Calumet

Dr. Michael Cavey describes it as "the opportunity of a lifetime."The 42-year-old Howard County veterinarian is one of three partners who have made the first, and so far, only formal offer to buy world-famous Calumet Farm. The three horsemen plan to maintain it as a first-class stallion station and breeding center and "return Calumet to its heyday," Cavey said.The renowned Kentucky breeding establishment, birthplace of nine Kentucky Derby winners, has long been perceived as a sort of national treasure in the thoroughbred industry, but was placed in bankruptcy July 11, with debts totaling more than $127 million.

A boy falsely accused in one of Chicago's most infamous killings faces new charges eight years later, suspected in a Calumet Park shooting that left a man critically wounded. The 15-year-old, whom the Tribune is not naming because he has not been charged with a crime, was 7 when he and an 8-year-old boy became the youngest people ever charged with murder in the 1998 killing of Ryan Harris, an 11-year-old girl found raped and suffocated in the Englewood neighborhood. The boys were exonerated one month later when sperm found at the scene ruled out boys so young.

Last February, J.T. Lundy, the president of Calumet Farm, was in San Francisco, receiving 1990 Eclipse Awards for being the best breeder and for Criminal Type, the Horse of the Year.Two months later, Lundy resigned as president, and yesterday, after a succession of stories in the racing trade press about clients suing Calumet, the historic farm filed two Chapter 11 bankruptcy petitions in Lexington, Ky., listing debts of about $135 million.John Ward, who replaced Lundy as president of Calumet, said the 869-acre farm is for sale and added: "We needed protection from the courts so that we could go on and do business."

Next to Allen Murray's senior picture in the 1951 Havre de Grace High School yearbook were the words: Calumet Farm North. That was Murray's ambition a half century ago, to operate a horse farm like the famed Calumet nursery in Kentucky. Today, Allen and his wife, Audrey, 66, will entertain as many as 250 guests at their picturesque Murmur Farm in Darlington. The occasion is a showing of their seven stallions, including exciting newcomers Disco Rico and Our Emblem. From humble beginnings in the late 1950s, when they hauled horses in a converted beer truck, the Murrays have built Murmur into one of Maryland's leading horse farms.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Calumet Farm sits in the lap of bluegrass luxury here, a sprawling monument to what thoroughbred racing once was and to what it has become.Once the most celebrated farm of its kind in America, it is now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, having amassed $127 million in debt in a nine-year spending spree. Creditors are lined up at the door, IOUs in hand.Today and tomorrow, to satisfy those creditors, Calumet, all 843 acres, is being auctioned off, piece by piece.The horses are already gone, most in a dispersal sale last November at the Keeneland Auction.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The stakes rose for Calumet Farm yesterday.An unidentified group bid $32.5 million for the farm and all its stallion interests, well above the $26.27 million offer that surfaced last week.But within a few hours of the second offer, Mutual Benefit Life, one of Calumet's main creditors, took the first step toward foreclosing on the farm."At these prices there won't be anything left for anybody," Henry Kinser, attorney for Mutual Benefit, said about the offers for the farm.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- With the bang of an auctioneer's gavel, thoroughbred racing reclaimed legendary Calumet Farm from the scrap heap yesterday.A day that began with overcast skies and grim foreboding ended in sunshine when Henryk deKwiatkowski's winning bid of $17 million earned a new start for horse racing's most prestigious farm.The Polish-born deKwiatkowski outbid Issam Fares, whose Fares Farm touches Calumet, in an absolute auction that took less than 15 minutes.DeKwiatkowski apparently saved Calumet from black fences and subdivisions.

Dr. Michael Cavey describes it as "the opportunity of a lifetime."The 42-year-old Howard County veterinarian is one of three partners who have made the first, and so far, only offer to buy world-famous Calumet Farm. The three horsemen plan to maintain it as a first-class stallion station and breeding center and "return Calumet to its heyday," Cavey said.The renowned Kentucky breeding establishment, birthplace of nine Kentucky Derby winners, has long been perceived as a sort of national treasure in the thoroughbred industry, but was placed in bankruptcy July 11, with debts totaling more than $127 million.

George Robinson,55, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson's half-brother, died of cancer Saturday in Hammond, Ind. Mr. Robinson, of Calumet City, Ill., grew up in Greenville, S.C., and moved to Chicago in 1976. He worked in restaurant management.Paddy Devlin,74, a committed socialist who helped found Northern Ireland's largest Roman Catholic party, died Sunday in Belfast.

LAUREL -- Alydar, famous as the consistent but narrow loser to Affirmed throughout the 1978 Triple Crown series, was humanely destroyed yesterday morning at Calumet Farm in Lexington, Ky., after suffering a second life-threatening injury.He first was injured when he kicked the door of his stall Tuesday and suffered a mid-shaft transverse fracture of the cannon bone of his right hind leg.The fracture ran across the bone and was halfway between the ankle and the hock, which is the major joint midway up the leg.Drs.

