As a 4-year-old, Gorgeous won the Vanity Invitational Handicap (gr. I) and two grade II events, including the Apple Blossom Handicap over Bayakoa. She was retired the day before that year's Distaff because of a chip in her left front knee with a record of eight wins from 14 starts and earnings of $1,171,370. She was unplaced only once, against males in the Pimlico Special Handicap (gr. I).Gorgeous, who was in foal to Three Chimneys stallion War Chant at the time of her death, produced 11 foals, but only one stakes winner, French winner Stunning (by Nureyev). Stunning is one of five of Gorgeous' daughters that Clay owns. Stunning is in foal to Grand Lodge and is boarded in Ireland. The other daughters include a 2-year-old by Broad Brush and an Anabaa weanling.Gorgeous was accorded the honor of being buried in the stallion cemetery at Three Chimneys rather than the broodmare cemetery because of her specialness to the farm.
Robert Clay's millionaire broodmare Gorgeous died Oct. 4 because of internal hemorrhaging after running into a fence at the owner's Three Chimneys Farm near Midway, Ky. The 16-year-old mare was taken from the farm to Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital near Lexington when the hemorrhaging started.Gorgeous was bred by Clay in partnership with his late father, Albert Clay, and Warner L. Jones Jr.'s Hermitage Farm, and achieved fame as one of the four grade/group I winners from the first crop of Three Chimneys' stallion Slew o' Gold. Her success in racing was one of the key reasons why her dam, Kamar (by Key to the Mint), was chosen 1990 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year.Campaigned by Robert Clay and trained by Neil Drysdale, Gorgeous enjoyed her best season as a 3-year-old in 1989. Her four added-money wins included victories in the Ashland Stakes (gr. I) and Hollywood Oaks (gr. I) and close runner-up efforts in the Breeders' Cup Distaff (gr. I) to that year's champion mare Bayakoa and the Mother Goose Stakes (gr. I). She was voted Kentucky-bred champion 3-year-old filly.
