L. Clay Camp, a highly regarded Thoroughbred race horse breeder and horseman, died on May 4 at his home in Charlottesville, Va. He was 78.

Mr. Camp was a lifelong horseman who was born in Marion, S.C. He attended Woodberry Forest School (Va.), Hampden-Sydney College (Va.) and the University of Virginia.

Mr. Camp learned the trade like many now prominent Virginia-horsemen by working with draft horses and show hunters. He spent most of his life as a leading consigner of Thoroughbreds.

A prominent fixture at the Saratoga, N.Y., summer yearling sales, Mr. Camp consigned as agent a Northern Dancer colt that sold for $4.6 million at the 1984 sale. The price remains a Saratoga record. Mr. Camp also bred several stakes winners, including three-time added-money winner Our Gatsby.

Mr. Camp also served as a director on a variety of boards, including the Atlantic Rural Exposition (now the Virginia State Fair), the Virginia Thoroughbred Association, where he served two terms as president, the Kentucky Horse Park, the Thoroughbred Retirement Fund, and the Virginia Horse Center. He was also a founder and the first president of the Virginia Horse Council.

Mr. Camp also was an accomplished carriage driver who competed in three World Four-in-Hand Driving Championships in Europe. In 1980, he competed as a member of the U.S. Equestrian Team.

Mr. Camp and his wife, Barbara Pease Camp, who died last October, were married for 50 years. Together they operated Glenmore in Virginia and then in Lexington, Ky., before returning to Virginia in the 1990s.

Mr. Camp is survived by two sons, Jefferson and L. Clay Camp Jr., and two daughters, Carrie and June.

Memorial donations may be made to the Virginia Horse Center, 487 Maury River Road, Lexington, VA, 24450 or the Thoroughbred Retirement Fund, P.O. Box 3387, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866.