By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune managing editor
Northern Kentuckians headed to Lexington for the Breeders’ Cup World Championships this weekend may run into a familiar figure strolling the grounds of Keeneland.
Robert N. “Bob” Elliston, president and CEO of Turfway Park in Florence for 13 years, beginning in 1999, has been chief operating officer for the Breeders’ Cup since May, 2012.
He’ll be at the center of the equine universe this week as Breeders’ Cup will be held at historic Keeneland Racetrack for the first time in its history. Lexington is abuzz with preparations to play host to an international crowd in the media spotlight.
“I’ve been fortunate to have really two homes,” Elliston said. “Having grown up in Central Kentucky (Richmond) as a fan of the sport and then, when I was 28, moving to Northern Kentucky. Now I’m back here for almost four years.”
Elliston’s homecoming was complete in June, 2014 when Keeneland was announced as the site for the races.
The two-day, $26 million Breeders’ Cup attracts the best horses, trainers, and owners from across the globe. It is recognized as the unofficial end and culmination of the thoroughbred-racing season.
Elliston cut his teeth in the sport at a farm that is now part of Keeneland, with his brother-in-law, who is a broodmare manager.
Elliston got to see fabled mares such as Breeders’ Cup winner Princess Rooney and Gana Facil, the dam of Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Unbridled, up close. Later, when his brother-in-law moved on to Gainesway Farm, Elliston got to see him care for Winning Colors, one of only three fillies to ever win the Kentucky Derby.
“Coming to Keeneland when I was in college, going to the farms when I was down here working right out of school, this is what grew my love and passion for the sport,” Elliston said. “Now to be part of bringing one of the five biggest days in the sport here, there’s some symmetry in that.”
When Elliston moved to Northern Kentucky in 1992 with his wife, Sharon, it was to work as an investment banker for Star Bank, which is now US Bank.
“We loved Northern Kentucky,” Elliston said. “I was fortunate to have great places to work but also with companies that let me get involved with civic activities.”
He served as chairman of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and and the Sanitation District No. 1 board, and was active in politics throughout the region.
“I have great friends who I ran campaigns with like Gary Moore and Steve Pendery (now judges-executive in Boone and Campbell counties, respectively), Elliston said. “I miss those guys and I miss a lot of my other friends up there. My travels don’t get me up there as much as I would like, but it’s sure nice to see my friends again when they come down this way.”
In 1999, Elliston took over at Turfway Park at a time when casino gaming was beginning to impact the business model of horse racing.
“Every day I look back on Turfway. I loved the people I worked with because many of those folks, so many families were third generation families working there,” Elliston said. “We had guys there when it opened in 1959 and we were all in it together.”
Elliston oversaw Turfway during a time when the Florence track experienced some of its brightest moments, including the 2011 Spiral Stakes, won by Animal Kingdom. A few weeks later, the chestnut colt won the Kentucky Derby and further solidified the Spiral Stakes as a major Kentucky Derby prep race.
“Sometimes when people arrive at great posts like this, they think that they were there for the beginning of it and of course that’s not true. In many respects, we’re stewards and caretakers, literally standing on the shoulders of the giants before us hoping to make it better for the next ones,” Bob Elliston, chief operating officer, Breeders’ Cup
“It was formative for me,” he said. “I learned more in those 13 years at Turfway than I probably have in the rest of the 38 years of my adult life.”
Despite innovations that included the installation of an all-weather track to help ensure safe racing and fewer cancellations in the winter months, Turfway faced one major hurdle that it has yet to overcome.
As other states passed legislation that allowed casino gaming at thoroughbred tracks, Kentucky lawmakers repeatedly denied voters an opportunity to approve similar measures. Turfway was at a competitive disadvantage, as casino revenues allowed tracks in neighboring states to enhance purses and upgrade facilities.
“We were up against competitive forces that were out of our control, but we hung in there and fought the good fight,” Elliston said. “Unfortunately, it fell on relatively deaf ears in Frankfort, but I’m proud of what we accomplished there under trying circumstances.”
