Your name is FRANK HOPF, of the old-country Hopfs who migrated from Germany to Ohio … and probably didn’t know SEABISCUIT from SEATTLE SLEW. You came here by way of Houston to take on a massive undertaking quite possibly not meant for mere mortals. You were hired to turn Colonial Downs from middle-of-the-road into a major-league operation … after years of infighting between former owner JEFF JACOBS and the horsemen, Virginia Racing Commission, state legislature … OK, just about everyone … that resulted in a shutdown that lasted six years with, at times, little reason to expect a revival. 

Your title is Senior Director, Racing Operations ... What, no “vice-president” to make you sound REALLY important? … and it’s a good thing you don’t care about such things … because on the list of who is responsible for what in the track’s official race-day program ($4) you are almost an afterthought … buried fourth from the bottom in the first of two columns of a cast of about 60 names that includes commissioners, stewards, commission staff and, of course, your many bosses from Churchill Downs, Inc. No big deal, you say … “I don’t have an ego … Titles aren’t my thing. I’m here to do a job. That’s what really matters.”

Then again, you are Frank Hopf … and you weren’t first choice of CDI that, two years ago invested $2.5 billion in a package consisting primarily of Rosie’s betting parlors but also included the New Kent County track (“in the middle of nowhere”) off Route 64 between Richmond and Williamsburg … and now there is reason to believe the new owners from the home of the Kentucky Derby … shall we say, lucked out. From all indications (and I know, I know … it’s still too early to make a rush to judgment), you are the perfect blend of know-how (without being a know-it-all) and PR savvy that was oh-so lacking previously.

YOU ARE Frank Hopf, 45 years old, with an engaging gift of gab … who actually seems to enjoy give-and-take with reporters and seldom (if ever) turns down an interview request. “He has become a favorite of local TV. He’s all over [channels] 6, 8 and 12,” said DARRELL WOOD of the Virginia Equine Alliance… who knows public relations. For years he was just about the only reason Colonial Downs got some positive feedback from the media. 

Still, getting along with people who can provide free publicity, while important, isn’t nearly as crucial as having a good relationship with the horsemen. In the end, that is what doomed Jacobs at Colonial Downs and forced shutting down the Thoroughbred program in 2013 which, in turn, led the racing commission to tell him, in effect, to take a hike in late 2015, refusing a request to reinstate his license … Taking the not-so-subtle hint, Jacobs sold the track for a reported $20 million-plus … he had been asking as much as $60 million earlier – and walked away … but not before filing a lawsuit which was dismissed.

In early 2018, the General Assembly passed a law to allow the historical racing machines, which allow slot-like gambling … Enter a Chicago-based partnership which purchased the track from Jacobs … and Thoroughbred racing resumed Aug. 8, 2019 … In November, 2022, Churchill Downs became owner … some 30 years after being among the original six applicants.

“I know they are very focused and excited about racing here at Colonial,” you say.

YOU ARE Frank Hopf … and you developed a taste for Thoroughbred racing ... growing up in Auburn, Wash., hanging out at Emerald Downs and did quite well, thank you, wagering a quid or two ... but never in your wildest imagination thought you would wind up making a good living (to say the least) in “The Sport of Kings” … much less faced with a mandate to bring Colonial Downs on a par with such legendary tracks as Del Mar in California and Saratoga in upstate New York … challenging them for the almighty betting dollar which, at one time, would have been a fool’s errand.

You are Frank Hopf … and you are no fool. You know you are only as good as the people working with you … and you can’t let anything get in the way. Be fair, or be square (something like that anyway).

“I like working, and I like learning [but] I’m not a status quo guy. I always want to push the envelope and challenge the team and myself to do better … and every day there are opportunities to improve something. I can be pretty tough on myself … and I try not to be too hard on the team although sometimes it happens ...[but] I don’t lose any sleep over it. I’m not that crazy.” 

Give us time, Frank. We’ll be the judge of that. After all, before coming here, you certainly had several occasions that would turn a lesser man’s mind to mush. “There’s nothing I have seen here – yet – that I haven’t seen before. I saw a lot in Houston,” you say prior to season 2 in the hot seat (saddle?).

