Corey Johnsen
Corey Johnsen has an extensive and varied background in horse racing. Johnsen has enjoyed a 40+ year career in the sport, having been a bettor, groom, horse owner and breeder, publicity and marketing director, track president and owner who has overseen the launch or re-opening of numerous facilities in the United States and the Americas.
Corey Johnsen was the President and part-owner of Kentucky Downs from 2007 to 2019, when the track was sold to a partnership led by Ron Winchell and Marc Falcone. During his time there, Kentucky Downs went from a novelty with its European-style turf course to an industry leader, offering some of the most lucrative purses in America during its boutique all-grass meets. Johnsen and his partners in Kentucky Downs began operating Historical Horse Racing terminals on Sept. 1, 2011 and have used that innovative pari-mutuel technology as a game-changing force for the good of the Kentucky horse industry.
Since the Kentucky Downs purchase in 2007, Johnsen has been an active owner and breeder of Thoroughbreds and very involved in industry efforts to improve the economics for the horse business. He was the Chairman of the Kentucky Equine Education Project (KEEP), a multi-breed coalition, from 2011 to 2018. Johnsen succeeded KEEP co-founder Brereton Jones, former Governor of Kentucky, as the Chairman of the organization. Johnsen was a key player in getting slot machines at Oklahoma horse tracks, bringing the Breeders’ Cup to Lone Star Park in 2004 and Historical Horse Racing to Kentucky.
In 1986, he was awarded an Eclipse Award for Local Television at Louisiana Downs. At every track stop, he has been immersed in the local market’s civic and charitable works and tourism. His record shows his desire to work with horsemen, other tracks and industry stakeholders to benefit not only his operation but its region, circuit and the entire sport. A native of Tacoma, Washington, Johnsen has owned horses since 1979, when he began putting together partnerships among his college friends to buy claiming horses. His Lone Star Thoroughbreds campaigned Honey Rose, a Grade 1 stakes winner in her native Argentina and an American stakes winner. Most recently, Johnsen and partner Bill Casner owned the homebred Colonel Samsen who won the 2016 Gold Rush Stakes at Golden Gate Fields.
Johnsen’s five-decade career in the industry started as a teenage $2 bettor at Longacres Racetrack and groom at Centennial Park, the summer before his graduation from Arizona State University. He shot up the management ranks through the publicity and marketing departments at Turf Paradise, Arlington Park and Louisiana Downs, and as part of senior management at Remington Park and Lone Star Park was instrumental in the development, construction and launch of those tracks. Johnsen, who rose to become president and part-owner of Lone Star Park before its sale, also has been involved in the opening or reopening of four tracks in the Americas, including in Mexico City and Uruguay.
Currently, Johnsen is President of CJ Thoroughbreds working with his son, C.J. Johnsen, and Mike Renfro. While residing in Southlake, Texas, he is an active board member of the Texas Thoroughbred Association, Old Friends, and the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation.