PARIS, Kentucky — The smallish Eiffel Tower snug to the chamber of commerce office isn’t exactly what put me in mind of the other, more famous, Paris. It was the giant sycamores lining the narrow lanes of this town that did the trick.
My niece, bless her heart, was determined that I think kindly of the thoroughbred industry. So she took me to Claiborne Farm, a stallion breeding station that approaches things the old-fashioned way. And the drive there was a French calendar page.
Claiborne Farm’s 3,000 acres is home to a stallion that has made $80 million the old-fashioned way: impregnating mares. There are 50 barns, 35 houses, 63 equine champions and, in a shady horse cemetery, the full-body grave of Secretariat. For 105 years, four generations of the Hancock family have bred such winners.
As impressive as all those statistics are, the one that wowed me wasn’t in the brochure. Our perfect-pitch guide, a tough-looking guy who drives his Harley to work, introduced himself as Rodeo. No last name required, like Cher, or Elvis. And then he said Claiborne Farm has 97 miles of fencing.
That fact, to me, was the most impressive. I once helped my father build a short cross fence to hold in a horse. It’s hard work. But building Claiborne’s fences was not the toughest job.
“The toughest job on the farm is holding the mares,” Rodeo explained, then removed his cap to show the scars from 16 stitches and one mare-holding mishap.
Rodeo holds the mares. It’s like being a rodeo clown without barrels, thus his name.
It takes four employees to manage the horses in the breeding shed, which has a synthetic floor that’s softer than regular dirt and partially padded walls. There’s even someone to hold the mare’s tail out of the way while the stallion has its way. That should make for interesting cocktail chatter:
“What do you do?” “Me? Oh, I hold the mare’s tail out of the way while War Front earns another $200,000.”
A small tour group followed Rodeo along the rubber brick road — so far, the soft brick have lasted 22 years, another impressive statistic, are you listening state road department? — arriving at the stall of Kentucky Derby winner Orb.
Any tourist who wanted could approach the horse at his neck and pet him while someone else in your party took photos and Rodeo kept the stallion from biting you.
“All stallions bite, but some are meaner than others,” Rodeo said. “But trust me. I haven’t let him bite anyone yet.”
At the niece’s urging, I had my beauty snapped with Orb, but in the photos I looked a little less than trusting of a man with 16 stitches beneath his ball cap. I let others have all the fun with War Front, the stallion that’s earned $80 million so far with his unprecedented virility.
Turns out, horses make a lot more money in stud fees than they do in winning races. Some impregnate more than 100 mares annually, with fees for each individual effort ranging from $5,000 to War Front’s princely $200,000.
We ended up in the horse cemetery where champions’ hooves, hearts and heads rest in pieces. But Secretariat was such a winner that the whole horse made it into the ground, which now has sunken into an impressive outline showing just how big a Kentucky thoroughbred’s casket and influence can be.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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