Thoroughbred owners spent countless dollars in the hopes one of their horses might make it to the 2026 Kentucky Derby.As this year's race approaches, 27 owners — spread across the 20 competing racehorses — are in line to be represented. There's a possibility for at least one change, though: Iron Honor might withdraw, moving Chip Honcho into the field. Iron Honor's trainer, Chad Brown, said it is likely they will focus on the Preakness Stakes; Iron Honor still will be part of the Derby provided he's at Churchill Downs by 11 a.m.
Saturday. Chip Honcho has four owners: Leland Ackerley Racing (Lee Ackerley), James Sherwood, Jode Shupe and John Cilia.Here's a look at the rest of the owners lineup in the Run for the Roses, listed in alphabetical order by horse's name (sole owners with multiple Derby entrants are grouped together):Albus; IncrediboltOwner: Pin Oak Stud (Dana Bernhard)What to know: Bernhard is one of two owners with multiple starters in this year's Derby; Vincent Viola of St. Elias stable has three horses in the race (Fulleffort, Golden Tempo and Iron Honor).This is the first Derby for Bernhard.
Josephine Abercrombie founded Pin Oak Stud in 1952; she owned it until her death in 2022 at the age of 96. Later that year, Bernhard and her husband, Jim, bought Pin Oak. They owned it together until Jim's death Nov. 16.
Since then, horses have been a source of comfort for Dana. Especially Albus and Incredibolt. "Losing Jim so suddenly ... was a profound, horrible experience," she told the Thoroughbred Daily News earlier this month.
"I still have extreme waves of grief. I'm trying to get through it for everybody and to kind of take charge of a lot of our businesses again. But the two horses that have qualified for the Derby are such a great achievement for Pin Oak and our whole team.
I see Jim in that every single day." That both her starters likely will be longshots come Derby Day doesn't bother Dana in the slightest. "I always think our horses will win. ...
So when we don't win, it's a little bit surprising to me," she told TDN. "Maybe not to everyone else, but it is to me. So I absolutely have full confidence in Incredibolt and Albus."CommandmentOwner: Wathnan Racing (Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani)What to know: Wathnan Racing's owner is Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the emir of Qatar.
Per the stable's website, "Wathnan Racing is named after a desert Arabian, a beloved stallion of Al Thani family folklore. He, in turn, was named for his kind and eager disposition — 'wathnan' can be translated as a 'crown of ears,' referring to his pricked ears, the surest sign that a horse truly is your friend." The stable was founded in October 2022, first racing in Qatar before beginning to run in the United Kingdom.
Wathnan has not yet made North America a priority — since 2023, it has just 152 starts on the continent, per Equibase. This also doubles as Wathnan's Derby debut. It's a strong hand: Commandment enters atop the Kentucky Derby points leaderboard with 150.
He's won four of his five starts, with victories in the Grade 1 Florida Derby and Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes (both run at Gulfstream Park) this year.Danon BourbonOwner: Danox Co. (Masahiro Noda)What to know: Noda, one of Japan's richest men, owns Danox Co. (and by extension, Derby starter Danon Bourbon). According to Forbes, Noda has a net worth of more than $3.4 billion. He is the chairman and CEO of Obic, which Forbes notes is a "publicly traded computer-system integrator and custom software maker."
Forbes reports that through the fiscal year that ended in March 2025, Obic "posted $452 million in net profit on $848 million in revenue." Noda founded the business in 1968 using money from his wife's savings. Though this will be Noda's first Derby appearance, he's a longtime race-winning owner in Japan.Emerging MarketOwner: Klaravich Stables (Seth Klarman)What to know: Klarman, the owner of Klaravich Stables, gives it a go for the fifth time in the Run for the Roses.
In his first two appearances, in 2004 (with Read the Footnotes, which placed seventh) and 2017 (Practical Joke, which finished fifth), Klarman was in a partnership. But in his two most recent Derby starts — a ninth in 2021 with Highly Motivated and a 13th in 2024 with Domestic Product — he's been the sole owner. He founded Klaravich Stables more than three decades ago with his friend, Jeff Ravich.
The stable took its name by combining the first three letters of Klarman's last name with Ravich. After nearly a decade together, Ravich left the partnership "to start his own stable on the West Coast," according to America's Best Racing. While Derby glory has eluded Klarman to this point, he has a pair of Preakness Stakes wins to his name: 2017 (courtesy of Cloud Computing, which he owned in partnership with William Lawrence) and again in 2022 (via Early Voting).
Klaravich Stables has finished in the top three in earnings among North American owners six straight years (2020-25). Klarman made