Mike Repole

Sunday's Racing Insights: Don't Fret Quality Road, Guitarist Set To Open On Saratoga Stage

6th-SAR, $100K, Msw, 2yo, 1 1/16mT, 4:06 p.m. ET. Amo Racing went to $900,000 to acquire GUITARIST (Quality Road) at last year's Keeneland September Sale. Sent to trainer Chad Brown, the colt is out of GISP Bernina Star (Harlan's Holiday), who was a $1.2-million buy for Don Alberto at the 2019 Keeneland November Sale while Sheza Shining Star (Curlin) was in-utero. Guitarist's dam is a half-sister to GSW National Flag (Speightstown) and SW Perfect Flight (Uncle Mo). Under the first-time starter's third dam we find GISW & MGISP Eddington (Unbridled)....

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filly by Early Voting
'Fun Selling Horses Right Now': Fasig-Tipton NY-Bred Sale Off to Flying Start

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - The buzz from last week's select sale clearly carried into the new week, with the Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearlings Sale powering through its opening session Sunday night in Saratoga. During the session, 64 yearlings grossed $8,338,000 for an average of $130,281 and a median of $105,000. Those figures were well ahead of last year's opening session, when 66 head sold for $6,860,000 for an average of $103,939 and a median of $89,000. They were also ahead of last year's cumulative average of $104,178 and median of...

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Saratoga Notebook Presented By NYRA: Whitney The Race Repole Really Wants To Win

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY--The cell phone rang, and, on the other end, Mike Repole was rolling. "I've won the Alabama twice, I've won the Jim Dandy three times ... I have to pinch myself," Repole, his rat-a-tat-tat all-Queens accent working in overdrive, said from his summer home in New England. "I've won the Coaching Club (American Oaks) twice. I've won the Hopeful ... to win the Travers once in your life is one in a million. I've won it twice, so it's one in a billion!" And a pause. In the...

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Repole Joins UFL As Investor, Promises 'Aggressive Moves' Ahead

The group behind the United Football League (UFL), which includes RedBird Capital Partners, FOX, ESPN, Dany Garcia and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, has gained a new investor in Thoroughbred owner Mike Repole. The story first appeared in The Athletic. In a statement Thursday, the spring football league said Repole's private equity firm, Impact Capital, "will lead the league's business operations" going forward. A UFL spokesperson declined to specify how much Repole paid for his ownership stake, but he did confirm that the billionaire is one of the league's top three...

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Darley's Dubawi
Friday's Racing Insights: Daughter Of Dubawi Blue Madame On The Mark At The Spa

4th-SAR, $100K, Msw, 2yo, f, 1 1/16mT, 2:52 p.m. ET. John Stewart's Resolute outfit went to $500,000 during Keeneland September to acquire BLUE MADAME (Dubawi {Ire}). The Chad Brown trainee is the first foal out of English & French Group 1 stakes winner Fancy Blue (Ire) (Deep Impact {Ire}), who is a half-sister to French MSW Casterton (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) and is herself out of the full-sister of dual U.S. champion grass horse High Chaparral (Ire) (Sadler's Wells). Making the races is Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale grad Scratch...

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Fierceness works at Saratoga
Saratoga Notebook, Presented By NYRA Bets: Fierceness The One For Pletcher In Whitney

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.-'TDN Rising Stars' Fierceness (City of Light) or Mindframe (Constitution) in the GI $1 million Whitney Stakes? Will one of them be running or will it be both? Those questions got definitive answers Saturday morning outside Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher's barn on the Oklahoma Training Track. When entries are taken for the meet's marquee race for older horses on Sunday, both horses names will be front and center, but it will be Fierceness who carries the flag for Pletcher and the ownership group of Mike Repole's...

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Saratoga Maidens, Presented By Keeneland: New 'Rising Star' Time To Dream To Stick To Turf For Now For Pletcher And Repole

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - In the first race of her career Friday, Time to Dream (Not This Time) showed that she could very well have been given a fitting name. After overcoming trouble under jockey Jose Ortiz, the Repole Stable bay stormed from off the pace in the stretch to win the seventh race, a $100,000 maiden special weight for 2-year-olds by 2 1/4 lengths over pacesetter Maiora (Speightstown). Time to Dream completed the one mile on the inner turf course in 1:36.58 and paid $9.90 to win. Pan Pan...

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From Hokkaido To the Spa: Repole Set To Unveil Drefong Colt

For decades now, Japanese buyers have frequented American bloodstock sales, eagerly snapping up racing and breeding stock of the highest quality to help grow the domestic Thoroughbred industry. By any metric, the undertaking has been a smashing success, given not only the performance of Japanese-based runners on foreign soil, particularly over the last six to eight years, but also the strength of the Japanese bloodstock markets. The Japanese Racing Horse Association (JRHA)'s annual Select Sale is a mostly insular affair, but American owner Mike Repole is always ready to think...

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The Week in Review: There are Just Too Many Stakes Races

They got just four horses for the $100,000 Los Alamitos Derby Saturday, hardly a surprise since most stakes run at Los Al wind up with depressingly small fields. The Ashley T. Cole S. at Aqueduct attracted a field of five. At Laurel, the Deputed Testamony drew five starters and so did the Alma North S. Only four ran in the DeFrancis Memorial Dash. At least Laurel had an excuse as a number of horses expected to be shipping down from New York had to be scratched because of the quarantine...

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Jacob West a Fresh Direction for Claiborne

"The first big firework that's gone off since I got here," acknowledges Jacob West. "And I will say this: I think it'll put the other farms on notice. I think people are going to say, `woah, they're back. Not exactly a new shooter, obviously--but reloaded.'" The new stallion seasons and bloodstock manager at Claiborne Farm is at pains to stress that the recruitment of Mindframe (Constitution) only builds on the work of his universally esteemed predecessor Bernie Sams. After all, the last stallion brought here by Sams, who's still sharing...

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Connect's Angel Gift Rolls in Career Debut at Saratoga

1st-Saratoga, $90,000, (C), Msw, 6-8, 2yo, f, 5 1/2f, 1:05.25, ft, 4 lengths. ANGEL GIFT (f, 2, Connect--Georgie's Angel {GSW, $129,564}, by Bellamy Road), installed the 3-2 choice for this unveiling, settled off the fleet-footed favorite Gorrono Ranch (War of Will) and Nacho Problem (Waiting), who carved out an opening quarter mile in :22.44. With the top two still exchanging blows straightening for home, Angel Gift still had several lengths to make up but was picking up steam down the center of the track. Turning on the gas late, he...

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Rodriguez Finally Gets His Chance In Triple Crown Finale

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--The sting of missing the GI Kentucky Derby has faded. Ditto for the GI Preakness Stakes. Rodriguez (Authentic) is well rested, healthy and a ready to roll 'TDN Rising Star.' The colt, trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, will make his Triple Crown debut in Saturday's GI $2 million Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. Owned by SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, Stonestreet Stables LLC, Dianne Bashor, Determined Stables, Robert Masterson, Tom Ryan, Waves Edge Capital LLC and Catherine Donovan, Rodriguez turned heads earlier...

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