Eight days after giving his first address as the new chair of The Jockey Club, Everett Dobson was sitting on the front porch of a rented house in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., enjoying the crisp morning air and perusing the day’s entries, which included one of his own horses, Ozara, who was set to run in that afternoon’s Ballston Spa.
“She’s on the cover of [the Daily Racing Form] today,” he said, somewhat giddily. “That’s a first for one of my horses.”
Normally reserved, picking his words carefully, Dobson still gets a thrill out of racing. A native of Oklahoma, Dobson struck gold during the telecom bubble and began pursuing his passion for horses. Now, nearly 30 years after his first purchase of a racehorse, Dobson, 66, has been picked for one of the most prominent roles in racing, head of The Jockey Club, an organization that has an outsized influence on the U.S. sport.
Dobson took some time off from his Friday morning handicapping session to speak about his background and the future of The Jockey Club with DRF reporter Matt Hegarty. An edited version of the conversation follows.
DRF: You grew up in a small town in western Oklahoma. What was your first experience around horses?
Dobson: The community I grew up in was mostly a ranching community, so I was around horses early on. My family wasn’t in the ranching business, we were in the telecom business, but I had friends who had ranches. Anytime I had a chance to be on a horse, I took it. I did some junior rodeoing as a child, until I got too big for that. I had an attraction from a very young age.
In 1996 you purchased your first Thoroughbred. What specifically attracted you to the sport?
Remington Park had opened in the mid-80s, and I had gone to Oaklawn a few times when I was in college. There was a lot of excitement around Thoroughbred racing at that time [in Oklahoma]. So it went from me being a fan to at some point having a little money and wanting to buy a racehorse to enjoy the excitement of being an owner.
Let’s fast-forward through the next decade. The telecommunications company you co-founded gets sold for $2.8 billion in 2007. In 2008, you’re part of the group that purchases the Seattle Supersonics and moves them to Oklahoma City. Meanwhile, you’ve started a commercial Thoroughbred farm in Central Kentucky. You’re also serving on the board of directors of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. What’s your life like during this time, and where does Thoroughbred racing and breeding fit in?
Yeah, and that was a time when I was raising a family too. But now looking back, the way you just put it, it’s probably best to say my wife was raising the family. Regardless, it was a very exciting time in our lives. We had a thriving business, and my release from the business activities was talking about and looking at my Thoroughbred horses and dreaming about their performances on the track as everybody does. And there was some overlap in the business activities I was involved in and the racing and breeding. But at that point I had no aspirations to leadership in the sport in any way whatsoever. I had never even thought about it. I was just enjoying being a racehorse owner.
But then your involvement deepens in a big way. On the racetrack, you win the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in 2011 with Caleb’s Posse and then you start getting heavily involved on the business side. You’re appointed a trustee of Keeneland, made a member of Breeders’ Cup and The Jockey Club. You had mentioned it was a sideline for you, a hobby, but at that time, what was drawing you toward the business side of racing?
It's interesting you mention that, because just this morning I was going through that, asking myself, how did I get to this point? I sold the wireless telecom business in 2007, so I had a little extra time and went to the Keeneland sale that fall and bought a few promising fillies, and I chose Christophe Clement as my trainer. So we rented a house together in Saratoga. Chris and I struck up a conversation about the Round Table and what was on the agenda, and I had said, ‘That’s sounds interesting.’ Christophe asked me if I wanted to go, and I told him it’s an invitation-only event and I don’t have an invite, but I’m curious about the topics. So he picks up the phone and calls Steve Duncker, who was chairman of NYRA at the time . . . And that’s how I got an invitation to the Round Table. Of course, it was assigned seating in those days, and I was deservedly in the very last row.
But I thoroughly enjoyed it. I got to listen to the leaders of the sport talk about what was important at the time. One thing led to another, people started talking to me about what my opinions were about the sport. Dr. David Richardson, who was a very good friend but has since passed away, asked me to observe the Graded Stakes Committee meeting. I didn’t know it at the time, but just observing that made me eligible to serve on the committee. . . . The next year he asked me to do that, and so I did that for the next five years. And that was the ground floor to how all these leadership positions came about.
As you get into these leadership positions, what are you noticing about racing and breeding? What do the trends look like to you at this time?
The trends were what we’re still talking about today. I don’t think you can have an intelligent discussion about the direction of our sport unless you look at the metrics that drive our sport. And those things are handle, purses, and foal crop. All of those things are linked together. They’re what’s behind the health and vitality of our sport.
I’ll say this too. Fortunately, the job I have today of leading The Jockey Club has gotten tremendously easier because of the improvements we have made with health and safety. That has been the biggest improvement to our sport in the past five years, which makes my job tremendously easier.
Now let’s get near the present day. Last year, Stuart Janney tells The Jockey Club that he wants to retire, and at the same time, he tells the board that he wants you to be the next chairman. I don’t mean to be flip on this, but let’s face it: Guy from rural Oklahoma who’s a first-generation horse breeder has not been the mold for the chair of The Jockey Club. Why do you think he thought you would be a good fit?
Far be it from me to comment on what Stuart was thinking. But I can say it was a collaborative decision by Stuart and the board of stewards of The Jockey Club. I think I brought a perspective that they thought would be helpful. I had been in breeding, I had been in ownership, I had been in leadership in other areas of the sport . . . but also I was someone who had been around business and had run large-scale organizations. Hopefully, all of those experiences I have had will help me do the job they expect in leading The Jockey Club.