AFTER 13 YEARS building an impressive resume at Sam Houston Race Park, doing a lot of everything, you were ready for upward mobility … to move on and meet a new challenge … not necessarily with an office on the backstretch of some horse racing emporium … “I certainly had an interesting learning curve [at SHRP] because I didn’t have a background on the horse side of the business… I’m not really a horse guy at all … and there were struggles … like running for low purses … and Hurricane Ike came to Houston, and we had to cancel the 2008 season.”

Then, just when you had reason to believe you had the business by the tail … (sorry about that) ... having recovered from what you thought would be THE low point … along came the COVID-19 pandemic, and you found how really low you could go.

“Like everyone else, we had to cancel our Thoroughbred season (2020), and, like everyone else, I ended up being furloughed … and that was another of those times when I asked myself: ‘Do I want to stay in this, or do I want to make a change?’ Fortunately, I was one of the first to be called back.”

You are Frank Hopf, born in Houston … early on, as a youngster, hoping some day to be employed by a professional sports franchise … like working in the front office of the hometown NFL Oilers or NBA Rockets. (“Actually, my goal was to be general manager.”) With that in mind, you majored in business management at the University of Montana … and while you were in school, your family moved back to Houston … By then the Oilers were gone … and, shortly after graduation, your father said, “All right, vacation is over … time to get a full-time job,” … so you checked with the MLB Astros, having worked for them in the summer as a part-timer in the ticket office as well as an usher … only to learn they had nothing available. Now what?

YOU TRIED working for a human resources call center … which proved as depressing as it could be mundane. Next you went to the airport, in search of employment, only to find the interview process had been overbooked … From there things began to change, all for the better. You happened to notice that across the street from Houston International was … Sam Houston, the race track. And, while filling out the papers seeking a job there,  a man you didn’t know asked what you were applying for and … “‘Are you smart?’ And I said, ‘Sometimes.’”

Talk about the perfect response. Sometimes one word is all it takes to make a lasting impression. In this case, it told the stranger, who was BOB BORK, president of Sam Houston Race Park, all he needed to know about the young man uncharacteristically (for him) wearing a coat and tie --- bright but humble, too … cautious but willing and able to take a chance (when necessary) … takes the job seriously but not himself seriously. All that, possibly more.

“I don’t know what made me say that. I had no idea who any of these people were … The gentleman walked off, and about five minutes later I’m still filling out the application when the human resources director came by and said, ‘We’d like to interview you.’”

Next thing you know you are hired as coordinator of group sales … and on your way in a sport you knew little about from the inside but were willing to learn … while recalling your teenage crush with racing on the outside at Emerald Downs. “I didn’t go to mess with the horses. I went to bet … and I did all right,” you say.

In truth, you had been less than impressed by an earlier introduction to Sam Houston Race Park.  “I took my girlfriend, now my wife, and found they raced quarter horses. Told her, ‘I don’t bet on quarters.’ We left after one race.”

YOU ARE Frank Hopf, suddenly a stranger in a strange land. “I heard Colonial Downs was looking for someone. I had never been to Richmond or, for that matter, Virginia … but I applied for the job, and they said they had someone else in mind ... if they didn’t want it, they’d get back to me.  I had talked it over with my wife and [two] children about coming to Virginia, and they were OK with it … But, after a while, and I hadn’t heard anything. Sam Houston wanted me to stay, and I was about to accept their offer when …”

… when CDI called, saying the other candidate … whose identity he says he does not know … rejected the opportunity at Colonial Downs… leaving the door wide open for Hopf who, suddenly, was given a choice: Go to Virginia or come to Kentucky and run Ellis Park, another recent acquisition by Churchill Downs. Either way it was a step up … in job description as well as making more money … but that wasn’t all that persuaded you to pack up the family and come east, young man.

“Churchill Downs didn’t know me … and I didn’t know them. I really didn’t know much about Colonial Downs except it was closed for a while … and had just reopened … but this was where I had applied … and decided we should come here and check it out. So my wife; daughter, now 10; son, 8, and I came … met with the team … and decided this was where we wanted to be.”

You are Frank Hopf. You live in Chesterfield County and, following a successful first season at Colonial Downs, you sound like someone ready to settle down. “I like to build things … and we still have a lot to do here,” you told us during an hour-plus Q-and-A. “I’m not looking to continue moving around.”

