Sol Kumin

Sol Kumin (born 13 May 1975) is an American business leader, Thoroughbred racehorse owner and philanthropist. In May 2018, he became the first owner since 1952 to have Kentucky Oaks and Derby winners in the same weekend.^[1] He has a stake in Justify; winner of the Triple Crown - one of the hardest feats in sport.^[2]

Early life

The oldest of three siblings Kumin grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts before moving to Boston at the age of 10.^[3] He was educated at the Fessenden School before attending St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. He went on to gain a BA in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University.^[4]

Horse Racing

Specializing in buying proven established horses,^[5] Kumin has a stake in a number of active and retired racehorses including Exaggerator, Lady Eli and Wavell Avenue^[6] and while Kumin doesn’t own any horses outright he has been given credit for having “revolutionized the partnership concept.”^[3][7] Kumin and his partners aim to own around 100 horses (with the majority fillies) at any one time.^[8]

Despite attending his first race while at college^[9] Kumin didn’t get into horse-racing until much later through close friend Jay Hanley, who was at the time building Kumin's family home in Nantucket.^[10]

After buying his first horse in 2014, Kumin bought a stake in the double Stakes winner Exaggerator in 2016 along with partners including Big Chief Racing and Ron Ortowski.^[11] Later that year Kumin was celebrating winning the Preakness Stakes; one of the Triple Crown Races.^[12]

In 2015, Kumin’s Undrafted, which he co-owns with former American football wide receiver Wes Welker, won the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot.^[13]

Kumin had been in the sport for less than a year when he was crowned New Owner of the Year for the United States for 2015 at the Thoroughbred Owner Conference in Florida in January 2016.^[14]

At the Arlington Million in Chicago in August 2017, Kumin had two successes with Beach Patrol winning the Arlington Million and Dacita the Beverly D. Stakes. He went on to say he “had an unbelievable day"^[15] and that the Million was "the race we’ve been waiting for a year."^[16] Following his horses' performances through the year, Kumin finished fourth in the 2017 Eclipse Awards behind Juddmonte Farms, Winchell Thoroughbreds and Godolphin Racing.^[17]

In March 2018, Kumin bought stakes in two Kentucky Derby contenders; Audible and Justify.^[18] After My Boy Jack won the Lexington Stakes and gained 20 qualification points,^[19] this would mean that Kumin had three runners in the 2018 Derby.

Justify would go on to win the race, with Audible finishing third and My Boy Jack fifth. This topped off a successful two days for Kumin after another of his horses; Monomoy Girl won the Kentucky Oaks the same weekend.^[20] Later that month, Justify landed another victory at the Preakness Stakes meaning it had won two of the three Triple Crown races with the third to be decided the following month at the Belmont Stakes.^[21] The win meant that Kumin's horses had won the Preakness Stakes in two out of three years. Justify then went on to win the Belmont Stakes, and thus became only the 13th Triple Crown winner.^[2]

In August 2018, Kumin's horse Catholic Boy won the Travers Stakes in Saratoga Springs, New York. Of the win, Kumin said "The Travers was a bucket list race for me."^[22]

Horses

Some of Kumin's past and present top horses include:

Stables

Kumin is involved in a number of stables and ownership groups, these include:

Professional career

Kumin worked at Lazard Asset Management and Sanford Bernstein before joining SAC Capital, where his roles included Head of Business Development and subsequently Chief Operating Officer under Steve A. Cohen. Upon Kumin leaving in 2014,^[29] Cohen went on to say that he (Kumin) had "been responsible for transforming our business development and investor relations functions and has helped create our global strategy and footprint. Without his tireless work, we would not have had a strong London presence or our current business in Asia."^[30]

After leaving SAC Capital in January 2014 Kumin started hedge fund Folger Hill Asset Management with over $1billion from investors^[31][32] including $400million backing from Leucadia National Corp.^[33] Kumin named the hedge fund after a hill of the same name on Nantucket where he has a summer home.^[3] He does not invest his own money, but has instead grown a reputation for identifying and recruiting talented traders^[34]

Kumin secured a further $100million investment in November 2017 from Leucadia National Corp. This taking their investment in Kumin’s Folger Hill Asset Management to a total of $500million^[35]

In April 2018 Kumin announced that following a merger of Folger Hill and Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, he would take up a new role of Chief Strategic Officer at Leucadia Asset Management, LLC in September 2018.^[36][8]

Personal life

Kumin is married to Elizabeth Kumin. They have two sons and one daughter.^[37] While they live in Boston, the Kumin family spends Summers in Madaket, Massachusetts, where they have owned a property since 2004.^[38]

His horses Lady Eli and My Man Sam are named after his wife and son respectively.^[39][40]

Outside of horse-racing, Kumin supports the New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox.^[10] Kumin played Lacrosse for Johns Hopkins University at attack^[41] and is a board member of the US Lacrosse Foundation.^[42]

Kumin sits on several other boards including Starwood Property Trust (STWD),^[43] Johns Hopkins University,^[44] Fessenden School,^[45] TOBA and Breeders' Cup^[46] and the Trust Board at Boston Children’s Hospital.^[47]

References