oscar kimelman
Oscar Kimelman was born in the Bronx, New York. After working as a bookkeeper during the day and attending night school at New York University for six years, he launched his own accounting business. Its main focus was helping small companies go public on the New York Stock Exchange.
In 1965, Kimelman's eldest son, Mike, proposed an investment opportunity. The price tag was $10,000. Later, Kimelman found this "opportunity" was the purchase of a Standardbred named Meadow Tarport, out of the Immortal Lady Ann Reed. Meadow Tarport won his first three starts under the O. K. Stable banner and in so doing hooked the entire Kimelman family on harness racing.
After two years of racing horses, the Kimelmans began to look for a farm to stand their four-year-old Blaze Hanover trotter, All Aflame. In 1969, to take advantage of the $3 million New York Sire Stakes program, Oscar Kimelman and his sons, Mike and Ted, established Blue Chip Farm in Wallkill, New York. Over 600 acres were developed into a breeding and boarding facility. They acquired a young broodmare band, as well as Lady Ann Reed and her daughter, Lady Jamie. Also included in the initial band were the winners of the 1970 Pacing Filly Triple Crown races; they were Betty Hanover, winner of the Lady Maud at Roosevelt, Timely News who took the Yonkers' Bronx Pace and Waltz Time who triumphed in Goshen's Ladyship.
Kimelman was influential in acquiring Most Happy Fella, the 1970 Triple Crown winner, to stand at Blue Chip Farm. Happy became an outstanding sire and founded a line of pacing sires that has risen to the top levels of the sport. He is also one of the all-time great broodmare sires. From Happy's first crop came two great fillies, Tarport Hap and Silk Stockings. Other stallions added during Blue Chip's infancy were Gene Abbe, Overcall and Precious Fella. Later, On The Road Again and Meadow Road joined Blue Chip's stallion ranks.
Blue Chip remains an industry leader. The yearlings bred and raised at the farm can be found racing and in breeding sheds all over North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Blue Chip continues to develop and promote a dynamic stallion roster and broodmare band, thereby carrying on Oscar Kimelman's tradition of "raising horses that will compete all over the country." Today, the president of Blue Chip Farms is Oscar's grandson, Michael.
Oscar Kimelman loved harness racing. He introduced many friends and business associates to it and thus his influence on the sport is enduring. He passed away in New York on September 2, 1988 at the age of eighty.
Published in the Harness Racing Museum's 2003 Souvenir Journal