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Memories of Calumet Farm


I got to see where my favorite thoroughbred was born. It's truly beautiful, right from the entrance where resplendent flowers were blooming.

Springtime in Lexington soothes the savage beast. And Calumet Farm ignites memories of those glorious days when it was king and horses like the 1948 Triple Crown conqueror Citation was a prince.

I saw the graveyard of champions, where my favorite, Citation, is buried. I almost could hear the thundering hooves and the swelling roar of the crowd trackside.

Overseeing the headstones is a statue of Bull Lea, the Mr. Prospector of his day -- in the '40s and '50s. He seems to be standing watch over his great racing siblings: Hill Gail and Iron Liege, Kentucky Derby winners in '52 and '57; Coaltown and Armed, horses of the year in '47 and '49; Bewitch, Twilight Tear and Two Lea, not too shabby female champions; Gen. Duke and Bardstown.

Other Calumet greats are buried there, too: Whirlaway, '41 Triple Crown champ; Pensive, '44 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner; Ponder, '48 Derby victor; Tim Tam, '58 Derby and Preakness winner; and Alydar, '78 Triple Crown runner-up who became the farm's greatest stallion since Bull Lea.

William Monroe Wright, founder of the Calumet Baking Power Co., launched the farm for standardbreds in '24. His Calumet Butler won the Hambletonian in '31, the year he died.

His son, Warren Wright Sr., converted the farm to thoroughbreds and Calumet started on the path to fame. Wright purchased Bull Lea for $14,000 at the 1936 Saratoga yearling sale. The son of Bull Dog won a couple of big races, the '38 Blue Grass Stakes at Kenneland and the '39 Widener Handicap at Hialeah, but it was his sons and daughters who made millions. I saw the Blue Grass last year and had the winner, Menifee, who paid $17,40.

Calumet has had numerous glory years. It has been the nation's leading breeder 14 times, including 11 consecutive years, and the top owner moneywise a dozen times. Thirty-eight divisional or horse of the year champions have worn the famed devil red and blue colors.

Nineteen twenty-four is a key year in Calumet's history. That's the year the founder's son also married. Mrs. Warren Wright ran the farm after her first and second husbands passed away. She died in '82 and her son's daughter and husband took over -- and didn't do too well -- for a decade.

In '92, H. R. de Kwiatkowski bought Calumet at public auction for $17 million. He was born in '24.
The copyright of the article Memories of Calumet Farm in Horse Racing is owned by Greg Melikov. Permission to republish Memories of Calumet Farm in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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