The Associated Press
Thursday, February 1, 2007; 11:13 PM

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- John A. Bell III, who founded the Kentucky horse farm best known as the final resting place of Triple Crown winner Affirmed, has died at 88.

Bell died Wednesday evening at St. Joseph Hospital Hospice, the hospital said Thursday. Bell's daughter, Bennett Bell Williams, told the Lexington Herald-Leader he was battling pulmonary fibrosis.

Bell sold Jonabell Farm in 2001 to Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid al-Maktoum.

He used the proceeds from the sale of a litter of pigs to buy his first mare, and founded Jonabell Farm in Fayette County in 1954.

"If one would write a job description of the perfect owner, breeder and representative of the thoroughbred industry, John Bell would be the epitome," former Keeneland chairman James E. "Ted" Bassett, said in a 1990 interview.

Bell raised Never Say Die, the first American-bred horse to win the English Derby, said Ed Bowen, president of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation.

Williams said that in his last days, her father had become involved in creating the Bell Chair for Alcohol and Addictions at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine.

She said her father was a recovering alcoholic, sober for 30 years.

"He spent a lot of time helping others who had the same misfortune," she said.

He graduated from Princeton and attended Harvard School of Business. He first came to Kentucky on a vacation in 1946 after he served in the military.

He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Jessica Gay Bell; daughters Jessica Nicholson and Bennett Williams; sons John A. Bell IV and James G. "Jimmy" Bell.