Mike Repole

Mike Repole joined this week's TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland to discuss his criticisms of industry leaders and the future of the sport, as well as his Kentucky Derby contender Renegade and Oaks filly Zany.

In an article posted last week in Sports Business Journal, it was reported that the GI Preakness Stakes would be pushed back a week next year to be run three weeks after the GI Kentucky Derby and that the GI Belmont Stakes would also be pushed back by a week. The stir the article caused quickly died down when Maryland Jockey Club President and General Manager Bill Knauf denied that any decisions had been made regarding the date of next year's Preakness. But the story did get some important things...

It's no secret that The Jockey Club has come under fire recently, particularly from owner Mike Repole. There have been calls for it to step up and be a better leader, to take a larger role in solving the aftercare issues, and to spend its resources more wisely and on programs that would better help the sport. Owner Aron Wellman wrote in a TDN op-ed that The Jockey Club refuses "to accept responsibility for its own failures." The Jockey Club Chairman Everett Dobson joined this week's TDN Writers' Room Podcast...

It's no secret that The Jockey Club has come under fire recently, particularly from owner Mike Repole. The Jockey Club Chairman Everett Dobson joined this week's TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland to address some of the criticism and to talk about other issues.

In what was no doubt a difficult decision, jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. has committed to riding GI Arkansas Derby winner Renegade (Into Mischief) in the GI Kentucky Derby. Ortiz was also the regular rider of GI Blue Grass Stakes winner and 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' Further Ado (Gun Runner). It's possible that the two will be, in some order, the first and second choices in the Derby. The news on Ortiz's pick, as well as other jockey commitments made to other key Derby contenders, was first reported by...

Repole Stable's Zany (American Pharoah), the 4-1 favorite in the lone Kentucky Oaks Future Wager, headlines a field of seven set for the GI Central Bank Ashland S. on Keeneland's opening day program Friday. The unbeaten GII Demoiselle S. heroine kicked off her sophomore campaign for Todd Pletcher with a 2 3/4-length victory over subsequent GII Fasig-Tipton Fair Grounds Oaks winner Life of Joy (Gun Runner) after racing greenly down the stretch in the Suncoast S. at Tampa Feb. 7. "Zany is a special, special filly," Repole said following the...

Well, he's not going to give it up without a fight. Yes, of course the whole narrative is random: he can hardly sit the boys down, tell them to get out there and remind everyone who's boss. But however unwittingly, Into Mischief has certainly obliged us with a dramatic and immediate response to the first serious test of his monopoly since claiming a first general sires' title in 2019. It has been clear for a while that the eventual succession was likely to concern Not This Time and Gun Runner,...

Mike Repole and Robert and Lawana Low's Renegade (Into Mischief) exited his victory in Saturday's GI Arkansas Derby in fine form and will return to his South Florida base of Palm Beach Downs on Tuesday, according to trainer Todd Pletcher. "I just love the progression that he's making," Pletcher said. "Very, very happy for the Lows and the Repoles. Great win for them. We're just fortunate to have a colt of this quality." In his previous start, Renegade was a 3 ¾-length winner of the Sam F. Davis Stakes at...

HOT SPRINGS, Ark.--Legendary college football coach Mike Leach believed fervently in the power of pirate culture. Despite its cut, thrust and swagger image, according to Leach the swashbucklers of old were incredibly democratic, were forced at times to be surprisingly unconventional and they proved time and time again that taking risks could payoff handsomely--rings true for Thoroughbred racing too. Speaking of plundering and pirate treasure, in the 90th running of the GI Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park on Saturday a record 73,000 people watched an invader named Renegade (Into Mischief--Spice...

We've gotten ourselves into a pickle--and we're heading for a far bigger one, if the possibility of discussion is taken off the table. The trouble with most altercations and misunderstandings is a lack of knowledge and communication at the onset. What we're currently witnessing between Mike Repole, Louis Masry, Aron Wellman, and the The Jockey Club isn't just an altercation. It's a clash of cultures: the old traditional "club" model that has governed racing, versus the modern, results-driven mindset of 21st-century investors. Historically, the sport has been shaped by a...

It is, of course, a good thing, that the subjects of aftercare and slaughter are being so widely debated, with influential owners like Mike Repole and Aron Wellman all but demanding that the industry come together and solve the problem. Just last week, Pat Cummings, who has been working side-by-side with Repole on the issue, penned a letter to the TDN in which he revealed what he called "20 concise findings, with a funding model projection" that he and Repole have put together. Good for Cummings. Good for Repole. Owner...

In the age of social media, I realize that I'm writing this at my own peril. And I'm probably once again spitting in the wind. However, I feel like someone needs to speak up on a few things concerning our latest self-inflicted crisis regarding our lack of unity and dysfunction as an industry. To say that as an industry we continue to be "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight" is an understatement. We have been that way for the 40-plus years I've been involved in horse racing. Hence, the reason...