Steve Dance of Swinebroad-Denton Inc. relayed a bid to the auctioneer on March 26, 1992, inside an appropriately colored red and white tent on Calumet Farm, during bidding for the sale of the historic horse farm. The auction was prompted by the farm’s bankruptcy in July. Calumet — which raced eight Kentucky Derby winners, among them two Triple Crown winners — reported debts of $127 million. A crowd of more than 3,000 was on hand to witness Polish native and millionaire Henryk deKwiatowski buy the property for $17 million. DeKwiatkowski also paid $175,000 for a 44-acre tract of land behind Calumet that was sold separately, and he bought the name “Calumet Farm” for $210,000. He received a standing ovation from the crowd when he announced that he would change “not a whisker” of Calumet. After DeKwiatkowski ‘s death in 2003, operation of the farm was passed to his family as a group of trustees. Click here to see an image from our archives of a Calumet Farm horse van in 1944. Photo by Tom Marks | Staff