The Gilded Circle
The More You Look, The More You See
There are times in this game when you don’t have to dig very deep. You just have to look. And when you do, patterns emerge. This isn’t about personalities. It’s not about who likes who, who sits where at dinner, or who shakes hands in the paddock. This is about governance. About structure. About power. And about whether American racing is operating with the kind of firewall any serious industry demands. It is about doing things the right or wrong way.
Let’s start at the center.
The Revolving Door Nobody Talks About
On paper, The Jockey Club and Keeneland are separate institutions.
One presents itself as the sport’s guardian of integrity and registry authority. The other is arguably the most powerful Thoroughbred auction house in the world. Separate entities. Except they’re not separate in leadership.
The concentration of power sits with three trustees who control the Keeneland Trust:
- Everett R. Dobson – Chair of the Board of Stewards at The Jockey Club
- William S. Farish Jr. – Vice Chair of the Board of Stewards
- William M. Lear Jr. – Secretary of the Board of Stewards
The same three men responsible for the fiduciary health of an $800+ million auction marketplace are also the primary “regulators” of the sport’s registry and rule structure.
In any other major American industry — banking, securities, public equity — that overlap would demand an independent firewall. At minimum, scrutiny. At worst, regulatory intervention.
In racing?
It’s business as usual.
The Rules That Drive the Marketplace
If you really want to understand influence, don’t read the press releases. Read the rules.
Keeneland’s Conditions of Sale don’t just coexist with The Jockey Club’s Principal Rules — they depend on them.
Rule 1 mandates “Interactive Registration.” Every owner and breeder must maintain an IR account. That means every transaction is processed through The Jockey Club’s proprietary servers.
Since 2018, paper foal certificates have been eliminated. The “Digital Foal Certificate” mandate requires ownership transfers to be executed through The Jockey Club’s system.
You want to sell at Keeneland?
You don’t just show up with a horse. You enter into a permanent digital relationship with The Jockey Club and its for-profit technology arm, TJC Innovations (formerly InCompass and TJCIS).
That’s not optional. That’s structural.
And when regulatory “vision” around medication and integrity gets written directly into Keeneland’s Uniform Medication Policy — sometimes ahead of state or national adoption — the marketplace becomes a policy enforcement mechanism.
Not through legislation. Through leverage.
The Financial Loop Few Discuss
The phrase “non-profit” sounds comforting.
Until you follow the money.
Equibase — a joint venture between The Jockey Club and the Thoroughbred Racing Associations — compiles the pedigree and racing data that Keeneland mandates for its sales.
In 2025, The Jockey Club reportedly received a $4.5 million dividend from its commercial holdings.
InCompass — now folded under TJC Innovations — provides the Horsemen’s Bookkeeper software used at Keeneland.
That means:
- The registry authority writes the rules.
- Its commercial arms provide the technology.
- The auction house enforces compliance.
- And the fees flow back to the same ecosystem.
Every catalog page. Every pedigree printed. Every transfer processed. Every dollar moved.
If you’re cataloged, if you’re sold, if you’re paid — you’re inside that loop.
Again, not illegal. But structurally intertwined.
The Contractual Teeth
The relationship isn’t implied. It’s written into the contracts.
To be “marketable” at Keeneland, a horse must have a valid certificate issued by The Jockey Club. If registration is denied — whether due to pedigree dispute, microchip discrepancy, or administrative issue — that horse is legally barred from the marketplace.
Late paperwork? $100 per horse penalty. Data disputes? The Equibase-submitted data is the recognized currency of record.
Private records may exist. They may even be more accurate. But they are not the recognized authority at sale.
That’s not suggestion. That’s mandate.
This Isn’t Personal. It’s Governance.
Some will try to frame this as an attack or negatively. It isn’t. It’s Governance 101. It is my attempt at pointing out glaring issues that need to be addressed so things can improve in the sport I love. When a multi-billion-dollar industry is overseen by a small, overlapping leadership circle with no independent oversight and no structural firewall, transparency isn’t optional. It’s required.
The same three trustees controlling Keeneland’s $800+ million marketplace and serving as the top stewards of The Jockey Club is not a minor footnote. It’s a concentration of authority that would raise alarms in almost any other American industry.
And racing — already fragile, already fighting perception battles — cannot afford governance questions it refuses to examine. The more you look, the more you see. And once you see it, you can’t pretend you don’t.
The industry doesn’t need more press releases. It needs clarity. If you’re not behind the red velvet rope, you’re not in.
They Own It All:
