Richard Santulli

Richard Santulli, a native of Brooklyn, New York, earned his bachelor and master’s degrees in applied mathematics and a master’s degree in operations research at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. Santulli worked as an investment banker, then as a vice president with Goldman Sachs & Co. from 1969-1980. Four years later, he purchased Executive Jet in 1984. He created NetJets Inc., which offered a new concept of fractional jet ownership and revolutionized the private and corporate business jet market. He sold the company to Berkshire Hathaway for $750 million in 1998, but stayed on as CEO through August, 2009.

Santulli got involved in racing in the early ’80s. With George Prussin, David Orlinsky, and the late Jules Fink as partners, Santulli formed Jayeff B Stable, whose top horses include 1989 champion sprint Safely Kept, who won the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, and 1998 champion filly Banshee Breeze (owned in partnership with her breeder James B. Tafel). Santulli serves as the managing general partner of Jayeff B.

A member of the Jockey Club since 2002, he has served on the Board of Directors of the Breeders’ Cup and the New York Racing Association.

Salvador Hernandez

A chance meeting connected La Tia’s owner and breeder, Chicago restaurateur Salvador Hernandez, the owner and breeder of La Tia, with the filly’s original trainer, Brian Williamson before Williamson’s assistant, Armando Delacerda opened his own stable. Williamson fancies tacos and De la Cerda told him about Hernandez’s Mexican restaurant in 2012. Williamson checked out the restaurant, went back many times and became friends with Hernandez, who has owned Thoroughbreds for 25 years. Before the start of the Arlington meet that year, Hernandez gave Williamson four horses to train including his homebred, Illinois-bred La Tia.

Hernandez also raced stakes winners Voy Por Uno Mas and Diablos First Lady in partnership with trainer Moises Yanez and Del Sol Farm.    

Erich Brehm, J. Keith Desmormeaux, Wayne Detmar & Lee Michaels

In the mid-1970s, Eric Brehm Sr. and his pal Wally would study nights, then take off for the harness track because they could get in free after the seventh race. They did well playing trifectas, made T-shirts saying “Trifecta Kids” and, some 15 years later, Brehm Sr. got to know Josh Pons, who won an Eclipse Award for his series in The Blood-Horse called “Country Life Diary.” Brehm Sr. asked Pons if he would check out a Seattle Slew mare, Seattle Queen, who was in foal to Malinowski in New Jersey. Pons gave his blessing, and Brehm bought the filly for $5,000. They named Seattle Queen’s second foal by Citidancer Fat Wally. He set a track record at Retama Park, winning a maiden race by 13 lengths. “Seeing my father’s expression as his colt crossed the finish line first had me hooked forever,” Brehm Jr. told America’s Best Racing.

Brehm Jr. wound up in the University of Arizona’s Race Track Industry Program and was an intern at Lone Star Park.

In 2009, Brehm Sr. met trainer Keith Desormeaux, who wound up as trainer for Team Brehm and their friend/partner Dr. Gene Voss. Desormeaux purchased three horses from the 2013 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. One of them, Texas Red, was purchased for $17,000. Two more Brehm family members, Wayne Detmer and Lee Michaels, bought in. Lee’s husband, Paul, bought his share as a present for her. Texas Red is both the Detmers’ and the Michaels’ first Thoroughbred. “How great is that?” Brehm Jr. asked.  

Sir Evelyn De Rothschild

Sir Evelyn Robert de Rothschild was born into substantial wealth on August 29, 1931, but didn’t join the family business, the NM Rothschild & Sons Banking House, until he was 26. Founded by Nathan Mayer Rothschild in 1811, this British investment banking company employs more than 3,000 people in 42 countries. After joining his family’s company, Sir Evelyn de Rothschild carved his own niche in the finance world and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1989 after serving as her financial adviser. He served as chairman of many endeavors including The Economist, the United Racecourse, the British Mercantile Banking & Securities House Association, St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School and the Princess Royal Trust for Carers. He was a director of IBM United Kingdom Holdings Limited, De Beers Consolidated Mines and the Daily Telegraph. From three marriages, he has two sons, one daughter and two stepsons. His third marriage was to American lawyer and entrepreneur Lynn Forester. They spent one night of their honeymoon as guests at the White House. Sir Evelyn bred Hillstar at historic Southcourt Stud in Bedfordshire. His family’s involvement in Thoroughbred racing began in 1835 when banker Baron James de Rothschild began racing and breeding horses in France. Frequently referred to as the richest man in the world, Sir Evelyn’s net worth has been reported as $20 billion.

