Mark Simon, Jill Baffert voted new members at recent meeting
GEORGETOWN, Ky. (June 22, 2016) — Old Friends, the Thoroughbred Retirement Facility in Georgetown, has elected three new members to its board of directors.
In a meeting held June 15, the board voted to add Mark Simon, editorial director of Daily Racing Form, and Jill Baffert, former journalist and now prominent racing-industry figure. In December the board voted to add Jeffrey Burch, senior VP of NTRA Advantage.
Simon launched his career as a racing journalist at The Thoroughbred Record in the late 1970s. He worked his way to the role of editor at the Thoroughbred Times, a position he held for 27 years. Simon joined DRF in October, 2012 to lead its newest business venture “DRF Breeding”. He was appointed editorial director in March of 2013.
Baffert is a former broadcast journalist, having served as both a TV news reporter in Hopkinsville and later as a news anchor at WLKY-TV, the CBS affiliate in Louisville. She is married to Triple Crown winning-trainer Bob Baffert. She has owned several notable horses, including graded-stakes winners Misremembered and Contested. Four of the Bafferts’ former trainees now reside at Old Friends: Kentucky Derby-Preakness winners Silver Charm and War Emblem, three-time Santa Anita Handicap winner Game On Dude and graded-stakes winner Danthebluegrassman.
Burch assumed this current post in June 2015 after 10 years as VP of advertising at Daily Racing Form. Throughout his career he has held various VP-level leadership roles in advertising, sales, and marketing at such companies as Time Inc. and the Hearst Corporation.
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