Keeneland Breeder Spotlight: Generations Build Influence of Blue Heaven

[Wandering Eyes]

Adam Corndorf isn't afraid to admit that he has never been to the Kentucky Derby, but the reason behind his skipping the iconic event–even after living in Kentucky for the past 15 years–offers some insight into the tenacious drive and determined strategy that define his leadership of Blue Heaven Farm.

“I've always said I'm not going until we have something connected to a horse that is running,” explained Corndorf. “We've never had a horse run at Churchill on the Friday or Saturday of Derby weekend, but I'm hoping that we have a good reason to go this year.”

Indeed, his odds of getting to Churchill Downs on the first weekend in May aren't all that bad. Blue Heaven Farm is represented by two horses on the Derby trail this year with lightly-raced Tappan Street (Into Mischief), who showed his emerging talent last month with a runner-up performance in the GIII Holy Bull Stakes, and the gritty Getaway Car (Curlin), a top juvenile last year in California who will make his next start in Saturday's Virginia Derby.

Although this farm has yet to breed a Derby contender, the list of notable horses it has produced is growing rapidly. Blue Heaven's shot at getting a 2025 Kentucky Derby starter comes on the heels of the farm's best year on record in 2024 after breeding five stakes horses and several seven-figure yearlings. Perhaps most impressively, all this has been achieved with a broodmare band of just 14 mares. As a commercial breeding business, Blue Heaven Farm is the very definition of a boutique operation.

Tappan Street's dam Virginia Key will visit Gun Runner in 2025 | Katie Petrunyak

“Year by year we try to curate the broodmare band so that it's in that 12 to 15 range, which requires being aggressive,” said Corndorf. “If people don't like your horse because of various things, it's easy to want to prove them wrong and keep every filly you can't sell, but before you know it you have 25 or 30 mares and they're all sisters or daughters. So we try hard to be objective and make smart decisions. With the group that we have, we can be aggressive with our stallion selection and sort of be 'small but mighty.'”

“But it's tough,” he acknowledged. “You can do everything a certain way and have an amazing year, then the next year do things the exact same way and have a terrible year and not really know how it happened. So I've learned that we just try to enjoy the good years as much as possible.”

Corndorf has been the president and general manager of Blue Heaven since they moved onto the property on McCowans Ferry Road in Versailles 15 years ago, but the roots of his family's involvement in horse racing go back several generations.

Over thirty years ago, Corndorf's grandfather Sy Baskin bought into a few racing partnerships at Arlington Park after retiring from a career in chemical manufacturing. As his stable began to grow, his daughter Bonnie Baskin took an interest as well. Where Sy was passionate about the racing side of the business, Bonnie–a microbiologist and the founder of several successful biotechnology companies–was fascinated with the breeding. The father-daughter duo formed SyBon Racing Stable. One of their early purchases was Ocean Drive (Belong to Me), a $160,000 2001 Keeneland September yearling who went on to become a multiple graded stakes winner and important broodmare for her owners. Later, as Bonnie's passion for the breeding side of the business continued to blossom, she founded her own racing and breeding operation in Blue Heaven Farm.

Meanwhile, Bonnie's son Adam Corndorf was busy earning a law degree. After graduating and moving to New York, Corndorf also began to follow the family's racing business. He had big dreams for Blue Heaven and when he sat down with his mother to discuss the future, the pair drew up a plan where they would grow the operation to the point where, instead of boarding their mares, they could have their own farm in Kentucky and Corndorf would take over managing the stable.

Before taking the leap, Corndorf did all he could to gain industry knowledge. Giving up his law practice, he spent a season running cards at the Keeneland September and November sales for the Taylor Made consignment, hoping to glean information on what buyers were looking for, and then he worked at Belmont Park for six months walking hots for Todd Pletcher.

It was his first real hands-on horsemanship experience and Corndorf smiled as he recalled his first days on the job. One morning as he was hot walking a colt, there was an open stall door where another colt was saddled inside, waiting for the next set. Corndorf's colt spotted the open door and strode inside with Corndorf following along, helplessly clutching the shank.

Corndorf family and grandfather Sy Baskin at Gulfstream Park in 2020 | courtesy Adam Corndorf

“There I was in a stall with two giant colts and I'm thinking, 'This is it. This is how it ends,'” Corndorf recalled with a laugh. “But Todd was wonderful and I really appreciated him giving me an opportunity to be exposed to not just good horses, but a high-quality operation. Even after those six months, there are people who have forgotten more about horses then I'll even know, but I just felt like it would give me credibility if I had put some time into building those relationships and learning as much as I could.”

After purchasing the farm in 2010, Corndorf and his wife Christine, a fellow lawyer from Los Angeles, moved into a double wide trailer on the property. In those early years, it was just Corndorf, the farm manager and one groom working together to muck stalls, mow grass and oversee the care of their stock.

From the start, Corndorf was careful about maintaining a 'quality over quantity' philosophy.

“This was not going to be a side hustle for us with disposable income from other businesses,” explained Corndorf. “Everything we do here is with an eye towards sustainability. The business has to support itself, so it was really about making sure that we weren't throwing money away just to say that we did it ourselves. I felt like with the right kind of numbers, we could make it work.”

Blue Heaven has never been a breeder that consistently goes after seven-figure mares to build their broodmare band. Instead, Corndorf has made a habit of not compromising on race record or physical, but focusing on finding mares who might be discounted due to a lack of commercial sire power or pedigree.

Starship Jubilee fit that description. The Florida-bred daughter of Indy Wind was a three-time graded stakes winner when she went through the ring at the 2018 Keeneland November Sale. Blue Heaven purchased her privately with the goal of breeding the then-five-year-old mare, but trainer Kevin Attard convinced Corndorf to keep her in training for a bit longer. The mare reeled off two unforgettable seasons and six more graded stakes wins for Blue Heaven and became the farm's first Grade I winner as an owner.

