BuzzBallz Owner Sazerac Plots Liquor’s Changing of the Guard

Ahead of this year’s Kentucky Derby, Chris Skinger strode around the grass with other VIPs at the Churchill Downs paddock, where horses are paraded in front of spectators before each race. He posed for pictures and photobombed his friends’ snapshots in a cream-colored suit jacket and pink bow tie.

The chief financial officer of Sazerac Co., the distiller behind BuzzBallz and a host of other brands, looked completely at home despite standing on grounds affiliated with his chief rival: Brown-Forman Corp. Above Skinger’s head, ads for his competitor’s Woodford Reserve lit up LED screens while commentators gave instructions on how to make mint juleps out of another one of its brands, Old Forester bourbon.