Calumet’s Hence takes Iowa Derby
Although the stable’s famous devil’s red and blue silks have been replaced, Calumet Farm is back in the winner’s circle after a major race.
Now racing in the colors of owner Brad Kelley, the Lexington, Ky., farm was represented by another stakes winner Friday night with homebred Hence taking the Grade 3 $250,000 Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows.
A January winner at Oaklawn Park, Hence came from last in the eight-horse field and won by 1 1/16 lengths over last-out Churchill Downs winner McCormick. It was another length back to Impressive Edge in third.
In a collaboration of racing Hall of Famers, Mike Smith rode Hence and Iowa Distaff winner Danzatrice on the card for trainer Steve Asmussen. Hence scored his second Grade 3 victory of the year, finishing 11th in the Kentucky Derby after taking the Sunland Derby in March. Asmussen took Hence off the Triple Crown trail after the Street Boss colt’s ninth-place finish in the Preakness.
Earning $149,400, Hence paid his backers $9.40, $4.80 and $3.60, going off as third choice in the closely bunched betting among the top four contestants. Petrov, a solid Oaklawn campaigner for trainer Ron Moquett but winless in stakes company, went off as 2-1 favorite and placed fifth under Ricardo Santana Jr.
* Established in 1924 by the founding owner of the Calumet Baking Powder Co., Calumet Farm has raced eight Kentucky Derby winners with Whirlaway (1941) and Citation (1948) completing the Triple Crown with Preakness and Belmont Stakes victories.
Calumet scored its first victory in a Triple Crown race since 1968 when Oxbow, an Oaklawn campaigner trained by Hall of Famer Wayne Lukas, took the 2013 Preakness.
Calumet horses won nine of 44 starts and earned $767,593 at the 2017 Oaklawn meeting. Winless in three starts at 2, Hence gained his maiden victory Jan. 16 at Oaklawn and finished seventh in the track’s Grade 3 Southwest Feb. 20.
Calumet was bought in 2012 for more than $36 million and leased to Kelley, a billionaire former tobacco owner born in Kentucky. Calumet’s horses carry Kelley’s black-and-gold racing colors, the original devil’s red and blue silks being sold to a Brazilian investment group.