When Churchill Downs Inc. went searching for a new CEO in 2006, board members weren’t looking for another horse racing traditionalist. Instead, they wanted someone unafraid to push for change in the insular sport.
“We were really looking for someone who had experience in industries where vast changes had occurred,” said Bob Fealy, a Churchill Downs board member who led the search.
They found him in Bob Evans, an executive who was ready for retirement’s greener pastures — in this case, literally — when he decided to take on a new challenge.
Since then, Evans, 57, has gone to work promoting horse racing more as entertainment than a sporting event. He’s marketed races toward women and young people and added events such as a music festival to attract larger, more diverse crowds.
As other track operators such as the New York Racing Association and Magna Entertainment Corp. dealt with bankruptcy proceedings in the last few years, Churchill Downs made money and increased revenue, including at its namesake track, which will host the 136th Kentucky Derby on Saturday.
“Since 2006, Thoroughbred handle (wagers) has declined 17 percent,” Evans told investors and analysts on a conference call earlier this year. But during that same time period, “We have increased revenue every year at a more than 5 percent annual compounded rate after taking acquisitions into account.”
Who is Bob Evans and how is he making money when others in horse racing are losing their shirts?
“It starts with the fact that Bob is very aggressive in trying to find ways to promote racing,” said Ken Schanzer, president of NBC Sports.
He’s rankled some in the industry with his moves and calls for change, but Churchill’s balance sheet makes Evans an odds-on favorite to help horse racing get back on track.
Evans is a horse racing insider, in the sense that he owns a 260-acre Thoroughbred breeding farm in Versailles, Ky. But in more ways than one he is a horse racing outsider, because unlike many horse racing executives, he did not grow up working within the sport.
“Bob came in and viewed this with a more traditional business approach, and I think that is what separates him from the majority of racetrack operators,” said Greg Avioli, president and CEO of the Breeders’ Cup Ltd.
“Bob is a very good businessman,” he said. “He was brought up in manufacturing and was in the supply chain management (industry) and launched a very successful Internet business in Silicon Valley.”
New take on old sport
Evans’ approach to the sport of horse racing will be apparent to anyone watching promos and coverage of this year’s Kentucky Derby.
Evans has worked with NBC to market the Derby as more of an entertainment event than a sporting event and the strategy appears to have paid off. Last year 16.3 million people watched the Derby, the highest number of viewers for the event in 20 years.
Still, NBC’s Schanzer said, “Bob sees this as an event that can be grown.”
Schanzer said that when Evans talks to him about the future of the Kentucky Derby, he refers to a race that is run halfway across the globe, where schools and businesses are closed and the nation literally stops to watch horses run.
“There is a race, the Melbourne Cup, the race that stops Australia,” Schanzer said. That’s where Evans told Schanzer he would like the Kentucky Derby to go.
Part of the strategy of marketing the Derby as an entertainment event means attracting more women as fans. NBC has had horse racing-related segments about Derby entertainment on its “Today” program and its Bravo network. Last year NBC’s “Access Hollywood” featured a segment on celebrity Paris Hilton’s quest to buy the perfect Derby hat.
Evans has been marketing the Kentucky Oaks, which runs on the Friday before the Saturday Derby, as a women’s day event. Last year, breast cancer survivors walked ahead of the Oaks contending horses out of the paddock.
While rankling some industry insiders, Churchill's Bob Evans charges to the front