Jockey Club Elects Four New Members

The Jockey Club Sept. 6 announced the election of four new members: Dr. Stuart Brown, Walker Hancock, Carlos Heller, and R. Alex Rankin.

Dr. Stuart Brown is a member and former president of the Hagyard Equine Medical Institute near Lexington. He is a member of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and also serves on the boards of the American Association of Equine Practitioners and the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association/Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders and as vice chair of the Gluck Equine Research Foundation. He joined the Hagyard team in 1991, specializing in the area of equine reproduction in Central Kentucky, and was named 2014 Veterinarian of the Year by the Kentucky Veterinary Medical Association. 

Walker Hancock became the president of Claiborne Farm near Paris, Ky., in 2014. He has been involved in the operation of the family-owned farm since he was 8 years old. Hancock is a 2012 graduate of the University of Florida, where he majored in Animal Sciences with a minor in Agricultural Sales and Marketing. Through the years, he has worked with the yearling sales prep team, was a sales intern for Keeneland, and has worked at the racetrack with trainer Al Stall. He was also the vet tech to the farm's resident veterinarian and has handled various day-to-day duties with his father, former Claiborne president Seth Hancock.

Carlos Heller is the president at Bethia Holding and chairman of Club Hipico, the principal racetrack near Santiago, Chile. He is overseeing the launch of Don Alberto Kentucky, formerly known as Vinery farm. Bethia Holding, which has companies involved in retail, dairy, transportation, communications, and real estate, among other ventures, also owns a successful Club Universidad de Chile soccer team. The Chilean-based Don Alberto Corp., a subsidiary of Bethia Holding, purchased the 417-acre Vinery property on October 13, 2013. Heller's late grandfather, Alberto Solari, began breeding Thoroughbreds some 30 years ago, and his mother, Liliani Solari, is the principal owner of Haras Don Alberto.

R. Alex Rankin has been an independent director at Churchill Downs Inc. since August 2008. 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 near Louisville, Ky., and president of Upson Downs Farms Inc. near Goshen, Ky.