“It was a Cinderella story for us for two years of heights that we never thought we would get to,” said Corndorf. “There were a couple of her races where it was four generations of us–my grandfather, my mom, myself and my two kids–so it was really fun. She's back at the farm now and is carrying her fourth foal.”

Starship Jubilee's 2-year-old Quality Road filly has been retained by the farm and will be sent to Attard later this spring.

Starship Jubilee and her Quality Road filly, who is now a 2-year-old preparing to join the Kevin Attard barn | Sara Gordon

Our Khrysty (Newfoundland) was another similar purchase. A graded stakes victress in her own right, the mare has produced six winners since she was bought by Blue Heaven in 2011, including 2021 GI Debutante Stakes victress Grace Adler (Curlin) and Pyrenees (Into Mischief), who was retained by Blue Heaven and raced to a win in last year's GIII Pimlico Special Stakes. After a pair of runner-up Grade I performances and a start in the Breeders' Cup Classic, the Cherie DeVaux trainee is now preparing for his 5-year-old campaign.

Our Khrysty's daughter Virginia Key (Distorted Humor), another Blue Heaven homebred who earned graded stakes credit in the 2018 GII Gazelle Stakes, is not only the dam of the promising Tappan Street, but also the highest-selling yearling in Blue Heaven's history. The mare's Curlin colt brought $1.4 million at last year's Keeneland September Sale.

It was a Keeneland sale for the record books for Blue Heaven, highlighting their growing reputation as commercial breeders, when they were also represented by a $975,000 Gun Runner filly out of Our Khrysty.

“I usually don't bring my kids to the sales because they're 10 and 12 and I'm always worried that they're going to buy a horse or something,” Corndorf joked. “I don't trust them to keep their hands down. But I kind of felt like those two had the potential to be good ones. They were both selling in the afternoon so my wife left work early, picked the kids up from school and came over. We watched them sell together from the back ring. The filly sold for $975,000 and then the next day the colt sold for $1.4 million. We had reserves that were nowhere near anything like that. They were maybe a fifth of that. We went in thinking we had good people on them and were just kind of hoping for the best. Then the bidding started and it was kind of hard to believe what was happening.”

The Curlin colt sold to Bradley Thoroughbreds and the Gun Runner went to Lael Stable, giving Corndorf plenty of optimism about the pair's future.

“So much of this from our end comes down to luck with whose hands they go into,” said Corndorf. “If you think about the success we've had over the last few years with good horses, there's a correlation with who trains them and who owns them. It's people who know what they're doing and give them a chance to succeed.”

The two potential Derby contenders are also represented by powerhouse connections. Tappan Street is with Brad Cox and is campaigned by WinStar Farm, China Horse Club and Cold Press Racing while Getaway Car, a $300,000 Keeneland November graduate and $700,000 Keeneland September pinhook, is in the Bob Baffert barn and owned by a large partnership that includes SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables and Stonestreet Stables.

One essential element of Blue Heaven's success, according to Corndorf, is the team at the farm. Jamie Corbett has been the operation's farm manager since 2014.

“We're only as good as the people we have working here,” said Corndorf. “I think it's very easy in this business, with how valuable these horses are, to treat the horses really well but not always treat the people well. So I like to think that more than anything–more than having good horses or good mares–that this is a good place to work. Our employees have been here for years, which I hope means that they're happy, and I feel like we have a supportive environment here.”

After growing up in Minneapolis with no ties to racing until his grandfather and mother started to get involved when he was in college, Corndorf has a unique outlook on the industry and the opportunities the sport has given him and his family.

“I never knew that this world existed,” he admitted. “I just figured that I would be a lawyer and grind it out in an office for the rest of my life. I grew up as a sports fan and sure, I would watch the Triple Crown races, but beyond that I knew nothing about the breeding industry. I'm sure my wife would say the same thing. But it has been great. We love Lexington. We love life on the farm. It's a fun way to grow up for my kids. We want to be a part of maintaining these farms in the manner that they deserve to be maintained so that this community exists in this way for many generations.”

Canadian champion and graded stakes producer Café Americano (Medaglia d'Oro) watches over her napping Forte colt, with Our Khrysty in the adjacent paddock | Katie Petrunyak

Today, Blue Heaven's founder Bonnie Baskin is based in Texas, but she enjoys receiving updates on the new foals every spring, attending the races with her family when she can, and admiring all that her son has accomplished with the operation that she once named as a nod to the Gene Austin song her father used to sing to her.

“As Adam's mother who is very proud of him and thinks the world of him, it's great to see the fruit of his labor and commitment,” said Baskin. “It's a result of really strategic thinking and perseverance because in this business you need perseverance, especially coming into a community where he wasn't well known. To have the opportunity to be in business with my son is like a dream and I've always trusted him. We've gone through ups and downs, good years and bad years, but we've always stuck with our plan.”

Baskin's father Sy passed away in 2021 at the age of 100, but before his death he was able to see the arrival of his namesake Sy B (English Channel)–the final foal out of Ocean Drive, the mare he and his daughter purchased together 20 years earlier. This year Grade II-placed Sy B will begin her broodmare career at the farm where she was once bred, marking a new generation at Blue Heaven Farm.

“We raise horses that can run,” reflected Corndorf. “That's the most important thing. I think the stats hopefully show that we raise our horses the right way. We don't coddle them. We try to let them be horses as much as possible. We like to think that what we're bringing to market is the best of what we've curated over the last decade and a half, that there's consistency and reliability with what we've produced and that buyers are going to get a horse that is tough, hard-nosed and talented.”

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