Selling the Farm a Chapter in Fable

There’s been many a cynical crack about truth in advertising, but on Page 52 of a recent issue of Blood-Horse magazine, there was a matter of fact. “Fabled Elmendorf Farm,” the ad began, and then it went on to list the particulars about the sale of Jack Kent Cooke’s Kentucky spread.

Elmendorf is indeed a prestigious name in the annals of breeding and racing, dating to James Ben Ali Haggin, who won the Kentucky Derby, the 12th one ever run, with Ben Ali in 1886. Besides Haggin, Cooke was preceded at Elmendorf by Joseph Widener and Maxwell Gluck, who had so many stakes trophies in three rooms of his Beverly Hills penthouse that it would have taken you all night to count them.

Gluck, once the ambassador to what was then Ceylon, used one room just for the gold trophies. When his guests were sufficiently awe-struck by the collection of cups, Gluck would pause and say: “And there’s a pint of blood in each one of them.”

Cooke, one-time owner of the Lakers, the Kings and the Forum, and controlling owner of the Washington Redskins since 1974, bought Elmendorf from the Gluck estate for a reported $45 million in 1984. Like Gluck, Cooke was unable to win a Kentucky Derby, the raison d’etre, and he leaves the game having started only one horse in the race. The best horse to race for Cooke, 84, has probably been Antespend, who ran second in the Kentucky Oaks on Derby eve at Churchill Downs a year ago.

Cooke’s selling of Elmendorf is no surprise. Ralph Cooke, the son who managed the farm, died in 1995; there hasn’t been a stallion standing at Elmendorf for two years; and in recent years Jack Kent Cooke has passed on purchases of European fillies who might eventually make nice broodmares.

“When my eldest son passed away, I lost interest in the farm,” Cooke said recently. “I had a whale of a time in racing, particularly with a filly like Antespend.”

Cooke has about 140 horses that will be sold at several dispersal auctions at Keeneland this year. He raced his stock all over, but most of his success came with California-based horses. Out here, Jay Robbins trained Flying Continental, who won the Strub, shipped back to Belmont Park to capture the Jockey Club Gold Cup and earned $1.8 million; and Reign Road, who chipped away to earn almost $1 million, finishing fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Last year, almost 70% of the Cooke stable’s earnings came from Antespend, who is still in training at Santa Anita under Ron McAnally.

The link between Gluck and Cooke, McAnally has been caring for Elmendorf horses for about 25 years. He made his name with John Henry, the horse of the year in 1981 and 1984, but well before that he was the beneficiary of the Gluck assembly line in Lexington, Ky.

“When Max gave me the Elmendorf job, I was ecstatic,” McAnally said. “I had never trained for an outfit like that, and that was what really put me on the map. They had about 200 broodmares back in Kentucky, and they just kept sending me horses. Horses that were in excellent condition. They did a fabulous job of raising horses.”

Hospitalized this fall and a rare absentee for a Redskin game, Cooke said last week that he feels good and still rides the Tennessee walkers on his farm in Middleburg, Va.

“I get more pleasure out of riding them than I ever did picking out the right jockey to ride in a race,” Cooke said.

When Cooke bought Elmendorf, the price included 340 horses. He is selling the 503 acres separately, and the asking price is said to be about $7.5 million. Owners of other farms in the bluegrass doubt that the farm will bring that much, but the squire of Elmendorf may not care enough to quibble. Compared to the Chrysler Building in New York, which Cooke bought for $87 million in 1979, a farm in Kentucky is a small-ticket item.

Horse Racing Notes

Besides the San Miguel at Santa Anita, other races for 3-year-olds today are the $100,000 Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park in Florida and the $200,000 Golden Gate Derby at Golden Gate Fields. . . . The Holy Bull field includes Acceptable, second to Boston Harbor in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and The Silver Move, winner of the Remsen. . . . Free House, ninth and fourth since winning the Norfolk in October, is running at Golden Gate.