Horse racing is a sport full of jargon: for hardcore fans of the game, the sentence, “He worked a bullet over three panels in 35 and change” makes absolute and perfect sense. (The translation is: this horse was the fastest workout of the morning going three-eighths of a mile, traveling the distance in just over 35 seconds.)

Four years ago, Joel Funk walked into his first yearling sale at Keeneland and saw nearly $400 million change hands in less than two weeks. Billionaires, celebrities, and global power brokers gathered in Lexington, Ky., bidding on bloodstock. When others were talking recession, Funk was talking opportunity.

“I was just blown away,” Funk said. “You want to get the wealthiest people in the world in a room, have a horse sale.”