AND, HERE we thought you were sent by Churchill Downs, Inc., a hired gun ordered to milk all he could out of Colonial Downs before shutting it down … and allow CDI to concentrate on the real reason for coming here which rumor had it was?  Gambling … Rosie’s historical racing machines that are raking in the dough … as well as big-money casinos like the one proposed for Richmond in partnership with Urban One.

(Quick aside: Off-track betting is the lifeblood of the racing industry … except returns from the casino would not be earmarked for inclusion in the daily purses at Colonial Downs, meaning the horsemen were in opposition.)

However, the proposed casino twice was rejected in referendums, the first by a razor-thin margin. Now? Well, we probably will never know what Churchill really had in mind, risking so much  … although its modus operandi had been established elsewhere – Arlington Park near Chicago, for instance … bought then sold (at a nice profit) to the NFL Bears who, at the time, planned to build a new stadium there.

WHEN IT was announced CDI had purchased Colonial, Varina’s FERRIS ALLEN, the track’s all-time race winner among trainers with 302, admittedly was skeptical. “Churchill Downs’ national reputation isn’t the best with horsemen … mostly because we don’t like what they did in Chicago,” Allen said. “It hurts horsemen to see racing shrink like that … so they had some work to do here to get us on their side, and you have to say that, so far, they’ve done very positive things.” Like? … Well, for one thing, hiring Hopf, whom Allen calls “a really terrific young executive.”

“I mean, the other day we had a horse run through the outside fence on the backstretch … And, Frank was in attendance, while they figured out what to do with the horse, the rider, what to do with the fence … HE WAS RIGHT THERE!!  And, that doesn’t happen much around the country anymore. Most of our racing executives come to us from the casino side … and they’re tuned into the casino part of it and not the racing part of it. It was really nice to see him involved like that.”

Now, all we can be sure of is that you are Frank Hopf … and you will try to take Colonial Downs, with its industry-acclaimed Secretariat Turf Course, into the upper echelon of an industry that is sending mixed signals. How reasonable is it to expect you will succeed? … “I had this conversation with Frank, and I told him he was on track for this being the best place on the East Coast … not including Saratoga, of course. They have the infrastructure now to do it, with [Rosie’s] historical racing machines, to offer the best purses on the East Coast, outside of New York … then you have probably the best turf course in the country … and the dirt course can be as good as they want it to be,” Allen said.

NEVERTHELESS, WITH few exceptions, like California, Kentucky and New York, horse racing has fallen on hard times … in direct proportion to breeding farms going out of business. You can’t have horse racing without horses … STOP THE PRESSES! … and, by one count, the number of Thoroughbred foals (babies born) dropped more than 60% in the past 40 years.

You are Frank Hopf and, so far, you have been successful (cliché alert) rowing against the tide.  Or galloping against the wind … whatever. You agreed with CDI when it ignored prevailing opinion … and ran its first meet here in 2023 – nine weeks, 27 days – on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays … going head to head with the biggies (most notably Saratoga). “I wouldn’t have come if they hadn’t changed,” you admit. What could you possibly have been thinking?

When Churchill Downs informed the Virginia Racing Commission it would not keep the Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday schedule … that had little competition for handle and proved so successful in bringing Colonial Downs back from the dead … you acknowledged the risk but asked for a chance to prove everyone wrong. “You can’t grow racing … and get more people to attend by running early in the week,” you explain. Guess what?

ATTENDANCE IS up … by how much is difficult to pin down exactly because some people only come to the on-site Rosie’s to gamble and general admission to the track is free ... One-day handle hit an all-time high of $9.95 million for the first Festival of Racing that featured the Grade I Arlington Million. Handle for the entire meet was an impressive $72.9 million, second best all-time, despite losing one day to rain. To coin a phrase … you were up and running. 

Sure there have been problems … but nothing that can’t be solved. For one thing … he needs more qualified help. “The staff level is very small,” you say, “… and as we continue to grow I’ve got to be building a team that can be here year-round.”

Underreported but right up there in importance with full fields and consistently large purses (daily average: $600,000) … you have had only two race horses die, one each year since Churchill Downs assumed ownership. At a time when the industry is facing severe backlash from animal rights activists primed and fueled by a rash of deaths, Colonial Downs has avoided being swept up in the criticism.