In May, 2012, Elliston was offered the position of chief operating officer of the Breeders’ Cup, and it was an opportunity he couldn’t refuse.
Craig Fravel, someone Elliston knew and respected, had taken over as president and CEO of Breeders’ Cup a year earlier. Fravel ran Del Mar racetrack in Southern California for more than 20 years and preceded Elliston as chairman of the NTRA board.
“I could have still been at Turfway and been very happy, but I had probably done all I could there,” Elliston said. “I couldn’t have had a better training ground than Turfway Park and I certainly don’t take that for granted any day that I show up here. Now I come here and this is the top of the food chain and the very best horse racing event, on par with any major sporting event in the world in my opinion.”
In Elliston’s first three years with the Breeders’ Cup, the races took place at Santa Anita Park in Southern California. Elliston said the first year watching the races against the backdrop of the San Gabriel Mountains will always be special to him.
“My fondest memory of that may have been when Buff Bradley, one of our guys we counted on and who won a lot of races at Turfway, won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint with Groupie Doll,” Elliston said. “There was symmetry to that as well and it felt very rewarding to have a Turfway guy win on my first Breeders’ Cup card.”
The Breeders Cup offices are in Lexington and the Ellistons live in the heart of the city. While in Northern Kentucky, the couple lived in Florence in a home they had built.
Now, as empty nesters, they live in a 125-year-old house that has been restored and are reveling in their experience as urban dwellers.
“We live right downtown and we walk everywhere,” Elliston said. “We travel, we’ve got a place in South Florida that we go to as a much as we can and urban living is very cool.”
Their two daughters are nearby as well.
Abby Elliston, 23, is enrolled at the University of Kentucky Medical School and Haley Elliston, 21, attends Transylvania University.
Sharon Elliston, general counsel for R.A. Jones in Covington, commutes about two days a week and works from Lexington the rest of the time.
As chief operating officer, Elliston’s primary responsibility is to ensure the 13-race, two-day Breeders’ Cup event, goes off without a hitch.
“We are fortunate to have a great team. I’m there to assist from a logistical standpoint,” Elliston said. “This year, we’ve added 10,000 temporary luxury seats here at Keeneland at a cost of more than $5 million. That’s a major construction project and we had to get it done in a timely fashion.”
This year’s event also includes a huge public shuttling effort that involves transporting 20,000 people from offsite.
Elliston also works throughout the year to ensure the Breeders’ Cup World Championships include a global field. Much of the focus in the first six months is on the three-year-old colts competing in the Triple Crown races, but after the Belmont Stakes, the industry’s attention shifts to Breeders’ Cup preparation.
There are 77 races around the world that qualify horses to come to the Breeders’ Cup and a record number of winners have made the trip this year. The run-up includes 12 television shows on NBC and NBC Sports Network that feature the very best races leading up to the World Championships.
As the public face of a global event, Elliston is expected to make appearances at as many events as possible.
“These days I’m at the Whitney at Saratoga one week and the Pacific Classic at Del Mar another,” Elliston said. “This summer I got to go to Hong Kong, Japan and Macau. I spent two weeks over there talking to the best breeders in Japan and going to the races in Hong Kong, which is like going to the races in Times Square because it’s right in the heart of the city.”
Elliston has been to several Breeders’ Cup events, even before he was in his current position, and has some great memories, but says this year could be truly special.
The Breeders’ Cup Classic includes Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and the mare Beholder, which would etch her name among the sport’s greatest ever with a victory. Races such as the juvenile fillies and dirt mile which sometimes have lighter fields are loaded as well.
“Of those who are still running and are not on the sidelines because of injury, the best ones, with the exception of (European standout) Solow, are here,” Elliston said.
Perhaps the most rewarding part of Elliston’s role, he says, is the opportunity to make something that was already pretty special, even better.
“Sometimes when people arrive at great posts like this, they think that they were there for the beginning of it and of course that’s not true,” Elliston said.
“In many respects, we’re stewards and caretakers, literally standing on the shoulders of the giants before us hoping to make it better for the next ones.”
Contact Mark Hansel at mark.hansel@nkytrib.com