Clement L. Hirsch

Biography

A Pillar of the Turf must make a difference, a simple enough definition for an honor bestowed upon so very few. And yet, for the difference to be honestly measured, time and distance are required, because a Pillar of the Turf is not of a particular moment. They are forever.

For more than half a century, Clement Lang Hirsch was someone who made a difference at whatever he tried. In business, in philanthropy, in the world of thoroughbred racing, there always was Before Hirsch and After Hirsch.

Hirsch gets no credit, however, for moving from his native St. Louis to the burgeoning boomtown of Los Angeles in 1920. After all, he was only six years old. His parents, Urban and Florence Hirsch, transferred Midwestern success as retailers to their new community, while young Clement attended Beverly Hills High and later Menlo College in the Bay Area, cultivating his business instincts along the way.

Back in L.A., young Hirsch fell in with a crowd at a greyhound track and caught the competitive bug. When he got wind of a pup heading for the scrap heap, Hirsch and friends intervened, buying the dog for a song and nursing it back to racing health on a diet of quality meat. The hound made them some money, a good thing during the Depression. Better yet, he gave Hirsch an idea for a better way to nourish pets, and in 1936 the Dog Town Packing Company of Vernon, California, entered the pet food marketplace. He was all of 22.

In August of 1942, while future Hall of Famers Whirlaway, Alsab, and Count Fleet campaigned in the East and Midwest, Clement Hirsch could be found alongside his fellow U.S. Marines among the first waves of the invasion of Guadalcanal. More than 7,000 U.S. servicemen were killed during that terrible island campaign.

Hirsch survived, returned to L.A., and picked up where he left off with his pet food company, now called Kal Kan. At the same time, with the end of the war in 1945, horse racing returned to the sports scene of Southern California, and Hirsch found a new passion in the thoroughbred game. He bought his first horse, a foal of 1942 named Domirood, for $3,000, then got lucky with Blue Reading, a 1949 claim who won nine stakes and nearly $200,000 during the next four seasons.

In the mid-1950s, Hirsch began importing horses from South America. The Chilean mare Alga gave Hirsch a thrill with a near miss in a New York stakes race, then later produced Most Host, the horse who upset Damascus in the 1968 Charles H. Strub Stakes. Figonero was a blazing fast Argentine stallion who traveled up and down the state to win a half-dozen stakes, including the 1969 Hollywood Gold Cup, at a mile and one-quarter, and the ninefurlong Del Mar Handicap in 1:46 1/5, an American record on dirt. Snow Sporting, also from Argentina, put the Hirsch stable on the national map with victories in the 1970 Charles H. Strub Stakes at Santa Anita and the Gulfstream Park Handicap in Miami.

In a business of shifting loyalties, Hirsch employed only two trainers – first H. R. “Red” McDaniel, a national champion, and then, for more than four decades, Warren Stute. Homebreds like Grade 1 winner Magical Maiden and her brother, Magical Mile, were winning stakes for Hirsch well into the 1990s, but his everlasting pride and joy was June Darling, purchased from breeder E. B. Johnston in the summer of 1970. Under Stute’s care and Hirsch’s black and gold colors, June Darling won five stakes, including the Del Mar Futurity and Oak Tree’s Norfolk Stakes against colts. (Among the also-rans in the Futurity was 1971 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Canonero II.) June Darling went on to be rated North America’s second best 2-year-old filly of the 1970 season. 

All the while, from the days of Blue Reading through June Darling and Magical Maiden, Hirsch led a parallel life as an energetic advocate for all aspects of thoroughbred racing. He was active in the early years of the California division of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, securing a stronger position for owners and trainers. He was the primary backer of an attempted expansion of pari-mutuel racing into the growing Las Vegas region.

Hirsch’s everlasting impact is dramatically evident in the ongoing success of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, operators of the California seaside racetrack. Thanks to the efforts of Hirsch and a group of owners and breeders in the late 1960s, the formation of a not-for-profit business structure has provided stability for Del Mar racing spanning more than half a century.

In 1968, Hirsch led the charge in the formation of the Oak Tree Racing Association, which proposed to add a month’s worth of racing to the California calendar with a non-profit meet at Santa Anita Park, operated “for horsemen, by horsemen.” Hirsch helped steer the concept through political and logistical minefields, arriving finally at opening day of the first Oak Tree meeting on Oct. 7, 1969.

In short order, the Oak Tree brand became known for first-class racing – showcasing such stars as John Henry, Cougar II, Ack Ack, Ferdinand, and Kotashaan - as well as a dedication to its core principals in support of veterinary research, backstretch worker welfare, and the promotion of the sport nationwide.

Oak Tree was on board early with its backing of the Breeders’ Cup concept and the formation of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA). Donations from Oak Tree helped fund studies through the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium. With the support of Oak Tree, the University of California-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine was able to undertake a number of vital projects, including a study of exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage and the development of advanced equine ambulance technology.

Hirsch was rightfully proud of Oak Tree’s contributions to the sport and its players, both man and beast, and the industry responded by acknowledging his significant role. Hirsch was elected to The Jockey Club and in 1988 was awarded the first Commissioner’s Cup by the NTRA. At one time he had two Grade 1 events named in his honor – the Clement L. Hirsch Handicap at Del Mar and the Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship during the Oak Tree meet. In 1999, Hirsch accepted the Special Eclipse Award on behalf of Oak Tree.

In addition to his leadership of Oak Tree and his contributions as a member of Del Mar Thoroughbred Club board, Hirsch was a director of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association, a member of the World Affairs Councils of America and the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, and a Life Trustee of Chapman University.

Just as Hirsch enhanced the value of autumn racing with his Oak Tree concept, he did the same in his business interests. Kal Kan Foods, which grew into a national leader, was purchased by giant Mars, Inc., in 1968, and in 1988 its dog food line was renamed Pedigree and its cat food line named Whiskas. Hirsch then was prominent helping his family start Stagg Foods, a leader in the canned chili market in the western U.S.

Hirsch served as Oak Tree president until his death in March of 2000, while Oak Tree presented its final Southern California meeting in 2010, having played host to no less than five presentations of the Breeders’ Cup and donated more than $27 million to its many beneficiaries. The mission of Oak Tree has continued in the support of such vital organizations as the American Horse Council, the Race Track Industry Program at the University of Arizona, and the Winners Foundation. The legacy of Hirsch’s thoroughbreds has continued as well through his son, Bo Hirsch, who won the 2009 Arkansas Derby with the fittingly named Papa Clem and the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint with champion Ce Ce, who came from a third generation of stakes-winning Hirsch family mares.

“I remember Clement for his frankness and his unselfish dedication to being honest,” said Dr. Jack Robbins, who assumed the role of Oak Tree president upon the death of Hirsch. “He was not at all self-seeking. His logic was so good, and he never jumped into decisions. He would speak last, after hearing out all the others.”

Robbins was far from alone in his praise. Pillars of the Turf linger for their impact, long after they are gone.

“In 17 years of negotiating agreements and operating with various track managers, I can say I never had a more straightforward, more upstanding, more pleasant and honorable group of individuals than Clement and his board of directors,” said former Breeders’ Cup president D. G. Van Clief, Jr., in tribute to Hirsch. “He truly loved the horse industry.”