When Amy Bunt and John Barton teamed up to present their first batch of Baldwin Bloodstock at the Keeneland January 2021 Horses of All Ages Sale, Barton was still based in Southern California and made a living underwriting loans to buy car. Two years later, Barton has made a full-time transition to Bluegrass and Baldwin Bloodstock is set to introduce six horses in its third shipment in January. While making a living in the industry might have been a new experience when he joined the Bunt’s forces two years ago, Barton is a novice to the sport.
“I grew up in San Gabriel, a short distance from Santa Anita, about 10 minutes south of Santa Anita,” says Barton. “My father, Neil Barton, has owned horses since the early 70s. And he went to a high school called Mark Keppel in Ahambra. He and Wayne Hughes of Spendthrift once made a bet on their teacher during school hours. That was in the late 40s and early 50s. They would drive to Santa Anita, bet and come back. My dad and Wayne will forever be best friends, he’s like an uncle to me. So that’s how it started.”
Barton’s cousins Bob and Jude Feld were involved in all aspects of the game and from the start, Barton had a dream of following Jude into the ranks of Southern California coaches.
“The summer of 1996, when I thought I wanted to be a trainer, Jude said, ‘Well, I have a herd at the Fairplex.’ I said, ‘I want to give it a try.’ So that summer, I’ll go for a hot walk for him. I did it all summer, seven days a week, waking up at 4 a.m. Bob was the chain supervisor in Pomona while Jude was in Del Mar during the summer. So Bob is running the show and I’m a hot walker. After three months since then, I said: ‘I don’t want to be a coach anymore.’ I went back to school in September of that year and got my finance degree in 1997 and started going straight into auto finance.”
But Barton never lost his passion for racing.
“I still have an eye on horse racing and business,” he said. “I would go to Santa Anita whenever Wayne had a horse—he was still living in Southern California and hadn’t bought Spendthrift. So every time he ran a horse, my dad and I would go and I could pick his brain and talk about the business.
It wasn’t until 2020 that Barton made his first trip to Kentucky.
Barton recalls: “My parents used to go out to visit Wayne and his wife Patty. “They would come home and tell me how great it was. But I never got it. Then, in March 2020, just as the pandemic broke out, I invited myself to Spendthrift. The Waynes said: ‘Yeah, come out and stay with us, you can see the farm and you can see if you like it here.’ So I went to Kentucky and I loved it. I walked around Spendthrift, saw all the stallions and all the babies – it was March, so the babies were born while we were out there. My sisters and husbands came with me and they said, ‘You know a lot about the farm and everything,’ – because I was rambling on about stats, numbers and history, so they said. , ‘You should get a job here.’ And we laughed it off.”
He continued, “I’m back home in California, with my auto finances, but I’m tired of it. I went to Kentucky again in September 2020 for the annual sales. I stayed with Wayne and Patty. Spendthrift is very interested in annual sales, so I went around with Ned Toffey, general manager of Spendthrift and their team just to find out everything. One thing after another and Wayne said, ‘Why don’t you move out here?’”
While considering moving to Kentucky, Bob Feld introduced his cousin to Bunt, who had just launched her Baldwin Bloodstock strain. Bunt was once a partner with Select Sales Agency, but was looking to solve the problem when that shipment disintegrated.
“I think that sounds interesting,” Barton said of the shipment opportunity, but Hughes had a different opinion.
“I was on the phone with Wayne and he said, ‘I don’t know much about shipments. But I want you to come out here and be a tour guide for Spendthrift. You are a hard worker, you love to talk, you know your history, you would be the perfect person for that job.’”
So Barton decided to do both. He sold his home in Southern California in February 2021 and moved to Lexington the following month. He lives in a chalet at Spendthrift while organizing tours for MyRacehorse owners.
Living on the farm gave Barton the opportunity to spend time and learn from Hughes during the last months of his entrepreneurial life.
“I think he saw a little bit of my dad in me,” Barton said. “That’s why we get along so well. Since when did he like to tell stories? And we talked about horses and business. And he was always worried about me. He told me, ‘I think you’ll do well as long as you work as hard as your father did.’”
Baldwin Bloodstock had the biggest results with November 2021 sales, selling CJ’s Gal (Awesome Again), the dam of GIII winner Pocahontas S. Hidden Linkions (Link), for $450,000 at Fasig-Tipton and Jazz Tune (Johannesburg), the dam of GI Breeders’ Futurity Rattle N Roll winner (Link) for $585,000 at Keeneland.
By 2022, the batch Baldwin sold Keeneland in November included 24 horses and was led by a son of Tiz Law who sold for $105,000.
After that success with a first-season stallion, Baldwin returned to the Keeneland sale in January with six horses, four of which were calves a year from the first season’s stallion. group consisting of a chubby person by Global campaign (hip 111), daughter of Gift box (hip 181), a person filthy by Higher capacity (hip 1128) and a pony of a Thousand Words (hip 1166).
“I know males that look like that first crop, those babies have pretty much sold all of them, we just hope it continues,” Barton said.
Baldwin’s shipment also included a GI winner Belmont S. Tapwrit (hip 1175), whose 3-year-old son is undefeated Victory Formation just won the GI Kentucky Derby with a win in Smarty Jones S. Sunday in Oaklawn. The gray pony is the Duchess of Sussex’s first pony.
Barton said: “We are very excited about her. “The Duchess of Sussex is a black person owned by the Eclipse Purebred Partner. She has Eclipse written all over her body because they own Tapwrit and they own the Duchess of Sussex. And the timing was perfect as Victory Formation won on Sunday.”
Baldwin’s consignment is rounded up by a 6-year-old brood Mopolka (Uncle Mo) (hip 962), who is offered in ponies to can not.
“People are looking for new brood prospects these days, so we really like her,” says Barton.
The business partnership between Barton, with his financial background, and Bunt seems like a destined combination. Bunt’s extensive experience in the racing industry includes stints with Coolmore in Australia, Van Meter Sales, Niall Brennan Stables and Eaton Sales, as well as stints as a veterinary technician at Hagyard Davison McGee.
“Together, we make a great team,” said Barton. “It was perfect for me to handle the financial matters and her to handle the horse business. I’m learning more about horses, about composition. I know a little bit about animal husbandry, but I’m learning more. And you can’t help but learn when you’re around Amy because she knows so many things. If anyone was born to do this job, it’s her. She lives and breathes it. And I’m starting to do it myself.”
On the future of Baldwin Bloodstock, Barton said: “Hopefully we will one day hit annual sales, but for now we are still focused on mix and weaning sales. I want to go to Maryland and maybe Saratoga, we’ll see how it goes. We were keen to expand, but kept it small enough that we could provide the attention the horse and the client deserve.”
Keeneland January sale will be held from Monday to Thursday next week with bidding starting at 10am daily