George Robinson,55, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson's half-brother, died of cancer Saturday in Hammond, Ind. Mr. Robinson, of Calumet City, Ill., grew up in Greenville, S.C., and moved to Chicago in 1976. He worked in restaurant management.Paddy Devlin,74, a committed socialist who helped found Northern Ireland's largest Roman Catholic party, died Sunday in Belfast.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Towering sycamores line the approach, pregnant with buds. Gangly yearlings graze on the bluegrass, close by their mares. Business is brisk in the breeding sheds. Spring has come to Calumet Farm, 800 of the most troubled yet sacred acres in thoroughbred racing. A new farm manager, who has visions of silver trophies and blankets of roses, has been hired. A few promising 2-year-olds are in training, raising hopes that the long fall from the sport's pinnacle has ended.

150 years ago in The SunNov. 9: A Large Bell -- A fine large bell weighing 3,208 lbs., from Meneely's foundery, West Troy, N.Y., was yesterday raised to its destined place in the steeple of St. Paul's Church, at the corner of Saratoga and Charles streets. It is represented as having a fine musical sound of the key of E flat.100 years ago in The SunNov. 12: The park board,at its meeting yesterday, raised the speed limit of horse vehicles within the parks from six to eight miles an hour.50 years ago in The SunNov.

Q: How old and valuable is this clock advertising Calumet Baking Powder? Its front panel is painted black glass with gold letters. The clockworks, made by the Sessions Clock Co. of Forestville, Conn., still keep time, though the chimes no longer work.A: Two similar early 20th-century Calumet clocks fetched $450 and $880 at auction in recent years. "The higher price may be attributed to better condition," said auctioneer Noel Barrett (P.O. Box 1001, Carversville, Pa. 18913, (215) 297-5109)

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- With the bang of an auctioneer's gavel, thoroughbred racing reclaimed legendary Calumet Farm from the scrap heap yesterday.A day that began with overcast skies and grim foreboding ended in sunshine when Henryk deKwiatkowski's winning bid of $17 million earned a new start for horse racing's most prestigious farm.The Polish-born deKwiatkowski outbid Issam Fares, whose Fares Farm touches Calumet, in an absolute auction that took less than 15 minutes.DeKwiatkowski apparently saved Calumet from black fences and subdivisions.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Calumet Farm sits in the lap of bluegrass luxury here, a sprawling monument to what thoroughbred racing once was and to what it has become.Once the most celebrated farm of its kind in America, it is now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, having amassed $127 million in debt in a nine-year spending spree. Creditors are lined up at the door, IOUs in hand.Today and tomorrow, to satisfy those creditors, Calumet, all 843 acres, is being auctioned off, piece by piece.The horses are already gone, most in a dispersal sale last November at the Keeneland Auction.

Q: How old and valuable is this clock advertising Calumet Baking Powder? Its front panel is painted black glass with gold letters. The clockworks, made by the Sessions Clock Co. of Forestville, Conn., still keep time, though the chimes no longer work.A: Two similar early 20th-century Calumet clocks fetched $450 and $880 at auction in recent years. "The higher price may be attributed to better condition," said auctioneer Noel Barrett (P.O. Box 1001, Carversville, Pa. 18913, (215) 297-5109)

150 years ago in The SunNov. 9: A Large Bell -- A fine large bell weighing 3,208 lbs., from Meneely's foundery, West Troy, N.Y., was yesterday raised to its destined place in the steeple of St. Paul's Church, at the corner of Saratoga and Charles streets. It is represented as having a fine musical sound of the key of E flat.100 years ago in The SunNov. 12: The park board,at its meeting yesterday, raised the speed limit of horse vehicles within the parks from six to eight miles an hour.50 years ago in The SunNov.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The stakes rose for Calumet Farm yesterday.An unidentified group bid $32.5 million for the farm and all its stallion interests, well above the $26.27 million offer that surfaced last week.But within a few hours of the second offer, Mutual Benefit Life, one of Calumet's main creditors, took the first step toward foreclosing on the farm."At these prices there won't be anything left for anybody," Henry Kinser, attorney for Mutual Benefit, said about the offers for the farm.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The stakes rose for Calumet Farm yesterday.An unidentified group bid $32.5 million for the farm and all its stallion interests, well above the $26.27 million offer that surfaced last week.But within a few hours of the second offer, Mutual Benefit Life, one of Calumet's main creditors, took the first step toward foreclosing on the farm."At these prices there won't be anything left for anybody," Henry Kinser, attorney for Mutual Benefit, said about the offers for the farm.