NEWS
Breeders’ Cup-winning owner Ray dies
Posted: Thursday, November 19, 2009 9:47 AM
by Ed DeRosa
Cornelius Nathanial “Connie” Ray III, known as C. N. Ray and the owner of Evergreen Farm, died on November 12 from complications of cancer. He was 84.
Ray founded Sea Ray Boats in 1959 and sold the company to Brunswick Corp. 27 years later for $350-million. He spent much of that money on horses, and from 1986 through ‘97 was a frequent participant in the Breeders’ Cup program, winning the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) in 1996 with eventual champion Lit de Justice and the following year with Elmhurst.
Jenine Sahadi was Ray’s primary trainer, and he kept many of his broodmares at the Sahadi family’s Cardiff Stud in California. Sahadi trained both Lit de Justice and Elmhurst, the former making her the first female to train a Breeders’ Cup winner. Sahadi and Ray owned Elmhurst in partnership.
Ray began his Thoroughbred operation in 1983 when he purchased two mares from the Keeneland November breeding stock sale and acquired Evergreen Farm in Paris, Kentucky. He won his first stakes race in 1985 and other stakes winners soon followed, including 1988 Arlington Million (G1) winner Mill Native, who went on to finish ninth in that year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1).
Ray is survived by his third wife, Carol, whom he met on February 11, 1983, at Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C., when both were marooned there during a snowstorm.
“My lucky day, that’s why I still play the 2-11 in the exacta,” Ray said before the 1997 Breeders’ Cup.
Ed DeRosa is news editor of Thoroughbred Times
