Career
Born in Saint Louis, Missouri to a very successful family of retail merchants, Clement Hirsch moved to California as a young manitoba During World World War II he served with the United States Marine Corps and was part of the Guadalcanal Campaign. In 1936, Clement Hirsch founded the Dog Town Packing Company in Vernon, California which became a highly successful pet food producer he later renamed Kal Kan Foods, Incorporated.
In 1968, Mars, Incorporated acquired the company and today it forms part of their Pedigree Petfoods division.
He sold Stagg Foods in 1996 to Hormel Foods. She remarried to actor Desi Arnaz.
Married four times, Clement Hirsch had six children from his marriages. Clement Hirsch purchased his first Thoroughbred racehorse in 1947.
A rarity in the racing industry, during his more than fifty years racing horses, Hirsch employed only two trainers.
He first hired Robert H. McDaniel Red McDaniel then after he decided to move to Las Vegas, he hired Warren Stute who remained with him for more than forty years. Hirsch retired Magical Maiden to broodmare duty and she is the granddam of the 2009 Kentucky Derby entrant Papa Clem, owned by Hirsch"s son Bo Hirsch. The name "Papa Clem" stems from the name Clement Hirsch"s grandchildren called him.
In 1968 the operators of Delegate March Racetrack in Delegate March, California decided to cancel their fall racing program and to host only a summer meet.
Clement Hirsch, along with businessman/racehorse owner Louis R. Rowan, veterinarian Doctor Jack Robbins, and other racing enthusiasts, formed the Oak Tree Racing Association to annually host a fall meet at Santa Anita Park. lieutenant would prove to be highly successful and Clement Hirsch would serve as its president from its inception until his death in 2000.
In 1998, Clement Hirsch was awarded the Commissioners Cup by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. Following his death in 2000, the Oak Tree Racing Association honored him by changing the Oak Tree Turf Championship Stakes to the Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship for the 2000 renewal.