You are Frank Hopf and, of course, concerned about injuries, adding, “and I know … from the public standpoint … it’s very important that we be mindful of that.”

COLONIAL DOWNS isn’t just back from the dead, but is now on the verge of being a primary destination for the best jockeys, trainers and horses … according to Governor GLENN YOUNGKIN while announcing the 2025 Virginia Derby would be held in March (for the first time), with the winner all but guaranteed a starting slot in the Kentucky Derby, a first for the local race that, at one time, had a $1 million payout … during then-owner JEFF JACOBS’ daring but ill-fated Grand Slam of Grass.

You are Frank Hopf, Colonial Downs’ Executive Director, Racing Operations … the man in charge of just about everything and, suddenly, they can’t pay you enough. Hired by new owner Churchill Downs, Inc., from Sam Houston Race Park in Texas, you set records in your first season after gambling on changing race days and winning …Nevertheless, this is a what have you done for us lately? business … and your second season at Colonial Downs (27 days; July 11-Sept. 7) was not without problems, some old, some new … most of which you have seen before … and none that can’t be solved … with patience and some ingenuity … not to mention lots of good luck.

Then again ... “Some things you can’t control … like the weather.” 

LAST YEAR you lost one day to Mother Nature, who wasn’t as respectful this time around. Heavy rain led to postponement of the July 19 card … that was made up the following week. Then … Hurricane Debby prompted you to call off three straight days that included the Festival of Racing, rescheduling the meet’s biggest day of racing from Saturday to Sunday … The other two days affected by as many as eight inches of rain were held the following Monday and Tuesday, giving Colonial a unique week of six days of racing … hardly ideal but what’s a promoter to do?

Far more disturbing in the category of things you can’t control has been the lack of high-end horses … which makes full fields of 10 or more exceedingly rare for the featured stakes races … and therefore draws the ire of the hardcore bettor. For example, the Gr. II Beverly D, one of the co-featured races on Colonial’s Festival of Racing, had only five horses this year. The Gr. II Secretariat drew six while the Gr. I Arlington Million featured a half-dozen as well.

Not that the problem has been unique to the New Kent County track. For example, in the run-up to the Kentucky Derby, four prep races had fields of five or fewer. One had only five nominations and one horse was scratched …. “There are roughly the same number of stakes races … but the foal population is getting smaller and now trainers are getting more selective. They see who’s coming, and sometimes they will try to find somewhere else where they have a better chance of winning,” you explain. Just the facts, ma’am!

YOU ARE Frank Hopf, and the more you try to keep things under control the more difficult it is … There are challenges everywhere … Kentucky Downs opted for a high-end, short (six-day) meet with a whopping $35 million in purse money that figured to assimilate some quality entries that otherwise might have been Colonial-bound …  Closer to home, the Festival of Racing ran into uncommonly long delays … starting with the first race, held up more than an hour ... when the track lost its satellite signal to the outside world. The third race, scheduled for 2 p.m.,  and already more than an hour late, didn’t get off until 3:39 p.m. … after the Clydesdales and several skydivers performed as scheduled but Gov. Youngkin did not, leading to another delay. … “That certainly presented some challenges I haven’t faced before,” you said. “The satellite issue really put us in a bad spot.”

SPEAKING OF WHICH …  let us return (if briefly) to those … ahh, thrilling days of yesteryear … when JEFF JACOBS ruled, and every meeting of the racing commission was guaranteed fireworks … when Jacobs, son of the owner of baseball’s Cleveland Guardians, was an absentee owner, and while he made few visits here, they invariably were met with concern.

Jacobs was always threatening something … like shutting down Colonial Downs and letting the weeds grow up. Or putting bulldozers to the facility and turning the 345 acres of pristine country land on which it stood into homes and apartments. If you didn’t know better, you could swear he relished the role of villian.

Seldom able to reach agreement with anyone, be it the horsemen who wanted more racing days while Jacobs kept pushing for shorter, high-end meets … or the racing commission ... Jacobs always was good for a lively story. No sooner did we end our annual Q-and-A with him prior to the Virginia Derby than local employees would crowd around. “What did he say? What did he say?” It would have been comical if they hadn’t been so serious.

