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| The forerunner of today’s Grayson-Jockey Club Research
Foundation was the Grayson Foundation, established in 1940 by William Woodward,
Sr., then chairman of The Jockey Club; other well-known Thoroughbred sportsmen
John Hay (Jock) Whitney and Walter M. Jeffords, Sr.; Kentucky farm manager
Maj. Louie Beard; and Dr. George Crile, a founder and director of the Cleveland
Clinic Foundation. |
Admiral Cary Grayson |
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The Grayson Foundation was named in honor of Admiral
Cary Grayson, best known as the personal physician to President Woodrow
Wilson but also owner of Blue Ridge Farm in Virginia and one of the
first to support
equine research prior to his death in 1938.
From the beginning, the foundation’s aim was to support research
at existing institutions rather than carry out the research itself. Over
nearly half a century, The Grayson Foundation operated as a separate
entity, fulfilling the purposes of its founders despite constant limitations
on available funding. |
For much of its history, the foundation sought to disperse $100,000
annually in grants to specific research projects. Its success in this
goal resulted in support for a number of projects which represented
steps forward, among them being development of vaccines against Equine
Viral Arteritis and herpesvirus infections, determining causes of viral
abortions leading to development of the most effective vaccine yet developed,
and influencing estrous cycles in mares to increase fertility.
The Jockey Club, which has served as the North American Thoroughbred
breed registry since 1894, created its own research foundation in 1984.
Five years later, The Jockey Club Research Foundation was merged with
the Grayson Foundation, to be known since then as the Grayson-Jockey
Club Research Foundation, Inc. Grayson had a half-century background
in research matters, and The Jockey Club had more wherewithal financially,
so in recent years the combined foundation has been able to allocate
more than $750,000 annually in grants.
During the 1990s, three gifts of remarkable generosity were instrumental
in enhancing the success of the foundation in fulfilling its mission.
In 1991, the Robert J. Kleberg and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation donated
$2 million to Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation.
Two years later, the foundation received another major gift when Paul
Mellon donated the $1 million bonus that his Kentucky Derby winner
Sea Hero won in the Chrysler Triple Crown Challenge. Mr. Mellon |
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Robert J.Kleberg, Jr. |
requested
that double that amount be raised in response, and this
endowment
drive was successfully concluded during the 1995-1996 fiscal year.
Paul Mellon
(Nick Pholella photo) |
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Mr. Mellon passed away in 1999, leaving $2.5
million to the foundation’s endowment. The following year
the foundation created the Rokeby Circle as the designation of those
who contribute $10,000 or more in a given year. Rokeby is the name
of Mr. Mellon’s beloved Virginia estate.
The turn of the millennium reinforced the critical importance of
equine research when, in the spring of 2001, the pregnancies of
approximately 2,000 mares in central Kentucky were mysteriously
terminated. Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation quickly responded
with more than $300,000 in funds from 2001-2003 to support emergency
research that helped definitively identify the Eastern Tent Caterpillar
as a cause of the Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome that inflicted
a reported economic hit of approximately $336 million on the state
of Kentucky.
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Another generous pledge to the foundation occurred in 2004 when
John C. Oxley, a Thoroughbred owner and member of The Jockey Club,
on behalf of the Oxley Foundation, announced the Oxley Challenge.
A four-year program, the Oxley Challenge provided an annual grant
of up to $250,000 from the Oxley Foundation provided Grayson-Jockey
Club Research Foundation generated a like amount in new income.
This goal was reached in each of the four years, earning a total
of $1 million from the Oxley Foundation.
In October 2006, the foundation, in conjunction with The Jockey Club, coordinated
and underwrote the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit. Hosted by
Keeneland Association, the summit convened three dozen individuals representing
a wide cross-section of the breeding, racing and veterinary community for
a two-day workshop concerning the safety and soundness of the Thoroughbred
racehorse. The strategic plan resulting from the summit and PowerPoint presentations
that accompanied remarks by individual speakers are available at http://www.grayson-jockeyclub.org/summitDisplay.asp,
as are the recommendations announced at a second summit in March 2008.
During the last four years, the Foundation has averaged more than $1 million
annually in funded grants. Since 1983, Grayson-Jockey Club has individually provided
more than $17.1 million to fund 270 projects at 37 universities
in North America and overseas. |
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