Stonestreet owner Barbara Banke joins billionaire ranks

HRN staff
Photo: Photo by Sue Kawczynski / Eclipse Sportswire

Stonestreet Stables owner Barbara Banke is one of 288 newcomers to the Forbes list of U.S. billionaires.

Only 15% of the newcomers are women, according to Forbes, and nearly two-thirds of them inherited their wealth. Banke, 71, is an exception, the report noted, because she owns Jackson Family Wines, which produces Kendall-Jackson wines and was started by her late husband Jess Jackson. Her net worth is listed at $2.6 billion.

The Jacksons got into the racing business in the early 2000s, when Jess Jackson acquired farms in Florida and Kentucky, according to America's Best Racing.

Stonestreet campaigned Hall of Fame runners Curlin and Rachel Alexandra and has won graded or group races in six countries. Stonestreet won the 2021 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint with Twilight Gleaming.

Banke is a former land-use and constitutional law attorney with degrees from UCLA and Hastings Law School.

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