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Mike Repole is putting his money where his mouth is on improving horse racing.
The beverage entrepreneur announced on social media Thursday that he has purchased one million shares in Churchill Downs Inc., which owns the Kentucky Derby. That gives him a stake of nearly 1.5%, and he said he may buy more.
Repole, best known for selling Vitaminwater to Coca-Cola for $4 billion and BodyArmor to Coca-Cola for $5.6 billion, said he bought the stake over the course of four days. He didn’t disclose how much he paid; based on Friday’s closing price of $79.96 per share, his stake is currently valued at just under $80 million.
“Last year’s Derby peaked at 24.4 million viewers,” Repole wrote on X/Twitter, via his horse stable business Repole Stable. “To me, that’s a major proof point of how BIG this sport can become.”
Repole said horse racing is in need of “more education, real marketing, innovation, and evolution.”
“It also needs stronger leadership and greater accountability from the Old Guard racing entities that, in my opinion, have held the industry back for far too long,” he added.
Repole’s stock purchases could be viewed as an activist investor play, particularly given his criticism of the way horse racing is run and his call for greater accountability from the industry’s leadership. But, for now at least, he and Churchill Downs appear to be playing nice. Repole ended his social media post saying “I really look forward” to working with Churchill Downs CEO Bill Carstanjen, the company’s board of directors, and its management team.
Churchill Downs, meanwhile, said in a statement shared with Front Office Sports: “We appreciate and respect Mike Repole’s vision, passion and optimism for the future of horse racing, and we welcome his significant investment in Churchill Downs Inc.”
Repole has been talking publicly about the need for improvements in the world of horse racing for a while. During a January episode of Portfolio Players, he told FOS editor in chief Dan Roberts that while he loves horse racing, he gets “frustrated” with the sport.
“They haven’t done marketing in 25 years,” he said. “And the game has shrunk.”
He noted that about 30 years ago, there were roughly 50,000 horses born every year. “Now, it’s down to 15,000,” he said. Repole also said that tracks have closed and gambling handles are down.
“It’s fixable, except that certain people don’t wanna fix it,” he said. “Which is sad.”
Churchill Downs has made efforts to build its business this year. In April, it reached an $85 million deal for the intellectual property of the Preakness Stakes. That agreement would have given it a commercial stake in two of the three legs that make up the Triple Crown, but that deal never went through because in June the state of Maryland exercised its right to buy the IP instead.
Repole also owns apparel brand NoBull, which merged with Tom Brady’s TB12 and Brady Brand in 2023. Earlier this year, NoBull raised $50 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation. He also owns a major stake in the United Football League, and has become widely known for his NIL (name, image, and likeness) donations to his alma mater St. John’s. Repole has a net worth of about $2.5 billion, according to Forbes.
A representative for Repole did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.
