Calumet Extends Record as Leading KY Derby Breeder

No Thoroughbred operation has a greater association with the Kentucky Derby (G1) than Calumet Farm, whose name prior to this weekend had been associated as the breeder of a record nine victories since 1941.

Under the tutelage of Kentucky businessman Brad Kelley since 2012, the historic farm next to Keeneland with distinctive white board fencing raised its tally to 10 when 80-1 longshot Rich Strike  blew past 4-1 favorite Epicenter  in deep stretch May 7 to capture America's biggest race.

The last Kentucky Derby winner bred by Calumet Farm was Strike the Gold, a son of Alydar bred when the farm was being run by former president J.T. Lundy. Strike the Gold won the Derby in 1991, the same year the farm declared bankruptcy and unleashed a torrent of lawsuits that landed Lundy in jail. The farm was then sold at public auction in 1992 to Henryk de Kwiatkowski, then later sold to Kelley.

Kelley is a native of Franklin, Ky., and founder of Commonwealth Tobacco, a discount cigarette company that he sold in 2001 for $1 billion. According to Forbes, Kelley has become one of the largest landowners in the United States, with 1.5 million acres from Florida to Hawaii in his portfolio. Forbes estimates his net worth as of May 7 at $2.7 billion.

Rich Strike is a son of Calumet's second-crop sire Keen Ice  , who delivered his own upset in 2015 when he defeated Triple Crown winner American Pharoah   in the Travers Stakes (G1) at odds of 16-1. The 10-year-old son of Curlin   had finished third in the Belmont Stakes Presented by DraftKings (G1) that year and was second in the William Hill Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1). At 5, he won the Suburban Stakes (G2) and was runner-up in the Whitney Stakes (G1) and Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes (G1) on his way to earning $3,407,245.

As a stallion, Keen Ice has sired 30 winners and had only one black-type winner in Puerto Rico prior to Saturday, when Rich Strike was among his five stakes-placed performers.

Rich Strike is out of the 2005 Canadian champion 3-year-old filly Gold Strike , a daughter of Smart Strike, and winner of the 2005 Labatt Woodbine Oaks. Gold Strike is also the dam of Natalma Stakes (G2) winner Llanarmon , who was third in the 2014 Woodbine Oaks. The Derby winner is the last foal the mare has produced.

Calumet originally became a Thoroughbred nursery when Warren Wright Sr., heir to the Calumet Baking Power Co., inherited the farm in 1931. The farm passed to Wright's widow, Lucille, after he died in 1950 and she married Gene Markey. They ran the farm until Markey died in 1980.

Calumet's greatest achievements came during 1941-61, when it won the Kentucky Derby seven times with homebreds Whirlaway (1941), Pensive (1944), Citation (1948), Ponder (1949), Hill Gail (1952), Iron Liege (1957), and Tim Tam (1958). The farm won its eighth Derby with homebred Forward Pass in 1968 after the disqualification of Dancer's Image. Strike the Gold was raced by William Condren, Joseph Cornacchia, and B. Giles Brophy.