‘If anybody thinks I did a lot in 2024, they've no idea what I’m doing in 2025!’ – John Stewart on spending strategy and proving doubters wrong

John Stewart does not do things by halves. Whether that’s buying horses or responding to questions from the press. 

Few, if any, owners have made the kind of entry into the sport that Stewart has, and on Saturday he marked his maiden visit to Deauville by securing the Group 3-winning Excellent Truth at €1,600,000 during the Arqana Breeding Stock Sale.

After signing the seven-figure ticket, Stewart opened up on his perspective on bloodstock market dynamics and his unorthodox approach to valuing stock. 

“The thing about this industry that I’ve noticed, there’s a handful of buyers that are buying these top-of-the-market horses,” he said. “That market has always been strong. But I’m an investor, that’s what I do for a living, I own a private equity firm. Whenever you’re getting into something it costs more money, but it’s less risky to buy higher-quality assets.

“I’m indifferent to the price of an individual horse, because I buy so many horses that I look at it as like a portfolio, like you’d look at stocks. I may buy one horse and end up paying €500,000 more than I wanted, but then I buy another and pay €200,000 less. Over the whole thing I look at what I’ve spent and what did I get out of it, and it’s just a different way of thinking about it.”

This strategy, allied to a determination to compete on the international stage, has seen Stewart have a major impact throughout the bloodstock world in 2024. 

His yearling buying mission has been a global endeavour. He spent A$5.44m at the Inglis Easter Sale, and famously underbid the filly out of Winx who fetched an Australian record price of A$10 million. Eleven lots were purchased for $9.085m at Fasig-Tipton’s Saratoga Sale, while his agent, Gavin O’Connor, signed for 13 lots at an outlay of $8.425m at the Keeneland September Sale. He also invested €2.17m on three yearlings at Arqana in August. 

There have been selected horses-in-training acquisitions too, including the Australian Group 1-placed Tutta La Vita, who was picked up for A$3.2m at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale, and he also purchased a 75 per cent stake in King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes hero Goliath in a behind-closed-doors deal. 

This week’s European breeding stock sales have seen Stewart turn his attention to fillies with racing potential. During Tuesday’s Sceptre Session at Tattersalls he spent 6,265,000gns on five lots, including the Prix Marcel Boussac winner Vertical Blue, who cost 3,200,000gns. 

Excellent Truth: latest big signing by John Stewart at €1.6mCredit: Zuzanna Lupa

“It’s great for the industry,” he said on the slew of seven-figure prices witnessed in recent times. 

“If you’re a breeder or you’re someone who’s bought the horse as a yearling and you take it to the track and it’s done well, you want that big payday because it’s so hard to make ends meet. Especially with fillies and mares. If the stallions hit, they bring lots of money, but raising the prices for these fillies is really good for the industry because it’s putting money back into the whole supply chain. It’s good for everybody.”

It has not all been about free spending in the sales ring. His Resolute Racing colours have been carried to a Grade 3 success by Pounce, while he co-owns Grade 1 New York Stakes winner Didia with Merriebelle Stables.

He also owns Resolute Farm, a 1,000-acre tract of land in Midway, Kentucky that was previously part of the Shadwell empire. His broodmare band features the likes of Breeders’ Cup champions Caravel and Goodnight Olive, as well as the dams of major talents Forte and Mage. 

There has also been an altruistic aspect to his racing activities. He has made significant contributions towards thoroughbred aftercare, and routinely bangs the drum for fan engagement within the sport. He has put his money where his mouth is on both fronts.

He invited 120 racegoers to attend an all-expenses-paid box at the Breeders’ Cup, and recently came close to causing a riot in Japan when more than 1,000 fans responded to his social media call about handing out free merchandise ahead of Goliath’s tilt at the Japan Cup. 

“I’m only just getting started,” he continued. “I have a really big plan. If anybody thinks I did a lot in 2024, they have no idea what I’m doing in 2025! I’m just trying to bring attention to horseracing globally. I make a lot of statements about what I’m going to do. It’s not being arrogant, I’m just trying to get people to take notice that there’s people investing in the industry and new people coming in and putting lots of investment in when a lot of others are saying the industry’s dying. I just don’t believe that.”

Goliath working before the Japan Cup, where his owner's merchandise offer went down a stormCredit: Masakazu Takahashi

Stewart drew comparisons between his racing interests and his professional life, with the founder and managing partner of MiddleGround Capital saying he has always used the scepticism of others as motivation to achieve his goals. 

“I don’t have a finance degree, so everybody told me you’ll never start a private equity firm and no-one is ever going to invest in you because you don’t have a finance degree,” he said. “I went and had 350 meetings to get 22 people to say yes to my first fund. I thrive on people telling me ‘no’. The more they say it to me, the more it makes me determined.” 

However, not everyone within the horseracing industry has been receptive to Stewart’s outspoken, self-assertive nature on social media, nor his free-spending strategy in the sales ring. 

This week alone his approach has drawn scorn from prominent owners Mike Repole and LNJ Foxwoods’ Jamie Roth on X, the platform previously known as Twitter. 

“Because of what’s happened in the last 24 hours, I actually doubled my intention of what I was going to do,” he said. “The way I’m going to do it, I’m going to let my horses speak on the track. I’m going to let them win the races.” 

Stewart cited past examples of how he has refused to let this criticism derail his approach. 

“I got called out by somebody last year and he said I didn’t know what I was doing, ‘Come on, I’ll give you a tour of the winner's circle when you come to the track,’” he said. “He didn’t know it, but I bought Pounce at the Fasig-Tipton digital sale last year. Ten days later, my horse beat his horse in a Grade 3. Then I beat his horse in the Grade 1 New York Stakes. Every time my horses ran against his horse, I won.

“At [Fasig-Tipton] Saratoga I purposefully positioned myself right behind him so I could keep an eye on exactly what he was doing. He was the one making statements about bidding me up, but you really can’t bid me up because if I decide to buy the horse, with the way I think of it from a portfolio standpoint, like this horse here, I was buying the horse. I could have gone to €2,000,000.” 

He added: “I don’t know the difference between a $1.6 million horse and a $2 million horse. If it’s a good horse at €1.6 million, it’s a good horse at €2 million. That’s how you do it.” 

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