Josephine Russell Clay - Focus On Breeding

Focus On Breeding

Following her husband’s death in 1887, Josephine Clay focused on breeding and selling yearlings. She inherited from John Clay twelve brood mares, all descendants of Henry Clay's brood mares Magnolia and Margaret Wood. Through 1900, Josephine Clay built her stock to more than fifty brood mares and two stallions and gained recognition as the first woman to own and operate a successful thoroughbred horse farm. She gained national recognition when Riley, a horse she had bred, won the 1890 Kentucky Derby.

In 1903, Josephine Clay dispersed her stock due to her failing eyesight and new laws in New York and other states prohibiting betting on horses.

She died at her home and is interred at Lexington Cemetery.

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