Born in New York in 1936 and earning his undergraduate degree from Princeton University, Carl C. Icahn earned a reputation during the “go-go eighties” as a tough Wall Street corporate raider. Icahn launched his own brokerage house in 1968, Icahn & Company, and earned a huge amount of money by buying stocks and “greenmailing” large corporations.
In 1985 Icahn purchased Transworld Airlines, but he resold it in 1992 despite the fact that he had invested over $100 million of his own money in the company.
Among Icahn’s many activities was the development of a horse breeding farm known as Foxfield Thoroughbreds in 1985. During that year he paid $4 million for a 6-year-old mare and also $7 million for the 4-year-old mare Miss Oceana who was pregnant with a foal who was sired by the champion racehorse Northern Dancer.