Paul Mellon, the legendary thoroughbred owner-breeder whose Rokeby Stable included 1993 Kentucky Derby winner Sea Hero, died Monday at his estate in Upperville, Virginia. He was 91.
Mellon, the son of former Secretary of the Treasury tycoon Andrew Mellon, was elected to The Jockey Club in 1947 and had his first champion, steeplechaser American Way, the following year. Other top horses from the Rokeby string included 1969 Belmont Stakes winner and Horse of the Year Arts and Letters; 1970 Horse of the Year Fort Marcy; 1971 grass champion Run the Gantlet; Key to the Mint, champion 3-year-old of 1972; Fit to Fight, who swept New York’s handicap triple crown in 1984; and 1986 Travers winner Java Gold.
The best of them all was Mill Reef, who won the English Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in 1971 and is regarded as one of the greatest horses ever to race in Europe.
Sea Hero, trained by Mack Miller, fulfilled one of Mellon’s lifelong goals winning the Run for the Roses and later that summer captured the Travers. Mellon, a well-known philanthropist and patron of the arts, recently donated a statue of Sea Hero that stands in the paddock at Saratoga.
Mellon, who wrote his autobiography ”Reflections in a Silver Spoon” in 1992, won two Eclipse Awards as outstanding breeder, one as outstanding owner and received the Eclipse Award of Merit in 1993. He dispersed most of his racing and breeding stock in 1995 after Miller retired.