Celebrities owning thoroughbreds is part of horse racing history
Celebrities and professional athletes have been diversifying their revenue streams with real estate, businesses start ups or a robust investment portfolio. But in recent years they’ve been populating the owner’s boxes at major horse tracks, and have even made it to the winner’s circle.
The world of horse racing is about to wrap up its Triple Crown with the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, June 7. Dornoch, a thoroughbred owned by MLB World Series champion Jayson Werth, won the Belmont in 2024.
Horse racing’s Hollywood History
Hollywood and celebrity isn’t a new development in horse racing.
“Del Mar is a product of Hollywood,” Del Mar Racetrack CEO Joe Harper told Straight Arrow News. “It would have never happened without Bing Crosby and a lot of his friends, you know, from good old Tinseltown.”
Farmed entertainer Bing Crosby and William Quigley founded the Del Mar Turf Club in May 1936.
“Santa Anita started off, and some of the guys down here in Del Mar that were on vacation, like Bing Crosby and all the old Hollywood types, thought maybe this would be a good spot for a racetrack,” Harper said, referencing Santa Anita, another prestigious race track in southern California. “And so Bing, put together some of his Hollywood pals and put some money up and started up and built the racetrack.”
“A lot of the horse owners in that day were actors, some of them the producers. They all kind of had horses and ran them at San Diego Hollywood Park, and then Del Mar as well,” he added. “These were in the days of Hollywood where there was no television. If you wanted to see a star, the only place you could see it was in the theater. Or you could come to Del Mar.”
Aside from serving as CEO of Del Mar, Harper has his own connections to Hollywood.
“My grandfather was the director of Cecil B. DeMille,” Harper told SAN. “I was in a couple of his pictures. [I] played a circus boy at age seven, and then [at] 11 years old, I was a Hebrew slave, [I] went to Egypt on location.”
DeMille was a staple of early Hollywood. His most famous work is arguably 1956’s The Ten Commandments, which starred Charlton Heston playing the role of Moses.
Celebrities in the owners box
At this year’s Kentucky Derby, the first leg of the Triple Crown, social media star Griffin Johnson, who boasts nearly 10 million followers on TikTok, was part of a team that owns Sandman, the horse that finished seventh. Meanwhile, Render Judgment, who finished close to the end of the pack, is owned by Dream Walkin Farms. The late country music star Toby Keith started that ranch.
Sandman finished third at the Preakness, but won’t run in the Belmont Stakes. The race won’t be without a high-profile owner. Celebrity chef Bobby Flay’s horse, Crudo, is slated to start the race.
Crudo, the son of Triple Crown winner Justify, currently has 15-1 odds in the Belmont, third worst in the field of 8 horses.
“You look at the big Triple Crown races, that’s a lot of publicity, nationwide coverage that’s kind of a magnet for a lot of the entertainment people from Hollywood,” Harper told SAN. “It’s good for them. It’s good for racing, too.”
Thoroughbred investment
The total purse for the Kentucky Derby is roughly $5 million, while the purse for the Preakness and Belmont is closer to $2 million. But it takes money and connections to get involved in the sport.
“You want good, well-bred horses,” Harper said. “So you can spend anywhere from $10 to $200,000. That depends [on] what your wallet looks like, and how much you want to get involved.”
“I think it takes two things, luck and money,” Harper continued. “The first one I said is probably the most important.”
Some of the world’s most prolific thoroughbreds raced at Del Mar, including Seabiscuit and Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.
Oscar winner Stephen Spielberg and Super Bowl champion Travis Kelce are part of ownership groups in horse racing. However, Harper pointed out the sport reaches all the way to royalty.
“We have the Breeders Cup coming here two years in a row,” Harper said. “And that draws people from all over the world, sheiks and princes and all that. So it gets a lot of publicity.”
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
