Who's who among Baffert's Kentucky Derby horse owners?
Among Bob Baffert's potential Kentucky Derby contenders, several names frequently appear among the owners.
SF Racing. Starlight Racing. Robert Masterson. Catherine Donovan – et al.
Because of Baffert's dispute with Churchill Downs Inc., horses trained by him are not eligible to earn Kentucky Derby qualifying points. This table shows the Baffert horses that would have earned points, along with their owners.
| Horse | Vacated Kentucky Derby points | Owner | Best Vegas odds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corniche | 30 (1st Am. Pharoah, 1st BC Juvenile) | Speedway Stables | 22-1 |
| Newgrange | 20 (1st Sham, 1st Southwest) | *SF Racing, et al. | 25-1 |
| Messier | 14 (2nd Los Al Futurity, 1st R.B. Lewis) | **SF Racing, et al. | 14-1 |
| Blackadder | 10 (1st El Camino Real Derby) | *SF Racing, et al. | |
| Rockefeller | 5 (4th American Pharoah, 2nd Sham) | *SF Racing, et al. | 200-1 |
| Wharton | 2 (3rd Robert B. Lewis) | **SF Racing, et al. | 150-1 |
| Barossa - x | 2 (3rd Los Alamitos Futurity) | *SF Racing, et al. | 300-1 |
x - Now trained by Rodolphe Brisset.
*Partnership includes:
SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Robert Masterson, Stonestreet Stables, Jay Schoenfarber, Waves Edge Capital, Catherine Donovan, Golconda Stable and Siena Farm.
**Same as above without Stonestreet.
Who are these people and organizations who have decisions to make in the coming weeks about if and when they may move horses out of the Baffert stable to eligible trainers? It can be difficult to get hard facts, but Horse Racing Nation has gathered some information about these co-owners of most of Baffert's Derby contenders.
Speedway Stable. This operation is owned by Peter and Ann Fluor and K.C. Weiner. Peter Fluor is a director of Fluor Corp. and chairman of Texas Crude Energy, where K.C. Weiner is the president, according to America's Best Racing. Fluor and Weiner’s fathers were partners in racehorse ownership together. Speedway's racing manager is Marette Farrell, a bloodhorse agent who got her start as a pinhooker while in college in Ireland.
SF Racing. This is owned by Soros Fund Management, an investment firm started by billionaire George Soros. The company also owns SF Bloodstock. Officers include Gavin Murphy, manager of SF Bloodstock and SF Racing Group; Christopher Naunton, president of SF Bloodstock and SF Racing, and CFO of the Soros Fund’s family office; and Lexington, Ky.-based Tom Ryan, a bloodstock agent.
Starlight Racing. When Justify won the Triple Crown in 2018, Starlight Racing was a co-owner of the colt’s racing rights. A Courier-Journal report at the time said Starlight’s partners included 10 Louisville residents: Jack Wolf. a retired hedge-fund manager who founded Starlight with his wife, Laurie, in 2000; Clinton Glasscock and his father, attorney Ed Glasscock; Tom Mueller; Ted Nixon; Anita Cauley; Lansdon Robbins; Rick Kueber; and Jim Shircliff. Kueber, a self-described serial entrepreneur who founded Sun Tan City with his brother David, started his own stable, Kueber Racing, in 2019.
Madaket Stables. This is owned by Sol Kumin, a Boston-based asset manager. He also was a partner in the ownership groups for Authentic, Justify and Monomoy Girl. His partner in the operation is Jason Monteleone.
Stonestreet Stables. This operation was started by Jess Jackson and his wife, Barbara Banke, who also were founders of the Kendall-Jackson winery. Jackson died in 2011, and the operation is run by Banke. The many notable horses Stonestreet has owned have included Curlin and Rachel Alexandra.
Robert Masterson. Best known for having owned two-time Breeders’ Cup-winning mare Tepin, Masterson is a retired CEO who made his fortune in computer services. He grew up around Maryland racing and cut his ownership teeth at the old Ak-Sar-Ben racetrack in Nebraska.
Jay Schoenfarber. A New York investment lawyer, Schoenfarber is shown on LinkedIn as general counsel at Hein Park Capital Management. He also is named as an officer on a list of companies under the umbrella of George Soros.
Waves Edge Capital. This is a business name registered in Muskegon, Mich., that is shown on a number of websites to be an investment company managed by Gregg Slager, the owner of a New York financial firm and a graduate of Western Michigan University.
Catherine Donovan. She is listed as a member of the Thoroughbred Ideas Foundation board of directors. Donovan's bio on the site says she is an attorney who has been involved in racing for more than 20 years and that she is married to Gavin Murphy. She has been involved in breeding, sales and racing in the U.S. and her native Australia, according to the bio, through involvement with SF Bloodstock as well as Newgate Farm and Amarina Farm in Australia.
Golconda Stable. This is the business name for Ben Goldberg, 38, who represents the third generation as president of his family’s international diamond business based in New York. The family even has a street named for it in midtown Manhattan. His wife has been a lifelong friend of bloodstock agent Bradley Weisbord, who got him into buying horses five years ago.
Siena Farm. Based in Paris, Ky., Siena Farm was started by Anthony Manganaro, Nacho Patino and David Pope. The stable is run by Manganaro, a Northeastern University graduate and benefactor who built successful real-estate, self-storage and medical-supply companies on the East Coast.