Qatar Racing Ltd & Sangster Family

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Robert Sangster, who died in April 2004, at the age of 67, literally transformed Thoroughbred racing. His impact continues today through his son, Adam, the owner of 900-acre Swettenham Stud in Victoria, Australia. Sangster was the British Flat Champion Owner five times, and his horses won 27 European Classics and more than 100 Group 1 stakes. Sangster, the son of Vernons Pools founder Vernon Sangster, was born in Liverpool. After attending Repton School, he served in the Cheshire Regiment and won a brigade heavyweight-boxing championship in Berlin. Then he joined the family business, becoming managing director and chairman. Aware of the plans to create the National Lottery, he sold the business to Ladbrokes for a reported 90 million pounds. His first horse, Chalk Stream, won two stakes. In October 1971, Sangster was introduced to John Magnier, an Irish stud farmer. Joining legendary trainer Vincent O’Brien, they formed a team that became known as “The brethern.” In the early 1970s, Sangster and Magnier began shuttling stallions between the northern and southern hemispheres. Sangster sold his interest in Coolmore in 1993 while retaining breeding rights to a number of stallions, including Saddler’s Wells and Danehill. Sangster was married and divorced three times and had five sons and a daughter. Racing correspondent Julian Wilson said of Sangster: “His pleasures were boxing, champagne, golf, racing and beautiful women, in no particular order, and often more than one at the same time.”

Jerry Namy & Philip A. Sims

Trainer and co-owner Phil Sims, a 53-year-old native of Flemingsburg, Ky., began attending the races at Keeneland in Lexington, 60 miles from his family’s farm, when he was seven years old. His family raised cattle, grew tobacco and dabbled with Thoroughbreds. While he was in high school, Sims claimed fillies from the track, bred them and re-sold the ones that became pregnant. He raced the others. “I started training by default,” he said. Sims saddled his first horse in 1980. He stables his horses year-round at Keeneland and uses his 70-acre farm in Georgetown, 15 miles from Lexington, as a lay-up and training facility. Sims’ first Grade I stakes victory was with his long-time owner Nelson McMakin’s Hot Cha Cha in the 2009 Queen’s Elizabeth II Challenge Cup. Sims spoiled her with sweet potatoes, carrots and peppermints. Jerry Namy, a geologist who bought into Don’t Tell Sophia when she was three, fell in love with racing after his dad showed him the entries for the 1947 Kentucky Derby. Namy survived a 2009 plane crash that took the life of his friend, owner Kendall Hill, and of his business partner, Bob Schumacher. Namy races horses by himself and in partnership with Sims.  

Jay Em Ess Stable

Jay Em Ess Stables, which was the leading owner at both the 2007 spring/summer meet at Hollywood Park and at the 2009 Del Mar meet, was created from the first letter of the three owners’ first names, Jan and Mace Siegel and their daughter Samantha. Jan died in 2002, and Mace passed away nine years later, leaving 49-year-old Samantha to head the stables. Jay Em Ess purchased its first horse at the 1964 Timonium Sale and named their filly Najecam, the backward spelling of Mace and Jan. Mace, a racing fan growing up in New York and New Jersey, met Jan on a blind date at Aqueduct in 1962. They married two months later. Mace founded Santa Monica-based Macerich Co., which develops, owns and manages regional shopping malls. He was a founding member and vice-president of the Thoroughbred Owners of California. Jan was a big band singer and named her daughter for her favorite Cole Porter song, “I Love You, Samantha.” Samantha served with the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders’ Association and the Gregson Foundation Board. She and her dad were honored by the Gregson Foundation in 2008. Jay Em Ess’ top horses include the 2004 champion two-year-old colt Declan’s Moon, millionaire Urbane and Rail Trip. The stable now has 80 horses in Kentucky and California.

