One of Kevin Lay's fondest memories with Blame involved an unexpected olive branch from a 9-year-old girl.Years ago, Lay was giving a tour through Claiborne Farm's stallion complex. When the group reached Blame's stall and the amicable stallion stuck his head out to greet the visitors, a young girl pointedly turned her back, refusing to look at the horse that had caused her such devastation in the infamous 2010 GI Breeders' Cup Classic. A few weeks later, the farm received a hand-drawn portrait of Blame with a note stating simply, 'I'm sorry.' The stallion team took a photo of Blame nosing the drawing and mailed it back to his newest fan.For Lay, who has spent the better part of 16 years as Blame's groom, it's a familiar story. “A lot of people say he's the horse that broke America's heart,” Lay said. “But I guess for me, it didn't break my heart because I was in love with him.”This year, Blame will turn 20 years old on Kentucky Derby day. Among the inner circle of horsemen at Claiborne, the memories of Blame's historic night under the lights at Churchill Downs are tied to the quiet legacy he has built between the headlines.For them, it has always been easy to root for the plain-packaged bay who spent much of his life flying under the radar. Even when his stallion career had cooled to a book of just 48 mares, Blame came through in doing what he always did best on the racetrack: showing up when it mattered most.Charlie Oliver, the horseman who first laid eyes on the future champion, estimates he has foaled between 700 and 800 Thoroughbreds in his 35 years of working at Claiborne, but he remembers Blame's arrival with perfect clarity.Blame as a foal | courtesy Claiborne Farm“It was on a Tuesday,” he recalled. “Myself and Scott Jones brought him into the world in the middle paddock of barn seven. He was easy to foal, from what I can remember. He was contracted left hind, but got over that. He was a bit of a jerk when he was a baby. He had his little quirks about him, but he grew out of them and got to where he was easy to handle.”By the time Blame reached his yearling year, a teenage Walker Hancock was beginning his own education on the farm. That summer, Seth Hancock decided his son was strong enough to handle the yearlings and assigned him to Blame's barn.“There were two Arch colts in the barn that summer,” said Hancock, now the President of Claiborne. “There was Blame and then there was this other big, strong specimen of a colt with a white blaze. He looked just like Arch and I remember we were all thinking this was going to be the one. Blame kind of flew under the radar. You didn't really notice him because he just did what he was told to do and wasn't a handful.”“Nothing special really stood out about him, but I felt good about him,” added Oliver. “He was the type of horse that is plain, no flash to him, but he got out there and did his job like he was supposed to.”Oliver couldn't possibly track all the horses he foals, but he kept tabs on Blame.Campaigned by Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider, the Al Stall-trained colt broke his maiden as a juvenile and was a two-time graded stakes winner at three. By the next year, he had blossomed into one of the leaders of his division, collecting back-to-back wins in the GI Stephen Foster Handicap and GI Whitney Handicap, where he bested Quality Road in a dramatic stretch battle.A runner-up finish in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes solidified him as a top contender for the Classic, but he remained in the shadow of Zenyatta's quest for perfection in the leadup to the big event.Blame and Zenyatta battle in the 2010 GI Breeders' Cup Classic | Sarah Andrew“Obviously we knew Zenyatta was this great filly,” Hancock explained. “19 for 19, undefeated, big reputation. She was obviously the one to beat, but Blame was gonna do Blame's thing. He hadn't shipped very well for the Gold Cup. He was kind of flat and ran second, so that took the spotlight off him. People were thinking that maybe he just freaked one time at Saratoga in the Whitney. We were obviously confident in him and we knew if he showed up, he was going to be right there.”Earlier that summer, Claiborne stallion manager Joe Peel had told Lay that Blame would likely be coming to the stallion barn after the Breeders' Cup and that Lay would be his groom.Lay, a third-generation Claiborne employee whose grandfather famously handled Danzig, had worked at the farm since he was 17. When the Breeders' Cup finally rolled around, he spent a rare weekend away from the barn, taking his wife to Churchill Downs for their 16th wedding anniversary.“Churchill was giving out these Zenyatta posters that day,” Lay said. “I actually got one for my oldest son because he was a huge Zenyatta fan. I was too, just on that day I wasn't going to pull against the home team.”Lay had saved up to buy a professional-grade camera specifically for the race. He secured a spot on the rail and snapped shots of Blame breaking cleanly and settling mid-pack. But as the field hit the far turn and both Zenyatta and Blame started making their moves, the photographer turned into a fan. When Lay began jumping and hand riding his future charge home, his wife grabbed the camera from his precarious grasp.Meanwhile, Oliver watched from his living room as Blame took the lead in the upper stretch.“I was beating the couch, trying to get him across the finish line,” he recalled with a grin.From the Claiborne box in the Churchill Downs grandstand, Hancock took in the scene as Zenyatta came bearing down in the final strides.“It was as loud as a sporting venue could possibly be,” he said. “I think everyone in that whole place was screaming for Zenyatta and we were screaming for Blame.”Then came the wire, and the deafening roar was replaced by an even louder silence.“I've never seen a venue just lose energy as fast as it did that night,” reflected Hancock. “Literally, the air got sucked out of that place. People were booing Blame and they're looking at us like, 'How could you possibly be cheering right now?'”Blame arrives at the Claiborne stallion complex accompanied by Kevin Lay and Adele Dilschneider | courtesy Claiborne FarmWhile the racing world dissected the end of an era, the team at Claiborne prepared for a hero's welcome. Co-owner Adele Dilschneider insisted on coming along with Lay and riding in the trailer to bring Blame home.“If you've met Adele, she's this little dainty lady who's always a pleasure to be around,” said Lay. “I was sitting with her in the trailer thinking, 'This lady could be doing anything and she wanted to be on that trailer with this horse. This is her baby.' We brought him off the trailer together and put him in the stall. It was one of the wildest days I've had since I've been here.”Blame never missed a beat in his transition to stud. That same sensible mind Oliver and Hancock noticed in his early days at Claiborne remained his trademark.“You won't meet many stallions that you can go in, groom him up and most times there's not even a halter on him,” said Lay. “He's as cool as a cucumber.”Blame entered stud at a fee of $35,000, but by 2018 his price had dipped to $12,500 after breeding only 48 mares the season prior. That same year, Marley's Freedom emerged as a millionaire sprint sensation and Fault captured the GI Santa Margarita Stakes. Since then, the sire has quietly reclaimed his place in the market while his influence has grown through his daughters.Blame turns 20 years old this year | Sara Gordon“He'll always be my number one favorite horse,” Hancock shared. “Just because I had the connection from my time with him as a yearling, for what he did for the farm and Ms. Dilschneider by winning the Breeders' Cup Classic, and then obviously being a successful sire and a really good broodmare sire. Seeing his legacy carry on through his daughters is really, really cool.”The longevity of a stallion like Blame is rarely the result of luck, but instead a reflection of the hands that have guided the horse throughout his career.“He wouldn't be here without the spectacular individuals who helped him along the way,” said Hancock. “From Charlie Oliver as a foal to Robert Harlow as a yearling, Kevin Lay as his stallion groom, and obviously Al Stall and all of his amazing team, it's a testament to those folks.”For the caretakers Hancock describes, the connection has always been deeply personal.“I never had kids of my own,” Oliver said. “So I raise these horses like I think kids should be raised.”“My kids claim I love him more than I love them,” Lay joked. “It's not very hard to do. He's such a pleasure to be around.”Blame may have once “broken America's heart,” but for the horsemen who have spent the past two decades with the champion, he had already won theirs from the start.The post Hands On History: Blame, Champion to All at Claiborne Farm appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.