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CALUMET FARM SCENE Five Derby Victors Bred at Calumet Blue Grass Nursery Has Had Great Influence on Classic Starting Point for Citation Whirlaway Pensive Ponder Hill Gail Enter Pair Today TodayCHURCHILL CHURCHILL DOWNS Louisville Ky May 4 Calumet Farm 900acre showplace on Versailles Pike in the heart of Lexing ¬ tons Blue Grass country has been the starting point for five Kentucky Derby winners Whirlaway Pensive Citation Ponder and Hill Gail Calumet which is owned by Mrs Gene Markey has had a great influence on the Run for the Roses and on American bloodlines The stables Derby starters always attract considerable support supportCross Cross Desirable Strains StrainsLongtime Longtime iarm manager Paul Ebelhardt says About the epitome of compliments that can be paid a foal a weanling year ¬ ling or twoyearold is to say that he looks like a Derby prospect You can praise a young horse in countless ways but nothing can approach the rating of a colt as a Derby potential potentialAt At Calumet we recognize the impor ¬ tance of the Derby in American racing It has been a strong incentive for Calumet to improve its bloodstock from year to year It took Warren Wright about 10 years of constant selection and upgrading of his stock until his first Derby winner Whirl away came along alongOur Our breeding program at Calumet is based on one fundamental the crossing of desirable strains While the Bull Lea Blenheim II cross is one of our best known lines the crossing of the blood of Teddy with Hyperion produced Citation The blood of Teddy has endovyed his line with a good disposition and infused with the spark and fire or call it temperament if you will of Blandford through Blenheim II it has produced some extremely desir ¬ able individuals both as race horses and as sires and broodmares broodmaresMrs Mrs Margaret Glass able and efficient secretary at Calumet has provided us with a statistical file of the six Calumet stal ¬ lions and from these records some interest i ing material emerges emergesBull Bull Lea the great foundation sire at Calumet has earned honors without paral ¬ lel in moderi American breeding He is the sire of Citation worlds top money winner with 1085760 Armed the worlds top money winning gelding who is third on the alltime list with 817475 and Bewitch worlds leading money winning mare with 462605 462605Through Through 1955 with 13 crops to race Bull Lea sired exactly 22 winners of 100000 or more this honored list including Alerted Armed Bewitch Bullish Capeador Chan lea Citation Coaltown Faultless Flest Bird Good Blood Hill Gail Level Lea MarkYeWell Miz Clementine Next Move Picador Precession Real Delight Twilight Tear Two Lea and Twosy TwosyCitation Citation Triple Crown Winner WinnerTwo Two of these Citation and Hill Gail won the Kentucky Derby and Coaltown ran second in Citations year The latter went on to win the Triple Crown CrownBull Bull Lea has been represented by one or more horses in every flat race champion ship division recognized in the annual poll conducted by The Morning Telegraph and DAILY RACING FORM They include Durazna and Twilight Tear tied and Bewitch leading twoyearold fillies of their respec ¬ tive years Citation best twoyearold colt and best of either sex Two Lea tied with Wistful by Sun Again Next Move and Real Delight top threeyearold fillies Twilight Tear and Citation best three yearolds Armed twice Citation and Coaltown titular handicap horses Bewitch and Two Lea queens of the handicap mares and Coaltown best sprinter Twi ¬ light Tear is the first filly to be named Horse of the Year while Armed and Cita ¬ tion also gained that distinction Bull Page was voted Canadas best in 1951 1951Through Through 1955 the total earnings of Bull Leas progeny amounted to 10758394 and unquestionably will go over the 11000000 mark before Tong The average earned per starter in America was 4059750 Six of those 13 years have seenjiis crops rated as standouts He was 5 9 10 11 13 and 14 when these crops were sired Also through 1955 Bull Lea had a total of 267 starters in those 13 crops of which 48 or 18 per cent wsre stakes winners A total of 177 others won ana or these 11 placed nine showed and seven ran fourth in stakes Bull Lea has neVer had more than 31 foals in any one year that was his peak Continued on Page 42 D Five Kentucky Derby Winners Bred by Famed Calumet Farm Has Given Sport Whirlaway Pensive Citation Ponder Hill Gail Enter Pair Today TodayContinued Continued from Page 14 D Din in 1947 An extremely high percentage of his foals got to the post and won wonWhile While Bull Lea whose recent crops have been limited as he gets older is Calumets best known sire as befits a foundation horse the other stallions also are well re ¬ garded The following figures are through 1955 only Citation whose first crop of 10 American starters earned an average of 525550 per starter raced well and had one stakes win ¬ ner Carmel His one English starter In Dispatches won the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes at Ascot AscotPonder Ponder has had only one crop to race but that crop included Needles best two yearold of 1955 Ponders first crop was small because he was late entering the stud He Tiad only four American starters and one other a stakes winner Poder in Venezuela VenezuelaSun Sun Again is a popular sire with five winners of 100000 or more including Palestinian Sunglow Sunshine Nell White Skies and Wistful He sired the divisional record holder Wistful tied with Two Lea in 1949 as best threeyearold filly and White Skies best sprinter of 1954 Sun Again has sired 20 stakes winners from 153 English and American starters and the average earnings per American starter were 22 194 His get in eight crops has annexed 3329110 3329110Dukes Dukes Lea and MarkYeWell are the newer sires at Calumet Dukes Lea being by Blenheim JJ from the Bull Lea mare Maud Lea while MarkYeWell also em ¬ bodies stout Calumet lines and his exploits on the tracks are of too recent date as to need recounting here hereDistaff Distaff Roster One of Best BestTo To go into the Calumet broodmare band would take up eight or more columns of space interesting columns we grant you but suffice to say that the Calumet distaff roster is one of the finest this country has ever known Ebelhardt puts the credit for the success of the farm on teamwork and disclaims any true credit for himself Ben A Jones the Calumet trainer and his son Jimmy Jones will in turn pass the credit to Ebel ¬ hardt And both believe that a successful operation is possible because Mrs Markey Calumets owner is such a grand sports ¬ woman womanMrs Mrs Markey and the Calumet staff feel rather strongly that the operation of a farm like Calumet is something akin to a public trust Its gates are open at specified hours daily to visitors and thousands each year pass through the beautiful rolling acreage and see the horses in pasture and in the paddocks paddocksAsk Ask Mrs Markey who is her favorite horse and she will reply Whirlaway adds Ebelhardt And that is because Whirlaway was Calumets first Kentucky Derby win ¬ ner nerDerby Derby visitors en route home and if in no great hurry might do well to tarry a day or so in the Lexington Blue Grass area and take in the horse farms The wel ¬ come mat will be out at Calumet
