Camp, Virginia breeder, dies

Virginia-based breeder and consignor Leon Clay Camp died Sunday night at his home in Charlottesville, Va. He was 78.

Camp owned Glenmore Farm and consigned a record-priced Saratoga yearling in 1984 when agent Tom Cooper paid $4.6 million for a Northern Dancer-Bubbling colt later named Parlando. The price is still the record for the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling sales.

Camp and his wife, Barbara Pease Camp, who died last October, were married for 50 years. Together they operated Glenmore in Virginia and then in Lexington, Ky., before returning to Virginia in the 1990s.

Glenmore-bred stakes winners included three-time stakes winner Our Gatsby and 2001 Chapel of Dreams winner Smilin' N Blushing, both out of the Explodent mare Smilin' Sera. Camp was active on numerous boards, including the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation and Kentucky Horse Park. He also was a past president of the Virginia Thoroughbred Association and a founder of the Virginia Horse Council.

Caamp also was a passionate carriage driver who competed in three World Four-in-Hand Driving Championships in England and Europe.

Among Camp's survivors are his sons Jefferson and L. Clay Camp, Jr., and his daughters Carrie and June.

A graveside service is planned for 11 a.m. on Friday at the Poplar Springs Cemetery in Franklin, Va. The family suggests donations to the TRF or the Virginia Horse Center in lieu of flowers.