator from Kansas.

Eventually, the organization hopes to leverage Clay’s legacy into a Lexington-based center for international conflict resolution, perhaps playing a role similar to that of the Carter Center in Atlanta. The first step is the Student Congress, which will become an annual event.

”It’s extremely timely, especially when you listen over the past decade to the decline in the quality of the national and global debate,“ said D.G. Van Clief, the center’s president and a former president of the Breeders’ Cup. ”This is a terrific opportunity to build awareness of these skills in young people, skills they’ll need to be good executives, jurists and diplomats.“

Carey Cavanaugh, director of UK's Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce, spoke to students participating in the first Student Congress of the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship this past week. Photos by Tom Eblen

The students were nominated by U.S. senators and university officials. They were an impressive and diverse group, men and women of all races and political persuasions. About 75 percent were political science majors and minors, and they came to Lexington with considerable experience. Many had studied overseas or worked in congressional or governor’s offices.

The students spent a couple of days studying Henry Clay, his ideals and how they relate to today’s world.

They visited Ashland and heard from Clay scholars. They visited Frankfort to discuss state and local governance, then turned their attention to international affairs and the importance of diplomacy and dialogue.

Kassebaum-Baker spoke Wednesday night after a dinner at Three Chimneys Farm, and O’Connor sent videotaped remarks.

Carey Cavanaugh, a former ambassador and peace negotiator who directs UK’s Patterson School of Diplomacy, led much of the program and lined up a strong group of speakers.

They included a United Nations official now negotiating a dispute in Asia; New York Times and MSNBC political reporter John Harwood; and Andreas Kakouris, Cyprus’ ambassador to the United States.

Carey Cavanaugh, director of UK's Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce, left, talks with Mindy Shannon Phelps, executive director of the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship, and D.G. Van Clief, the center's president.

”In the past five days, it’s hard to think of a corner of the world we haven’t touched on in the discussions,“ Cavanaugh said. ”They had a number of people talk to them who are dealing with world problems that are happening right now. It has given the students perspectives they wouldn’t have gotten at their schools.“

Indeed, in Cavanaugh’s debriefing with the students Friday, they raved about the program – but weren’t shy about offering suggestions.

”I learned more this week about foreign policy than I learned all last semester in foreign policy class,“ said Elizabeth Edwards, a student at Catawba College in North Carolina who had spent a year interning for former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C. ”I’ve never met so many people my age who are so smart and love our country so much.“

Alex Bachari, a Loyola University music major who is the Louisiana campaign coordinator for Students for Barack Obama, said he felt inspired and empowered by Clay’s legacy and the Student Congress.

”You guys expect us to lead the Free World in a positive way,“ Bachari said. ”After coming to this program, I feel like I can go out and do anything I want. And I know everybody here feels the same way.“

Sitting in the sessions and listening to this remarkable group of young people ask questions and discuss issues, I got the impression that many of them will be running our government, corporations and major institutions in a couple of decades. And that’s a good thing.

Henry Clay would certainly be proud.