Donegal Racing and Calumet Farm

Des Moines attorney Jerry Crawford (pictured) and nine partners formed Donegal Racing in 2008 with the goal of buying a colt that might make it to the Kentucky Derby. They put up $500,000 to purchase eight colts at auction and got to the Derby with their first swing. The most expensive of the original group was Paddy O'Prado, who finished third in the 2010 Kentucky Derby and won five graded turf stakes before an injury forced him into retirement with earnings of $1.7 million. He is standing at Spendthrift Farm.

Donegal is perhaps best known for campaigning Keen Ice, winner of the 2015 Travers Stakes and the only horse to defeat American Pharoah during his Triple Crown season. Keen Ice also finished third in the Belmont Stakes and second in the Haskell Invitational Stakes.

In 2012 Donegal was back in the Kentucky Derby with dual Grade 1 winner Dullahan, who also finished third in the Derby. Later that year Dullahan won the Grade 1 Pacific Classic against older horses. Donegal also owns multiple graded stakes winner Finnegans Wake in partnership and has campaigned graded stakes winners Cleburne and O'Prado Again.

The Calumet name is one of the most famous names in the history of racing. Established by William Monroe Wright, the farm produced eight Kentucky Derby winners and two Triple Crown winners. In 1992, Henryk de Kwiatkowski bought the farm where it ran under his name, then under a name of trustees before Brad Kelley took the operation over in 2012. In 2013, Kelley started using the Calumet name for his stable. He had previously operated under the name Bluegrass Hall.

Kelley leases the farm from Calumet Investment Trust, which purchased the property in 2012 for an estimated $36-$40 million. Kelley also owns Hurricane Hall and Bluegrass Hall, the latter formerly Nelson Bunker Hunt’s Bluegrass Farm. One of the ten largest landowners in the U.S. with more than 1.2 million acres, Kelley is an active wildlife conservationist.

In 2012, Kelley won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Sprint with Hightail. Kelley then claimed a Triple Crown race victory in 2013 when Oxbow won the Preakness, defeating Kentucky Derby winner Orb in the process. To end his Triple Crown season, he finished second in the Belmont Stakes with Oxbow.