Let's Go Stable & WinStar Farm LLC

Let’s Go Stable was founded in 2006 by 33-year-old Kevin Scatuorchio and his brother-in-law, Bryan Sullivan, who married Scatuorchio’s sister, Courtney. Scatuorchio became a fan through his dad, Jim, who has owned horses for more than 25 years. Jim campaigned multiple-graded stakes winner and million-dollar earner More Than Ready and 2007 Eclipse Turf Champion Older Male and Breeders’ Cup Turf winner English Channel. Jim is a partner in Let’s Go Stable. “I’ve been going to the racetrack with my dad since I was a little kid,” Kevin said. Sullivan was a trader for the Clinton Group until he decided to concentrate on Let’s Go Stable in 2007.

    The stable name came from a favorite expression of one of Kevin’s friends, Rob Petitti, who played in the NFL with the St. Louis Rams and is now an investor in the stable.

    Many of Let’s Go Stable’s investors are from the New York City metropolitan area, which is why the stable named a son of More Than Ready Verrazano—the name of the double-decker suspension bridge connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island. Let’s Go Stable bought Verrazano for $250,000 at the Keeneland September 2011 Yearling Sale and he won six of 13 starts, including the Grade 1 Wood Memorial and the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational, earning more than $1.8 million.

Qatar Racing Ltd

Qatar Racing Ltd was formed in 2011 for Sheikh Fahad al Thani, Sheikh Hamad al Thani and Sheikh Suhaim al Thani of the Qatar Royal Family.

Sheikh Fahad, the first cousin to the Emir of Qatar, is the son of Sheikh Abdullah al Thani, Qatar’s Prime Minister from 1996 through 2007. Sheikh Fahad grew up around Arabian horses. His father started Umm Qarn with Arabians in the early ‘90s before the business expanded to include Thoroughbreds.

Sheikh Fahad studied at David Game College in Notting Hill in London before completing a degree in business administration at the Geneva-based Europa University.

Sheikh Fahad is a director of Qatar Investments & Projects Development Holding (QIPCO), one of the world’s leading private investment companies, and the sponsor of the QIPCO British Champions Series as an official partner of Ascot Racecourse.

He oversees the running of the racing and bloodstock operations, Qatar Racing Ltd. and Qatar Bloodstock Ltd., both subsidiaries of QIPCO Holding, as well as managing Pearl Bloodstock. Collectively, the enterprises have more than 200 horses racing in seven different countries, and own three stallions and 80 broodmares.

Qatar Bloodstock Ltd. owns the stallions standing at Tweenhills Farm & Stud in England, as well as the mares to support them.

Last April, Sheikh Fahad, Qatar Racing Ltd Racing and Bloodstock Manager David Redvers and five of the six trainers—Andrew Balding, Robert Cowell, Richard Hannon, David Simcock and Olly Stephens—entrusted with their horses  ran in the Virgin Money London Marathon and raised £200,000 for the Racing Welfare charity. “I am very proud of what our whole team achieved and the amount raised for Racing Welfare,” Sheikh Fahad said afterwards.

Rabbah Bloodstock LLC, Lessee

Rabbah Bloodstock was founded in 2006 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to manage and breed horses for his friends and business associates.     One of Rabbah Bloodstock’s principal owners, Mohammed Jaber, owns Sheikhzayedroad.

Rabbah Bloodstock’s breeding operation is at Gainsborough Stud and Aston Upthorpe Stud in England. Its racing operation is also in England at Newmarket, where it is managed by former jockey Bruce Raymond. 

Nancy Favreau, Kathy Psoinos, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith & Susan Magnier

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Competitive Edge is the second horse owned by partners Nancy Favreau and Kathy Psoinos, who purchased him for $750,000 at a Fasig-Tipton Florida Two-Year-Olds-in-Training Sale. After Competitive Edge won his maiden debut at Saratoga by 10 ¾ lengths, Tabor, Smith and Magnier bought a percentage of the colt. 