Let’s talk about your first address to the Round Table last week. You said that the industry must begin to focus on reversing the decline in the foal crop. But the trends behind the decline have been going the wrong way for a long time. It’s getting more expensive to raise a foal year after year, and, as you pointed out, the median auction price has hardly budged for a decade, and that’s the price that is most relevant to small-time breeders. What can the industry do to address that?
So first a clarification. My number one initiative is to get this industry back in a growth mode. As part of that, if you look at all the data I pored over, you start to see the link between foal crop and everything else we’re doing, in terms of what would allow us to grow. Frankly, five years ago I said this to every board I was on, that I think the foal crop is a bigger issue than we maybe realize. It impacts so many things that dig deep into the economics of the sport.
The reality is that Kentucky is doing pretty good, but it’s basically flat. I’m hopeful we will see Kentucky grow a little bit. In terms of initiatives, we don’t need to do a lot to improve on Kentucky. . . . Where we need improvement is in all the regional markets, so that’s where the focus will be.
You had mentioned an idea that has been bandied about in a few places, combining state breeding incentive programs. How would The Jockey Club get involved in that?
First thing is we need to be more knowledgeable on the subject, we as an industry and The Jockey Club in particular. What are the best practices in the regional breeding markets? What would a logical “super-regional” program look like? How would the states cooperate and grow off each other while supporting the economics of each other?
We’ll likely form some sort of task force that will have representatives from those states and The Jockey Club, as well as others, that have knowledge of what’s really going on at the local level. At the end of the day, I hope The Jockey Club can play a primary role in being a resource for the states and help in any way we can. First and foremost, knowledge is going to be the key. We have to gain insight into what’s working and what’s not working.
You also reiterated a pledge by The Jockey Club to explore the acquisition of tracks that are at risk of closing. The Jockey Club said the same thing 10 years ago, yet Golden Gate Fields, Arlington Park, Calder Race Course, and Portland Meadows were all closed. You were a member during this time. What discussions did The Jockey Club have about those tracks, if any?
There were discussions, but I would describe the results of those as being disappointment and frustration. We weren’t in a position to reverse the economic trends that were happening at those tracks at that time and acquire them. What’s different today? We’re going to be organized. We’re going to be prepared to take the leadership on this.
In what way? More to the point, how would any acquisitions be structured and funded?
It will likely involve relationships and partnerships with like-minded organizations or sources of capital that would have an affinity for horse racing. The Jockey Club in and of itself would not be the sole owner. Let me be clear: We are very early in the process of putting together a framework about how we would go about it, so it’s a little premature to discuss what might happen. But I’m a big believer in making sure we get the right capital structure in place in order to participate in these co-called “strategic initiatives,” and I’m very confident that The Jockey Club can take the lead and that there is an opportunity to be at the table when those assets come to the market.
You also mentioned that The Jockey Club is still concerned about the impact of the number of mares being covered by select stallions. What did The Jockey Club learn about its last effort to restrict book sizes?
Let me start by stating my view, my own personal view, which is that this is a global question. It’s also my view that it’s likely a problem. The data is pretty clear that the [genetic] concentration we have with fewer stallions is concerning. So my first thought is that while we can lead in the U.S. on this matter, I think we need collaboration from around the world. So what I will do differently is start on the world level, having conversations with the leading stallion farms around the world, but also with my counterparts at other jockey clubs from around the world, to see what their views are and see if we can build toward consensus. And if we can do that, then see if we can take action to balance the economics of the sport against the concern about the inbreeding phenomenon.
The Jockey Club has always been a stalwart supporter of HISA, but you acknowledged in your Round Table address that the costs of HISA need to be addressed. What can The Jockey Club do on that front?
Again, I keep going back to knowledge. We will be able to inform the industry on a perspective around costs that will be helpful. The beauty of HISA is that they are very transparent in their costs. We have to be helpful to that organization to constrain those costs by offering solutions on occasion and by looking at the whole landscape as to how those costs arise while helping to rationalize those costs for the sport.
Obviously The Jockey Club has a lot of members with connections in Washington, D.C., plus a close working relationship with the NTRA. Is it realistic to think the industry could get help from the federal government?
Funding from Congress is challenging, so, given everything else that is related to that, it would be difficult. That’s not to say that there aren’t solutions that could come from Washington, but a line item in the budget at this stage of the game would be challenging. We will look at all available avenues in conjunction with HISA and others in the industry to see if we can solve this cost question.
Finally, congratulations on Oklahoma City’s win in the NBA championship. Is there anything you can apply from your NBA experience to horse racing?
What the NBA has done as well as anyone is so-called “fan engagement.” They’ve been very successful at engaging fans at a level that works, but also at introducing new fans into the sport. We need to do that in racing. In order to do that, we need more unity. It’s challenging to introduce fans or owners to the sport when there are so many mixed signals. If there's a parallel around that, the NBA studies long and hard about what the fan experience should be, what it takes to keep them, and what it takes to make them loyal fans. If there is something the NBA does that we can do in the world of Thoroughbred racing, that’s the best example I can cite.
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