Lifestyle
Stonestreet Farms: Jackson Family Wines’ other thoroughbred interest
Words by Guy Woodward
Photography by Bill Phelps
In 2003, Barbara Banke told her husband, the late Jess Jackson, that it was time for him to find a hobby. Jackson, the former lawyer turned wine tycoon had, with Banke, built Jackson Family Wines into a 14,000-acre, five-million-case- and $500m-a-year business. But he was guilty, at 73, of micromanaging. Not only that, says Banke, but ‘he was driving me crazy’. So Jackson bought a share in a racehorse.
Within two years of his modest initial outlay, Jackson had spent $22m on 90 mares to kick-start a breeding operation – and a similar amount on a suitably expansive facility to house them. Two years later, Curlin, a colt in which Jackson had acquired a majority interest, racked up a string of comprehensive victories to become America’s Horse of the Year.
Stonestreet is among the largest breeding farms in Kentucky
Today, Stonestreet is among the largest breeding farms in Kentucky, housing around 100 mares spread across three sites. Within the past 15 years, it has become the biggest seller of yearling racehorses in North America. And that is largely down to Banke. When Jackson died from melanoma in 2011, aged 81, nobody was quite sure what approach Banke would take with the family business. Jackson had been very much the public face and image of both the wine and equine interests. The latter, despite its startling success, represents but a fraction of the scale of the wine business, and wasn’t on anyone’s list of priorities. But Banke is not someone to enter into things lightly. She likes a challenge – and she likes to win.
There are commonalities between her twin vocations of racing and wine, not least the annual cycles both on and off the racecourse. Similarly with breeding, there is a reason, for example, why horses are raised in Kentucky. The limestone bedrock there supports the growth of the famed bluegrass, which is high in calcium, strengthening bones. Terroir in equine form, you could say.
There is, equally, the odd vinous reference at Stonestreet: barns are named after grape varieties. In Chardonnay, former star filly Rachel Alexandra is berthed. Rachel Alexandra was purchased by Jackson after she won the Kentucky Oaks by a staggering 20 lengths. She went on, in 2009, to become the first filly in 85 years to win the Preakness Stakes as she followed in the hoofprints of Curlin by being named Horse of the Year. But her career as a dam has been more troublesome. An initial dream pairing with Curlin led to the birth of the aptly named Jess’s Dream, but the colt’s performance on the track didn’t live up to expectations. Similarly, after a difficult second birth, Rachel Alexandra has stepped back from mating duties. Just as with wine, nothing in this game is predictable…
Stonestreet is among the largest breeding farms in Kentucky, whose limestone bedrock supports the growth of the famed bluegrass, which is high in calcium, and strengthens the equine bones of young horses
With her late husband, Jess Jackson, Barbara Banke built up Jackson Family Wines into a 14,000-acre, five-million-case- and $500m-a-year business. She is similarly ambitious when it comes to her Kentucky-based horse racing and breeding operation
In 2009, star filly Rachel Alexandra won the Preakness Stakes and was named Horse of the Year, like her stablemate Curlin before her. Now 17 years old and ten years into retirement, she has stepped back from mating duties and resides happily at Stonestreet Farms
In the initial two years of his entry into the equine world, Jess Jackson spent $22m on 90 mares to kick-start a breeding operation – and a similar amount on a suitably expansive facility to house them.
The Stonestreet operation yields a production cycle of potential future champions, which are then either sold or raised and trained in-house.
Stallions can cover upwards of 100 mares a year, at a fee of up to $175,000 a time in the case of Stonestreet’s top sire, Curlin
Stonestreet is among the largest breeding farms in Kentucky, housing around 100 mares – and the odd feline intruder – across three sites
Despite the commercial pull of breeding, it is success on the track that most energises Banke.
Over the past two decades, Stonestreet has become the biggest seller of yearling racehorses in North America
Featured Stories
Features
Stonestreet Farms: the racehorse operation of Jackson Family Wines