Nancy and Kathy live together in Andover, Mass. Both are retired from careers in property management. Nancy, 51, has loved horses for a long time. “My father got me involved as a kid,” Nancy said in a phone interview October 6. “We used to go to Suffolk Downs and Rockingham Park. I won my first bet. I was hooked. I loved it. It was a great time. It was fun.”

Kathy, 56, got involved in racing through Nancy. “I’ve been going to the racetrack for years,” she said. 

They discussed the possibility of buying a Thoroughbred for years. When they both retired, they took the plunge. “We talked about it for a long time, and we decided to do it,” Nancy said. “It was the right time.”

They still can’t believe Competitive Edge’s dazzling debut at Saratoga. They were there with a lot of friends. “It was one of the most exciting things that ever happened to me,” Kathy said. Nancy added, “That was awesome. That was our first win. He is a beauty.”

Competitive Edge then won the Grade I Hopeful Stakes by 5 ¾ lengths at Saratoga. “We’re very excited,” Nancy said after the race. “Everything’s wonderful.”

But just two weeks later, they weren’t. Competitive Edge was taken out of training when X-rays revealed a hairline fracture of his left fore-leg. He’s expected to return to training in time to participate in next year’s Triple Crown. “We’re just keeping our fingers crossed,” Nancy said.

Nancy and Kathy are in racing for the long haul. “We bought two more yearlings last month,” Nancy said. “One’s a Street Cry, and one is a Harlan’s Holiday.”  

For biographies on Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith and Susan Magnier click here

Michael Caruso's Bethlehem Stables, Michael Dubb & the Elkstone Group

The Elkstone Group is the name used by Delaware attorney Stuart Grant, who owns the Camden Training Center in South Carolina. The 360-acre facility opened in 1935. 

“I’ve always loved horses,” he said. “When I grew up in Brooklyn, my grandfather took me to Prospect Park. I couldn’t get on any of the horses, so my grandfather let me get on him and he ran around with me on him.”

Of his partnership with Michael Dubb and Michael Caruso, Grant said “I am a partner to two great human beings. That’s what makes it a great partnership.”

Laurie Plesa & Trilogy Stables

Laurie Plesa owns Itsmyluckyday, who won the Grade III Holy Bull Stakes and finished second in the Preakness last year and won the Grade III Salvator Mile this year, with Trilogy Stable, composed of long-time owners David and Olga Melin and Marion Montanari.

Marion Montanari and her family have been breeding and racing Thoroughbreds for more than three decades. Marion’s late husband, Adelio “Monty” Montanari, passed away in 2001. An educator and advocate for severely disturbed and emotionally troubled children in South Florida, he penned two books on the subject, “Demon in My View” and “The Montanari Book.” The couple founded the non-profit Troubled Children’s Foundation in the early 1970s.

They also enjoyed art, and they raised nearly a million dollars for Florida artists and the fine arts through their foundation, the Miami Salon Group. Marion also founded the Marion Cultural Alliance Salon in Marion Country. Monty loved opera, and he was the host and interpreter for legendary singer Luciano Pavarotti when he visited Miami.

The Montanaris got involved with Thoroughbreds after they moved from the Miami area to Ocala in 1980. In 1990, they purchased a 110-acre farm, where the family keeps most of their broodmares. They also have mares at Idle Hour Farm in Kentucky.

David Melin, a native of the Bronx, N.Y., served in the U.S. Navy, then graduated from Long Island University. After settling in Florida, he founded Tech Aerofoam Products, a foam manufacturer and distributor, and became a distributor of building materials. The company expanded through South Florida and Puerto Rico, and went public in 1962. He sold the company in 1976 and retired in 2000.

He shared Monty Montanari’s loved of opera and is a long-time member of the board of the Florida Grand Opera. He and Olga were named Crown Jewels of Florida Grand Opera and have donated to numerous organizations including Barry University, the University of Miami Frost School of Music, the Miami Salon Group, the Miami City Ballet, the New World Symphony, the Chopin Foundation of the United States and the Sun Valley Symphony.

