Tom Grossman is the owner of one of the top
Standardbred outfits in the business--the Wallkill, New
York-based Blue Chip Farms. The 45-year-old is also thefounder of Union Avenue Advisors, an emergingmarkets focused hedge fund. Blue Chip=s 680 acres arehome to Standardbred royalty: 2011's top pacing sire,
Bettor=s Delight; 2010 pacer and Horse of the Year,Rock N Roll Heaven; Credit Winner, the leading moneywinning sire of 3YO trotters in 2010 and 2011; theWorld Champion trotter, Crazed; and this year=s pick of
the crop among retiring stallions, Roll With Joe, whowas 2011's leading money-winning Standardbred
regardless of gait with $1.6 million in earnings.

There=s a huge opportunity in New York right now. In a
perfect world, how would you like to capitalize uponthat?
I think in the immediate, the easy task is that we dohave some capacity for more boarders at Blue Chip, andI think our staff and facility really does stack up very
well--as good or better than anything in New York, andwe=d like to think we are as good as anything inKentucky. The art of running a farm is that we have ahuge fixed-cost base, and an excellent labor force.
While boarding horses generally is not all that profitable,
the incremental boarder is profitable. We=d like to attract
a couple of people with a handful of mares and takecare of everything for them in New York..
The insured value of our own Standardbred
broodmare band is approximately $4 million and we takecare of a like amount of value in our Standardbred andSporthorse boarders. (Blue Chip also has a Sporthorsedivision, headed by their Olympic Grand Prix jumper,Sapphire.)ÏÒThe owner of Blue Chip since 2001, and a
Thoroughbred fan since childhood, Grossman has
dabbled in the breed, but with the slots-fueled
incentives to breed New York-bred Thoroughbreds, he isnow considering jumping in...if not with both feet, thanat least with one. Grossman says he=s looking for a few
good mares...and maybe a stallion or two as well.
The TDN=s Sue Finley sat down with him to learn
more about his plans.

Mares and foals roam Blue Chip’s 680 acresBlue Chip’s Tom Grossman

What is your involvement with Thoroughbreds rightnow?
At this point, I own three or four horses over in theU.K. that Richard Hannon trains, and I still have a mareor two on the farm, but beyond that, I=m just really ahandicapper, bettor and big fan.
ÏÒBeyond that, we have twice come very close tostanding a stallion at Blue Chip, just through people I
know at Coolmore and elsewhere. When the slots billfirst passed, I bought 12 or 13 mares and started
breeding New York-breds and was really one of the firstreal people to do that. Then we sort of lost the plot
somewhere along the way while everyone messed up
Aqueduct for 10 years.
But ultimately, the plan would be to stand a wellpedigreed Thoroughbred stallion worthy of breeding
your top mare back to. That=s obviously not an easy
proposition in the New York Thoroughbred market. We
are a little spoiled in that we think we have the best
stallions in the game in Standardbreds, and obviously
that=s not going to happen right off the bat in
Thoroughbreds. We=re going to take our time because
the right deal hasn=t come along. To be honest, it doestake a good deal of thought and investment on our part,in terms of live-cover insurance, staff, etc. But I think
we=ll be able to do live cover quite well.