ACTUALLY, THERE were few laughs from the moment Jacobs entered the picture in 1996 with a reported $10 million (more on that in a moment) to ostensibly keep original license holder ARNOLD STANSLEY’s dream alive … From all indications, Stansley was one of the good guys … who was chosen by the racing commission from among a half-dozen applicants (including Churchill Downs, Inc.,. which had Virginia Beach in mind) to build the first parimutuel track in the Old Dominion … a pretty easy choice if you can believe what was said – and written – back then. It was just that … well, he never had a chance to succeed.

From Sylvania, Ohio … not far from Toledo … Stansley was smitten by horse racing at an early age, going from doing menial jobs at a Thoroughbred track to owning as well as driving Standardbreds … and wound up co-owning/operating several tracks including Trinity Meadows (located between Dallas and Ft. Worth) which was started from scratch – under budget – and became a big success ... a fact not lost on the Virginia Racing Commission in making its 32-page rundown of reasons for accepting Stansley’s bid in 1994 …  Atop the list was an agreement by JOE DeFRANCIS, owner of Laurel Park and Pimlico, not to compete with Colonial Downs, in effect creating a Maryland/Virginia circuit. While his tracks were closed, DeFrancis would manage Colonial Downs’ summer meet for a percentage of the handle, his share expected to be in the neighborhood of $4 million annually … an arrangement that lasted until 2005.

ALSO, THE commissioners liked the fact that Stansley’s application called for the earliest opening, which would put the local track in a better position to compete with – believe it or not –  riverboat gambling … In addition, his original plan called for 102 days of racing, with an attendance expectation of 1,600 daily …  financing of $29 million in bonds to go with $11 million in private equity. The total was said to be “far less” than any of the other applicants.

In the end, the VRC voted 4-0, with one member abstaining because he thought the first track should be in Northern Virginia because it had more people … Runner-up to New Kent, which had been the first locality to vote in favor of a parimutuel race track after the General Assembly made it possible in 1988, was Prince William County … whose representative proposed 200 days of racing despite what was described as “a nationwide decline in the number of race horses”… and, without DeFrancis in his corner, faced strong competition from Laurel Park and Pimlico. 

By selecting New Kent, once described as being “in the middle of nowhere” by a consultant, the VRC was trying to appease the more vociferous factions from the more densely populated Tidewater and Northern Virginia areas. Good luck with that.

STANSLEY, WHO died in 2017 at age 84, apparently was a friend to all. In an up-close-and-personal piece by the Newport News Daily Press (Feb. 9, 1996), he was described by those who had worked with him on other business ventures as “more about substance than glitz … steady rather than flashy … and his meticulous, no-nonsense approach makes him successful, they say.” … Don Price, then VRC executive secretary, was quoted as saying, “We know he’s a true horseman, and a businessman who is sincere and honest … just what we were looking for.” 

Sounded perfect, eh? Except that … what could go wrong did go wrong for Stansley. First, the Virginia Jockey Club, one of the jilted parties, sued then appealed when a circuit court ruled against it. The effect prompted delay of construction and planned opening in 1995. Worse, it led to Stansley, who was investing $4.8 million in the track, looking for another partner … someone who could inject much-needed money into the $40 million project ... Enter Jacobs, another Ohio businessman, with a $10 million deal that included instant cash of $2.25M for Colonial Downs … all of which proved the beginning of the end of Stansley here.

BY LATE 1996 Jacobs had taken over as CEO and all but forced Stansley out of the picture … with some unintended help from the racing commission. Colonial Downs opened March 11, 1997 before a crowd said to be 13,000.

Jacobs, meanwhile, went public in order to raise $37 million to complete construction. He sold shares at $9.50 and, according to shareholder TAD BERMAN, eventually bought them back for $1.10 … “The stock price started dropping immediately and, when it got to about fifty seven CENTS, he bought a whole bunch of it. That’s when he decided he was going to do us a favor, and buy it all back,” said Berman, who has been the (outspoken) voice of conscience for horse racing here … You could count on him to be heard during the public comment portion of every commission meeting. Now, having been an unofficial lobbyist for racing at the General Assembly, Berman, 64, is serving as liaison with the Virginia Gaming Commission ... “on all matters relating to horse racing,” he said. “Yeah, I guess you could call me a citizen watchdog.” … and, feisty as ever, Berman laments what he perceives as the current VRC’s rubber-stamp approach. “When,” he asked, “was the last time they didn’t pass something unanimously?” … Berman also blames the old commission for allowing Jacobs to “basically letting him rob us … the shareholders … of about $32 million.”