David and Olga have three daughters, one son, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. They have homes in Palm Beach and Sunny Isles Beach in Florida and in Ketchum, Id.

Ten Broeck Farm Inc.

David Mowat, who operates under Ten Broeck Farm, is a native of Seattle, Wa., graduating from the University of Washington with a degree in civil engineering. He and his son Mark, now a partner, own and operate David A. Mowat Company, a highway and bridge construction business.

David bought a yearling several decades ago and has been involved in Thoroughbred racing ever since. “The yearling probably wasn’t much of a horse, but I got interested and I stuck with it,” he said. “For me, breeding made the most sense, and I had to pay attention and make it a business to make it work.”

His first farm was Teanaway Ranch in western Washington. He moved his horses to Kentucky in 1989 when he bought the 220-acre Fawn Leap Farm. He sold that farm to John Oxley and purchased 130-acre Ten Broeck Farm in Midway, Ky., in the mid-‘90s. Though he sold the farm in July 2003, he continues to race under the name of Ten Broeck Farm.

Magalen O. Bryant

Magalen O. Bryant, the respected long-time steeplechase owner, has continued to operate the family stable of her father, George Ohrstrom Sr. and her late brother George Ohrstrom Jr. with 120 horses in the United States and 150 in France. She has also owned horses in partnership with Centennial Farms. “On many horses,” said Cynthia Curtis, Bryant’s racing manager in the U.S. 

Curtis picked out V.E. Day at the Ocala Breeders’ March Two-Year-Olds-in-Training Sale last year. Bryant purchased him for $135,000.

Bryant has been a prominent environmentalist in Loudon and Fauquier Counties, west of Washington, D.C. She owns Locust Hill Farm in Middleburg, Va., and was one of the first property owners in that area to place her land in a conservation trust. Chairperson of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Bryant received the Land Trust of Virginia’s Conservationist of the Year Award in 2011. That same year, her home-bred Ptarmigan was the National Steeplechase Association’s Filly and Mare Champion.    

Bryant let Curtis do all the talking at the Travers’ post-race press conference. Later, in the Trustees Room, she wept watching the replay of V.E. Day’s historic victory. Someone mentioned that Art Sherman was 77 when his best horse, California Chrome, came along. “Heck, that’s a baby,” she told Steve Haskin of The Blood-Horse. “I’m 85 and I don’t give a damn anymore what anybody thinks. I still have lots to do. And today was the first goal.”

Alex & JoAnn Lieblong

Alex Lieblong, 63, is a native of Conway, Ark; JoAnn was born in Texas. He attended the University of Central Arkansas before being drafted into the U.S. Army. “Thank God, because I did not like college,” he said. 

Earlier, he participated in rodeos as a calf roper and clown. “Youth makes you do dumb things.” However, he was smart enough to start and operate Lieblong and Associates, an investment firm in Little Rock, Ark. He also has bank, gas and oil holdings.

At one time, he raised cattle at his 80-acre farm in Conway, but he and JoAnn both found Thoroughbreds much more interesting. They bought their first horses in partnership with Patricia and Gus “Buddy” Blass in the early ‘90s. Alex loves hanging around the barn. “Just like an oil well looks best just before you drill it, horses seem to look better in the morning before they race,” he said.

But Alex and JoAnn have their priorities. They used their private plane to fly to the 2009 Breeders’ Cup so they wouldn’t miss “Grandparents Day” at their grandchildren’s school in Arkansas. Their grandkids live next door and spend a lot of time at their farm.

Though they adore Saratoga, Arkansas is where they live and love to race. Alex is a member of the Arkansas Racing Commission, and JoAnn volunteers with the Arkansas division of the Racetrack Chaplaincy of America.

Michael House

A veteran of the Korean War, Michael House was born in Lincoln, Neb., in 1938, and raised in Los Angeles. After attending junior college in Southern California he became a carpenter. When he decided to start his own company, dealing with real estate development and property management, he settled in the San Diego area, where he and his wife Dawn now live.

