Barbara Banke, William Lear Jr., and R. Alex Rankin have been elected to the board of stewards of The Jockey Club. Lear has been reelected, while Banke and Rankin are filling the expired positions of Everett Dobson and John Phillips.
Banke previously served on the board of stewards from 2016-20 and has been a member of The Jockey Club since 2013. She is a Thoroughbred owner and breeder and proprietor of Jackson Family Wines, based in Santa Rosa, Calif. She owns Stonestreet Stables, which has campaigned champions such as Curlin , Rachel Alexandra, Good Magic , Lady Aurelia, and My Miss Aurelia. Stonestreet-bred horses have won more than 80 graded stakes races and earned nearly $80 million on the racetrack. Banke serves on the board of the Breeders' Cup, the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, and Keeneland and on the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association's American Graded Stakes Committee.
Lear has served as vice chairman of The Jockey Club since 2015 and has been a member of The Jockey Club since 2010. He is the chairman emeritus of Stoll Keenon Ogden, the Kentucky-based law firm that counts among its clients Keeneland, Breeders' Cup, The Jockey Club, TOBA, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, and a number of Thoroughbred breeding and racing operations. Lear currently serves on the board of Keeneland and Commonwealth Seed Capital.
Rankin has been a member of The Jockey Club since 2016 and has been the chairman of Churchill Downs Inc. since 2018. He has also served as president and board member of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, president and director of the Kentucky Derby Museum, director of Breeders' Cup Limited, and director of Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders. He is the chairman of the board of Sterling G. Thompson Company in Louisville, Ky., and founder of Upson Downs Farm in Goshen, Ky.
In addition to Banke, Lear, and Rankin, the board of stewards consists of Dr. Larry Bramlage, C. Steven Duncker, William Farish Jr., Ian Highet, Stuart Janney III (chairman), and Vinnie Viola.
