Leslie Combs and
Dorothy Louise Enslow

Leslie Combs b 22 Oct 1901 Lexington, Fayette Co KY d 7 Apr 1990 UK Medical Center, Lexington, Fayette Co KY of cancer; education, Centre College, Danville, KY; occupation, thoroughbred horseman, owner of Spendthrift Farm, Fayette Co KY (named his farm for his Great grandfather, Daniel Weisiger Sweigert's famous horse "Spendthrift" who sired the famous "Man O' War"; s/o Daniel Swigert Combs and Florence Elizabeth McClung. Leslie Combs m. Jun 1924 to Dorothy Louise Enslow b 22 Oct 1901 Huntington, Cabell Co WV d 29 Nov 1968 Lexington, Fayette Co KY of cancer; d/o Frank Bliss Enslow Jr and Juliette Lyell Buffington. Children of Leslie Combs and Dorothy Louise Enslow;

1. Brownell Combs

2. Juliette Buffington Combs m. Male Trapp

(Source) Leslie Combs 2d, the founder of Spendthrift Farm and a leading owner and breeder of thoroughbred horses, died of cancer Saturday at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington, Ky. He was 88 years old.

Spendthrift Farm, which Mr. Combs bought in 1936 with a $600,000 inheritance and proceeds from selling an insurance agency he had founded in West Virginia, enjoyed early prosperity and grew from 126 acres to 6,000.

After World War II, Mr. Combs revitalized the practice of syndicating stallions, beginning with Beau Pere, whom he syndicated to 20 investors for $5,000 each. He later syndicated such champion thoroughbreds as Nashua, Majestic Prince and Raise a Native.

Home of Champions

Spendthrift, named for a famous racehorse owned by Mr. Combs's great-grandfather, was once the home of Seattle Slew and Affirmed, the Triple Crown winners of 1977 and 1978, and the farm may have reached its peak in stallion syndication in 1978, when those two champions were syndicated for $12 million and $16 million, respectively.

In addition, Mr. Combs was a prominent figure at yearling sales such as Keeneland's, where he was the leading consignor by average in 1949-64.

Mr. Combs was a graduate of Centre College in Kentucky and the manager of a coffee plantation in Guatemala early in his career. His namesake and great-grandfather was a general in the War of 1812 and became a law partner of the three-time Presidential candidate Henry Clay.

In 1974, Mr. Combs turned over the management of Spendthrift Farm to his son, Brownell, and the operation continued to thrive until wealthy foreign buyers and newcomer American investors began to dominate sales.

Dismayed by Changes

''I don't understand this business anymore,'' the elder Combs said in 1983. ''I used to syndicate a stallion by telling my friends, the people I knew, and we'd sign a two-page contract. Now it's all strangers and lawyers and people not trusting each other.''

Mr. Combs surprised many horsemen when he went public with Spendthrift in December 1983, selling 650,000 shares of common stock at $12 apiece.

But three years later, after a steep drop in the market prices for thoroughbreds, the stock was worth $3 a share, and the Combs family, to raise cash, parted with 60 percent of its acreage and its entire yearling crop, and dispersed its broodmares and racing horses.

In 1988, Spendthrift filed for bankruptcy. Its assets were sold in 1989.

Mr. Combs was a member of the Churchill Downs board of directors for many years. He retired from the board two years ago and became director emeritus.

Mr. Combs is survived by two children, Brownell Combs 2d of Bal Harbour, Fla., and Juliette Trapp of Lexington; eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren. His wife, Dorothy, died of cancer in 1968.