The oldest of their eight children helped get them into horse racing in 1971. When their kids began riding and showing Appaloosas, the Houses bought several, including Blowing Easy, who won the first $100,000 Appaloosa stakes in California.

When racing opportunities for Appaloosas declined dramatically, House began focusing on Thoroughbreds, buying many horses in Europe and racing them in the U.S. Last April, House claimed Big John B for $50,000.

With a goal of establishing a broodmare band, he purchased a 163-acre farm in Versailles, Ky., previously owned in partnership by actor William Shatner of Star Trek fame. The Houses named their property Chestnut Farm, and it’s where they keep their broodmares now.

G. Watts Humphrey Jr. & Ian Banwell's St George Farm Racing

Personal Diary’s victory in the Del Mar Oaks was a celebration of family. Trainer Victoria Oliver is co-owner and co-breeder G. Watts Humphrey Jr.’s daughter.

And Humphrey, a co-owner of the St. Louis Cardinals, knows how to celebrate. In October 2011, the day after his Cardinals won the World Series, Humphrey became the leading owner at the Keeneland meet, quite a rare double.

Humphrey’s paternal grandfather, George M. Humphrey, served as President Eisenhower’s Secretary of the Treasury from 1953–1957 and was a prominent Thoroughbred owner.

Humphrey, a 70-year-old native of Cleveland, Ohio, is the president of a private investment company and several manufacturing companies in the Pittsburgh area.

Humphrey’s horses are raised at his 1,000-acre Shawnee Farm near Harrodsburg, Ky., 30 miles southwest of Lexington.

Humphrey and his partner, Ian Banwell, who races in the name of St. George Farm Racing, have had many horses together including Forest Legend, who finished fourth in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Born in Kampala, Uganda, the 51-year-old Banwell lived in India, England, and Kentucky growing up. His father was a British physician.

Banwell became interested in Thoroughbreds through veterinarian Bryan Boone, a life-long friend in Kentucky. Banwell worked for Bankers Trust, Chemical Bank in New York, then for Barclays Bank in Hong Kong before founding the Round Table Investment Management Company based in Charlotte, N.C. He is now the company’s CEO and Chief Investment Officer. In 1998, he joined Bank of America in 1998 and was named its chief investment officer two years later.

In 2006, Banwell began 100-acre St. George Farm in Charlotte. “St. George is the patron saint of England as well as horses and horsemen,” Banwell said.

Team Valor International

Ultimately, Barry Irwin, a native of Los Angeles and owner of 2011 Kentucky Derby and 2013 Dubai World Cup winner Animal Kingdom, discovered that owning and breeding Thoroughbreds was more rewarding than working in the racing media. Long before he became an internationally successful owner and industry leader, he wrote  fiction before taking a staff job for The Blood-Horse in 1969. Returning to California, he wrote for and edited Thoroughbred of California and became the Southern California columnist for the Daily Racing Form. He also hosted horseracing radio and television shows. 

At the end of the 1978 Del Mar meet, he changed direction by becoming a bloodstock agent, forming Pacific Thoroughbreds the following year. In 1987, he formed a partnership with long-time friend Jeff Siegel and two others, to create Clover Racing Stable. That very year, Political Ambition won the Grade I Hollywood Derby. Five years later, Irwin and Siegel went on their own, establishing Team Valor. In its first year,  English turf horse, My Memoirs, finished second to A.P. Indy in the Belmont Stakes. Team Valor was a co-owner of 1989 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Prize.

In 2007, Irwin bought out Siegel. In 21 years as partners, they won 170 stakes races, including 21 Grade I’s.   

Throughout his glittering success in racing, Irwin has given back to racing. Team Valor International has partners around the globe, and they annually donate one percent of their world earnings to The Race for Education. Team Valor International then matches that total to double the contribution. The Race for Education is a charity that offers college scholarships to the children of backstretch and farm workers. In 2006, Irwin was presented the inaugural Valedictorian Award by The Race for Education.

Irwin has been an outspoken advocate against race-day medication in North America and also a long-time friend of horse rescues.