Big-name agents in horse auctions law suit
Published March 16th, 2006
Two of the biggest names in the thoroughbred bloodstock business are accused in a California lawsuit of paying undisclosed commissions to agents working for winemaker Jess Jackson. Because of those and other commissions, Jackson was defrauded of millions of dollars, he alleges in the suit.
Tom Van Meter of Eaton Sales and John Sikura of Hill ‘n’ Dale Sales Agency are accused of paying commissions behind Jackson’s back to his agents to get him to buy their horses, sometimes at inflated prices.
Van Meter, who sold $42.4 million worth of horses at the Keeneland sales last year, declined to comment.
Sikura said that Narvick International, the group that advised Jackson on buying horses and one of the named defendants in the lawsuit, didn’t ask for a commission. “So if there’s any allegation that some inducement was made to purchase, it’s totally erroneous,” Sikura said yesterday. However, Sikura, whose agency sold $35 million worth of horses at Keeneland last year, didn’t actually deny that money changed hands.
“If Mrs. (Alta) Franks paid a commission Ð a thank you for that support Ð it was not organized and not solicited. People [selling horses] have the ability to do whatever they would like.” Mrs. Franks is the widow of John Franks of Shreveport, La., a four-time Eclipse Award winner who was both a breeder and an owner of racehorses.
“If Mr. Jackson felt in any way that a gratuity paid to Narvick after the fact had any effect on his purchase, that’s not the case,” Sikura said.
Eaton and Hill ‘n’ Dale are major agencies that sell hundreds of horses for their owners, often prepping them on the Eaton and Hill ‘n’ Dale farms in Lexington beforehand.
Neither Van Meter nor Sikura is a named defendant in the lawsuit.
