There have been Headleys in Lexington since before there was really a town in Kentucky called Lexington. A Headley is said to have been among the group of pioneers camped at McConnell Springs in the Kentucky wilderness in 1775 when they heard the news of the British attack on American patriots at Lexington, Massachusetts.

A descendant of that original Headley, Hal Petit Headley, established Beaumont Farm on Harrodsburg Road in Lexington in the 1870s and owned 1897 champion three-year-old Ornament. Hal Petit Headley's son, Hal Price Headley was educated at Princeton University but returned to take over Beaumont when his father fell ill in 1908. A man of many talents, Hal Price Headley was a dirt farmer, raising tobacco and cattle; a breeder of Thoroughbred champions; and a visionary who was the prime mover in the foundation of Keeneland.

"He would have been good at anything he did," said his proud daughter Alice Headley Chandler, owner of Mill Ridge Farm. "He was, among other things, a land nut. He loved the land." By the time of his death in 1962, Headley had acquired some 4,000 acres of the Bluegrass, as well as the 15,000-acre Pinebloom Plantation in Georgia.

Headley recognized that the fourth of his five daughters and one son was the one who, in her own words, was "crazy about horses." Alice Headley also inherited her father's love for the land, his respect for animals, his tenacity, and his talent for breeding Thoroughbreds.

Alice's older sister, Alma, married Louis Lee Haggin II, longtime president of the Keeneland Association; younger sister Patricia married Robert Green, longtime manager of Greentree Stud; and younger brother Hal Price Headley Jr. lives on a portion of Beaumont he leases to Taylor Made Sales Agency.

Alice, however, went out on her own.

When Price Headley died at Keeneland in 1962, Alice (then Mrs. Reynolds Bell) inherited 286 acres of Beaumont Farm on Bowman Mill Pike.

"He gave me this piece because he thought it was the farthest away from future development," Chandler said. "Wrong! I mean Palomar (an upscale Lexington subdivision) is right over the fence."

With that land and four broodmares given to her by her father, but few contacts outside Lexington, Chandler launched Mill Ridge as a boarding farm shortly after her father's death. Today, almost 40 years later, Mill Ridge encompasses 1,050 acres, and is home to top stallions Gone West and Diesis (GB) and approximately 400 year-round boarders.

Along the way, Chandler has bred and/or raised champions Sir Ivor, Ramruma, Soviet Star, and Orojoya, and major winners Keeper Hill, Cetewayo, Ciao, Secret Hello, and Nicosia.

Mill Ridge also has developed a highly successful sales arm, annually selling major consignments at Keeneland's September yearling and November breeding stock sales. In 1999, Mill Ridge ranked fifth among all North American consignors of yearlings, selling 59 horses for more than $14-million.

Chandler has served the Thoroughbred industry in innumerable other capacities during her long career. Former president of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, she now serves on the Kentucky Racing Commission, chairs the Gluck Equine Research Center board, and is active on the board of Keeneland Association.

Chandler is also a mother of four whose three sons, Reynolds Bell Jr., Headley Bell, and Michael Bell are all prominent in the Thoroughbred industry. Chandler married her first husband, father of son Michael and daughter Patricia, at age 18, "and that says enough about that!" Chandler said.

She married horseman Reynolds Bell, father of Reynolds Jr. and Headley and adoptive father of her first two children, in 1950. They divorced in 1966. She married South African-born John Chandler, D.V.M., in 1972. John Chandler is president of Khaled Abdullah's Juddmonte Farms operation.

At 74, Chandler is the grande dame of the Kentucky breeding industry, but she is far more than just the distant, regal figure that term implies. She retains a rare passion for the causes she believes in and a rare willingness to work to bring her most passionate dreams to reality-just as she did with Mill Ridge. A lover of the Thoroughbred, the land where Thoroughbreds roam, and the traditions and standards set by a heritage of excellence, Alice Headley Chandler has made her own way to the top of the Thoroughbred industry.

Chandler was interviewed at Mill Ridge on May 11 by John P. Sparkman, bloodstock/sales editor of Thoroughbred Times.

Thoroughbred Times: You have been credited with naming Menow (champion two-year-old of 1937 and sire of Tom Fool) when you were only ten years old or so. Tell us how that came about.

Alice Chandler: "We used to meet Daddy at the door at Beaumont, and there was a big entrance hall down there and we would all jump up and down and say 'me now, me now.' You know, 'pick me up, me now.' That was the clean version. There was a dirty version about a tom cat on a back fence (laughs heartily), but let's go with the clean version.

"My half sister Adele was studying Roman mythology, Greek mythology, and she started calling me Alcibiades, obviously because my name was Alice. So that's how Alcibiades (champion two-year-old filly of 1929 and dam of Menow) got her name, which to me is more interesting, really, than how Menow got his."

TT: Your father was the hardboot's hardboot. What kind of impact did he have on your philosophy in the business?

Chandler: "He just had a huge impact on me, period. I don't know really about the impact he had on me in the business, because I guess the impact he had on me as a child probably carried over into the business. As I said the other day downtown (in her acceptance speech for the Winner's Circle Award from the Lexington chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners), he never said 'Don't do it, you might get hurt.' I had the run of the place.

"This (the current Mill Ridge Farm land) is the back end of 4,000 acres; this was the last part that he bought. And he put me here because he thought that this would be the last part development would get to. Wrong! I mean Palomar's right over the fence. They've been a good neighbor, but they're there. "In all that time, he raised a huge amount of tobacco; he raised a lot of cattle; he raised his horses; and he always said that in the years one didn't work, the other two held him together.

"But while I was growing up, there were a lot of men on the farm, and I guess that I had people watching me all the time in case I got hurt. And I did get hurt. I got hurt a lot, but I tried to ride every yearling that I wanted to. And I tried to climb every tree that I wanted to. I tried to do everything I was big enough to try to do. And he never said 'Don't do it, you might get hurt.'

"Just watching him-he loved the land, he loved horses; he did things a certain way. He didn't cheat. And he was a businessman. He would have been good at anything he did. He was a tremendous, tremendous example to me in growing up."

TT: As you said, you inherited some land from him when he died, which obviously gave you some advantages, but what difficulties did you have starting Mill Ridge?

Chandler: "I didn't know a lot of people, and I only had four broodmares, and I obviously with no money could not make this place go with four broodmares. So I had to go out and hustle some clients. (Arthur B.) "Bull" Hancock (Jr.) was a big help. He sent me Mike Phipps's yearlings, and he sent me some clients to board. He was always being asked to board horses, and he couldn't take them because he was full. So he sent me a lot of his overflow to start out with, and that was a really big help.

"But a lot of people helped me. I've never had a problem with people being nice and I've had a lot of help along the way. But that was the toughest time of all