You=ve raised a lot of standardbreds, and a few of yourown Thoroughbreds. Are there differences?
At Blue Chip, we have industry-high fertility rates, andtwo guys who have literally been in the foaling barn for
30-odd years. We have an onsite veterinarian, HerbBurns, who I think is as good as it gets. So in terms ofour facility, it=s absolutely turn-key. Our horses generally
grow up in groups in fields, with each field having raised
several Standardbred champions. We have put out agroup of Thoroughbred weanlings-to-yearlings alone,and have also mixed them in with the Standardbred
population. We have tried it both ways and we havelearned that the feed program has to be slightlydifferent. But other than that, and other than thebreeding shed itself, really, it is the same skill-set.
As far as foaling, maintenance, care, and thepreliminary handling of horses, I think we have thereputation in the Standardbred industry that our horses
are well mannered and very comfortable with humanbeings. I have the labor bill to prove it.
We have a staff of 33 and the average tenure would
shock youBI would bet it=s over 10 years. We have 15
houses on the farm, and that=s how you keep the staff.
We helped a lot of people with immigration through theyears and have really lost very few people along theway.
Blue Chip can offer everything from getting your marein foal to sale prep. Currently we prep 70+ yearlings
per year for auction and have consigned Thoroughbred
yearlings in Saratoga in prior years. Part of our successin raising top flight race horses, Thor-oughbred andStandardbred, is our nutrition program. Our fields gettested on a yearly basis and the hay we purchased isalso tested so that we can Atweak@ our customized feed
formula. And it is also important to constantly assess
the individual condition of each horse.
How much capacity do you have to dedicate toThoroughbreds?
I think we=d be capable of taking up to 30 this year. I
think the ultimate number is more, but I=d rather walk,crawl, run, and prove that we can do it with the same
quality that we=re used to in Standardbreds.
From a stallion standpoint, what sort of transition would
you need to make?
We have an 11-stall stallion barn, and I think
facility-wise, we=d be fine with a very minor investment.
We=d have to change our insurance somewhat and you
need the right personnel to physically manage thestallions on a daily basis. We already have that now for
our present needs in the Standardbred staff, which areresponsible for stallions worth in excess of $12 million
in the Standardbred world. Interestingly, New York, inthe Standardbred game, has a no-ship semen policy. Itis sort of a hybrid between live cover and what all theother states are in Standardbred racing. I would likely atthis point to go out and hire somebody who had beenvery involved at a good farm that does standThoroughbreds. I think it will enhance and refine ourcurrent services to include Thoroughbred stallion
management. Blue Chip would be committed to making
sure it is done to top, top standards.

In a perfect world, is the right opportunity a partnershipwith someone else, or a stallion you go out andpurchase outright?
Certainly at the beginning, I=d want to go in on apartnership with someone else. I think we=d want tohave skin in the game and equity, but I think we want
to play on a level where we would want a partner.
Unless we got very lucky, I=m guessing it would be astallion that has stood somewhere else, but who is anindividual that someone would be excited to breed agood mare to.
How did you become interested in Thoroughbred Racing?
I grew up in New York City, and was either atAqueduct or Belmont every Saturday from the age of 4
to 14. I=ve been to Saratoga every summer since I wasfive or six. I had the good fortune of buying what I thinkis the best house in Saratoga; on Union Avenue, rightacross the gate from the track. It=s a sacred place in myfamily, where my father loved to sit on the porch andwatch the world go by in August. That=s where thename of my company, Union Avenue Advisors, comesfrom.
So how did you end up in Standardbreds?
I grew up with the Kimelman family, who owned Blue
Chip prior to me. I was introduced to Standardbred
racing by them. As my other business got very good,
there was an opportunity to purchase Blue Chip at attime where the Kimelmans weren=t willing to invest in
the mares and stallions to the degree the facility
needed. The reality is that owning Standardbred
racehorses is a much better business than owning
Thoroughbreds. I know some of the most blue-blooded
Thoroughbred fans, mostly from London, where I had a
big office for a while. They used to call us `racing inwheelchairs,= but they want to own Standardbeds now,
because they can=t believe we race every week, or that I
was in two or three million-dollar races this year, andthey can=t believe that Roll With Joe earned $1.8 million
lifetime, and he cost $100 grand. Yearling buyers canreally make a return in Standardbred racing. Whatever I
do, I try to do at the highest level, and it would havebeen very hard to do that in Thoroughbred racing from astandstill. I think we have a broodmare band that=s as
high-quality as anyone in the business, and I think that
our stallions, as a group, are the best in the business.
And I=ve made money breeding and selling horses in theStandardbred game. Most people I=ve talked to the in
the Thoroughbred game wince when they do the math.
And yet, you want to move into Thoroughbreds...
I do. I won=t lie. My heart is still with theThoroughbreds. My father was a Thoroughbred guy. I
go to the Breeders= Cup every year, I go to Saratoga
every year, and really, honestly, not being pushed, I
have a 14-year-old son that is the world=s biggest
Thoroughbred racing fan. He=s big into handicapping, big
into breeding and bloodlines and crosses. He=s taken on
a big project at our place--looking at a different way topick the optimum breeding for our mares, which uses a
lot of his statistics knowledge, etc. We were in
Kentucky at the Breeders= Cup, with all the Europeans
and he was happy as a clam. It has really become afamily thing.

We=re not arrogant and think we can do everything aswell as everyone else, but we=re willing to invest andlearn. I=m confident about our ability to take care ofmares from day one, and I think we have the resources,
facility and desire to do it the right way.
For more information, visit www.bluechipfarms.com, orcall (845) 895-3930.
Visit the TDN Q&A archive for aseries of in-depth one-on-one
interviews with interesting
figures in the industry.