BY THE WAY ... Jacobs, 70, is alive and well, and running Jacobs Entertainment, Inc.. which apparently hasn’t skipped a beat … owning hotels and assorted entertainment (read: gambling) outlets in Nevada, Utah, Louisiana and Colorado … So tell us, Jeff, how did you happen to get involved with Colonial Downs? … Speaking long distance from his office in Colorado Springs, Colo., Jacobs said he knew Stansley, whom he described as “a friend when I was in the Ohio legislature ... He was involved in harness racing, which was regulated by the state … and he asked if I wanted to be his partner with Colonial Downs … (Pause) … You know, it’s been a long time. You’re stretching my memory a bit.”... Nevertheless, he recalled: “We struggled a lot in the early years. Back then it was difficult to attract horses to Virginia, so we had short fields. I lost about $20 million overall.”

DARRELL WOOD, now with the Virginia Equine Alliance, then PR director among several hats worn at Colonial Downs, said he thought Jacobs enjoyed his time in the Old Dominion despite ongoing hassles, especially with the racing commission. Jacobs agreed … “Oh, yeah. It was one of the three or four development projects of my life,” he said. “I’m pretty proud of it. We tried to create some excitement with the ’Grand Slam of Grass.’ I created high-quality racing there.” No question.

A series of four races, starting (naturally) with the $500,000 Colonial Cup and the $750,000 Grade III Virginia Derby, both on his home turf in June and July, respectively, Jacobs’ Grand Slam guaranteed $5 million to any horse that could win all four … By any definition, it was a bold move to build interest in an otherwise lackluster series for 3-year-olds … and was considered far-fetched until English Channel claimed the first two legs in the 2005 inaugural … The $400,000 Secretariat Stakes (Gr. I) at Arlington Park near Chicago (August), and the $2 million Breeders Cup Turf (Gr. I) completed the series … that lasted six years, with Paddy O’Prado coming the closest to winning The Slam in 2010 but having claimed the first three … did not run in the Breeders Cup.

He doesn’t keep up with Colonial Downs, Jacobs said … but he wasn’t surprised to learn the new owners from Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, don’t expect the annual meet to last more than 50 days … unlike the early days when the goal was upwards of 150. In fact, a short (four-or-five day) meet has been announced for March, with the centerpiece the Virginia Derby serving for the first time as qualifier for the Kentucky Derby … “That’s what I wanted … a short, high-end boutique meet, and the racing commission wouldn’t let me do it. The difference now is … they have casinos putting money into the purses. Back then they just had Jeff Jacobs putting money into the purses.”

Did you ever seriously consider replacing the track with condos or let the weeds take over … I mean, really? … “Well, we did shut it down, and I turned in the license because certain members of the racing commission … if we had a dollar come in the door, they wanted us to spend $1.10 … It didn’t work. I couldn’t keep writing checks to subsidize Virginia racing … and there wasn’t enough money coming in the door for purses to make everyone happy … which is basically what it came down to. If that made me a villian ...”

Your name is  Frank Hopf. You never met Jacobs. “Who?” you ask … That’s OK. He never heard of you either. Besides, you’ve got more important things on your mind … like continuing to make Colonial Downs everything it wasn’t.

THE 2024 MEET closed Saturday (Sept. 7) with a bang. You had a sellout. The crowd was estimated at 5,000-plus, … The races were memorable … including the $250,000  Virginia Oaks which ended in a rarely-seen dead heat for first place. And, jockey MANNY FRANCO won five stakes among seven in all on the 11-race card … And, handle was a whopping $5.2 million. You should be looking in a mirror while gushing out loud, “YOU DID IT, KID! YOU DID IT.”

It sure looks like you’ve taken a giant step toward the ultimate goal of going from, say, AAA to the big leagues. How about it? What do you think? … “Every season, every operation presents challenges … and this season certainly did with weather and some things with a new staff … but I think where Colonial Downs has been and where we are now since it reopened … we’re not far away,” you say. “I think we’re almost there.”