Alpha Delta Stables' Clay Riding Wave With Raging Sea

Being in the position of breeding a horse to sell at auction and having said horse fail to meet its reserve is not necessarily a pet peeve for Jon Clay who breeds and races as Alpha Delta Stables. A commercial breeder, Clay will simply add the horse to his small racing stable. That scenario worked like a charm with Lewis Bay, a daughter of Bernardini, who did not meet her reserve for Clay when hammering for $170,000 at the 2014 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. While racing in her breeder's silks, the millionaire filly was a multiple graded stakes winner and placed in several grade 1s. Clay is now reaping the benefits of campaigning a daughter of Curlin, Raging Sea, a RNA at the 2021 Keeneland September sale. Off a season-opening victory in the La Troienne Stakes (G1) May 2 at Churchill Downs, the 5-year-old is the 5-2 morning-line favorite in the June 6 Ogden Phipps Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course, a race in which last year she finished fourth. The winner of the $500,000 Ogden Phipps will earn a fees-paid berth to the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) at Del Mar Nov. 1 as part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series. The Chad Brown-trained Raging Sea finished second to eventual Horse of the Year and 3-year-old champion filly Thorpedo Anna in last year's Distaff. Raging Sea's unraced dam, the regally bred Stormy Welcome, was bought by Clay for $600,000 at the 2015 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. His longtime bloodstock adviser, Reynolds Bell, signed the slip on the then-9-year-old who was in foal to Candy Ride (ARG) and offered through the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment. "Such a great family. I mean, you've got Weekend Surprise, A.P. Indy, and Summer Squall," Clay said. "It was a family that I didn't have in my broodmare band, and to be in that family was really important to me." Clay, a Harvard University graduate who became enamored with racing when watching the filly Genuine Risk win the 1980 Kentucky Derby (G1), thought Raging Sea would bring a robust price as a yearling at Keeneland, given her pleasing pedigree and the fact she was a half sister to a stakes-placed runner, Welcoming. She RNA'd at $300,000. "We were optimistic we'd be able to get a good price for her at the time," he said. "She just didn't bring the number that I thought. I thought she was worth a lot more and the market didn't see it that way. It turned out great for me." Raging Sea, a winner of six graded stakes with earnings topping $2.1 million, enters the 1 1/8-mile Ogden Phipps after turning some heads in the May 2 La Troienne. In the field was Thorpedo Anna, the odds-on favorite, who threw in an uncharacteristic clunker to finish seventh and last. Thorpedo Anna is not among Raging Sea's six foes in Friday's test for older fillies and mares. The 63-year-old Clay is no stranger to breeding exceptional racehorses. He's also the breeder of two-time Eclipse Award champion male sprinter Elite Power who sold for $900,000 as a yearling to Juddmonte. Another Clay masterpiece who sold at auction is two-time grade 1 winner Vekoma, who also has enjoyed a strong start at stud as last year's leading first-crop sire in North America. The Clay name is well known in Kentucky; Jon is the cousin of the late Catesby Clay, whose family operates Runnymede Farm. "I think it's exceeded my expectations," Clay, a retired sports marketing executive, said of his breeding and racing enterprises. "My goals were to just breed a stakes horse. Of course you want to breed graded stakes horses, and it was then great to have a horse like Vekoma who wins the Met Mile and was the morning-line favorite in the Breeders' Cup Sprint before he was scratched. And then Elite Power … how can you breed any back-to-back champion? It's amazing. "I never expected that when I got into the business. I always tried to manage my expectations, and take the good with the bad. You've got to savor the moments you have. And now with Raging Sea, I'm just enjoying that part of the ride."