In his seat at the Kentucky Derby on May 3, Mike Repole will look like an ordinary spectator. What his fellow racing fans won’t see are his deep pockets and his big plans. The president and co-founder of Glacéau, a bottled-water company, Repole (pronounced re-pole-ee) bought his first colt, Da Rodeo Man, for $22,000 in 2002. He has since acquired 150 more racehorses and set his sights high. The goal: to one day enter a horse at Churchill Downs.

Repole has been fascinated by racing since he was a kid in Middle Village, a neighborhood in Queens, New York (he still has the accent), and his parents would scold him for losing his $5 weekly allowance at Aqueduct racetrack or Belmont Park. But in the past year, it has become much easier for the 39-year-old to indulge his passion. That’s because in 2007, Repole and his partners (including the Indian conglomerate Tata) sold Glacéau to Coca-Cola for $4.1 billion. This year alone, he has added 100 horses to his stable, bringing his total investment in Thoroughbreds to $7 million, plus an extra $3 million for training and care of the animals. In the process, Repole has bought himself a pretty decent track record. Of the 186 races he entered last year, the Glacéau president’s horses won 46, placing him 49th out of more than 38,000 U.S. and Canadian racehorse owners. “I used to say that owning a horse was cheaper than therapy,” jokes Repole. “I don’t say that anymore.”

There is a good reason for that. To date, Repole has taken home just $1.5 million in purses—much less than what he spends annually to maintain his hobby—and he has swallowed some unexpected losses. Kid Ziggy, one buy, had a $50,000 price tag. The horse ripped a tendon during his first race, which cost Repole $20,000 in rehab and training. Then Kid tore his tendon again, prompting Repole to give the colt away to a young girl in Pennsylvania. “If you want to make a small fortune in the horse industry, start with a large one,” says the fast-talking New Yorker.

Still, Repole is trying to spread his enthusiasm to friends and family. He cast Shaquille O’Neal as a jockey for Glacéau’s Super Bowl ad this year and bought his parents and grandparents subscriptions to the horseracing network. One convert is his wife, Maria, who, according to Repole, treats herself to a shopping spree each time he buys a horse. He even named a $120,000 two-year-old No Shopping Maria, in his wife’s honor. When the filly won her second race by five lengths, Repole called Maria with the news. She was at a Prada boutique and was thrilled. “Great,” she responded. “Now I can buy a second pair of boots.”