Behind the scenes of the greatest two minutes in sports is a legacy of family businesses.
Saturday’s Kentucky Derby field includes Catching Freedom, a colt bred by WinStar Farm in Versailles, Kentucky. WinStar is owned by Kenny Troutt, the billionaire founder of Excel Communications, who maintains Mt. Vernon Investments as his family office.
WinStar’s president and CEO is Elliott Walden, a third-generation Kentucky horseman whose son Will has overcome drug and alcohol addiction to recently start his career as a horse trainer. Taylor Made, another Kentucky farm and seller of race horses, is owned by four brothers.
“It can be difficult when the kids were younger, and they have their own opinions; it can be a little fight,” said Jeff Metz, the superintendent of stalls at Santa Anita Park in California. His father owned horses, and his two adult children now work in the industry.
“You have to really try to finesse as much as possible. You want to teach them, but you want them to stand on their own, too. It's that fine line of give and take.
“And then obviously, when things are successful, then we all get to share in it. And those are memories that you can carry for a long time.”
Jeff and daughter Zoe Metz, 28, both spoke on a “Family Business and the Kentucky Derby” webinar hosted in April by NxtGen Nexus. Zoe works as both a barn foreman and photographer for horse racing events, while her brother trains horses as an exercise rider.
“With my brother riding horses for me in the morning, when a horse runs really good, it's just extra-special,” Zoe said. “Because as a brother and sister, it's like, this is what we did. Our hard work did this. And it just feels really good to know that it's all within the family.”
And it’s not just jockeys, trainers and farm owners who have family business ties — but the horses themselves. Breeding fees are the financial lifeblood of the sport, with Irish stallion Galileo having generated roughly $40 million per year in stud fees before his death in 2021 at age 23.
“It's not all roses and rainbows being a family business at the racetrack,” said Jill Hofmans, who moderated the “Family Business and the Kentucky Derby” webinar. Her father is David Hofmans, a longtime horse trainer who trained 1997 Belmont Stakes winner Touch Gold. Jill is now the executive director of the Conway Center for Family Business in Columbus, Ohio.
Growing up at the racetrack, she often witnessed the personalities of her father and brother and the challenges that arose.
“My brother has a big problem with authority, and working for his dad was a blessing and a curse, because he could be kind of a jerk to his dad because he's not gonna get fired,” she said. “You get to go to work with the people you love the most — and with the people who drive you the most crazy. When those two intersect, those dynamics are challenging. But at the racetrack, it's sort of a microcosm of society.”