The phone interview last week with Mike Repole was donemainly to find out who he was running Saturday in the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes.In time we learned he would keep Fierceness home with trainer Todd Pletcherat Saratoga and watch as Mindframe ran second to Dornoch at Monmouth Park.
But any conversation with the most high-profile and perhaps most polarizing Thoroughbredowner in the game mushrooms beyond the hook that lured him to the phone at hishome in New England.
Flatter Pod: Hear the full interview with Mike Repole.
In the 27 minutes he spent on Horse Racing Nation’sRon Flatter Racing Pod, Repole discussed some of the hot-button topics he hasraised since last fall in his self-anointed role as commissioner of racing.
“Right now, listen, we’re crashing,” he said. “We just haven’thit the ground yet.”
A businessperson who made his fortune building sports-drinkcompanies and selling them for billions of dollars, Repole opened up about hisadversarial relationship with The Jockey Club, the shrinking foal crop, smallfields in big-money stakes, his call for revenue sharing and the need to reformsales in the U.S.
The 55-year-old New York native whose Repole Stable has producedsix Eclipse Award winners brought up a plan he wants to hatch late this summerto put more money into aftercare. It is built on a formula he created with longtimeracing research fellow Pat Cummings, who Repole hired last year to run his nascentNational Thoroughbred Alliance.
This part of the Q&A with Repole began with a questionabout having to choose between the Haskell and next weekend’s Jim Dandy Stakes(G2) at Saratoga for his top 3-year-olds.
What do you think of the fact that the Jim Dandy and theHaskell are only a week apart? In fact, they were only a day apart until afew years ago.
I think the Jim Dandy is a great prep for the Travers, andthe Haskell is a $1 million Grade 1. I don’t think it’s that bad. I think theproblem we have right now is everybody in this game wants to cut every Grade 1and cut every Grade 2 and cut this and cut this.
As we eliminate tracks, the horse population is going down. Everytime a track closes, we lose graded stakes, too. I said this in a Tweetyesterday. Instead of saying eliminate or slash, what about build, invest andgrow? Because building and growing takes time and money. A long-term view onhorse racing is two months ahead.
We have organizations that are supposed to help us here andare supposed to protect the sport for the long-term good of the sport. We allknow that I’m not good friends with The Jockey Club. When I say not good friends,it isn’t personal. I just think they’ve done, I’ll try to use a complimentaryword, a s----y job. That’s as complimentary of a word I can come up with forthem. And I think that they have done nothing to move the sport forward for thenext generation. I think we are in this situation not for what happened lastyear or even four years ago but 20 years ago, 15 years ago, 10 years ago, andit’s just compounded.
I love the Breeders’ Cup. There’s a lot of money. There’s alot of smart people. They’ve got a great CEO (Drew Fleming) there, (but) it’stwo days we’re racing. It’s a big thing for a two-day party. They should be moreinvolved maybe making a quarterly (racing) trial or something and bringing moreexcitement to the sport instead of a win-and-you’re-in banner, which doesn’t domuch for me.
The stakes fields (the rest of the year) are so smallagain. Not all the time, but too often, right? That kind of ties into this,doesn’t it?
A hundred percent. It’s embarrassing. The Belmont Derby (G1)had five turf horses for $750,000. It is what it is. The issue comes down, Ithink, when you have 2-year-olds, you can fill those stake races up, because ifa horse wins a maiden, or you can run a horse in a maiden, you’ll fill it up. Ithink these 3-year-old races are the ones that are having the biggest issue tofill. Then some of the older horses are retiring or going to have babies, sothey’re going to get tough to fill. We have to grow. It doesn’t happenovernight. We have to figure out ways to incentivize getting people to run.
I’ve said this before. I’m all about revenue sharing. Then Iget a committee that says, “Oh, Mike, you must be a socialist.” And I would sayI guess the NFL is socialist, because they have f-----g revenue sharing, and itseems to work pretty good for Green Bay. It worked pretty good for Pittsburgh,and it works pretty good for Buffalo and Jacksonville. There’s nothing wrongwith revenue sharing at a certain level.
California needs help. I’m an owner. I send 12 horses out to(trainer Michael) McCarthy. I won’t go to Del Mar for any races, but I see thevalue of trying to set an example. There are only people that run with one trackor one trainer or just one area, and I think we’ve all got to chip in and help.Kentucky is banging their chests that they’ve done such a great job, and they’vegot the biggest purses and the best breeding program. But you know what? Weneeded a New York breeding program to help New York. We needed a Maryland-bredprogram to help Maryland. Pennsylvania, California, what have we done there? We’rebasically competing with ourselves to stunt the growth or kill the growth inthe sport.
In 10 years, 80 percent of the racing will be in Kentucky,and the foal crop (17,200 last year) will be 8,000, and everybody’s going tosay how the f--- did this happen? You don’t need a crystal ball. You don’t evenneed a brain to see it coming. It’s obvious.
I’ve got a lot ideas to help the sport. When I talk topeople, they all agree on 90 percent of what I say except the 10 percent thataffects them. You’ve got a $1 million purse? You know what? Give 20 percent tothe bottom five horses. Fill it up. Give them $40,000 to show up and fillthe race. Of course I don’t want to fill it up with a $10,000 claimer but maybeovernight stake horses.
When horses break, you do see 50-1 shots win. You do see25-1 shots win. You’ve got to make it enticing, and then we have to be veryopen for sharing revenue. Kentucky breeders have a ton of money. Why not, if aKentucky-bred wins the California, give that owner $10,000, because he has aKentucky-bred he ran in California? You’re still rewarding the Kentucky-bred,but you’re also helping the owner and even the track in California. If aKentucky-bred wins in Florida, I should get paid for it.
We’ve really got to help this entire sport. I’ve said thisbefore on Tweets. Everybody says, “Mike, I’m behind you.” Silent majority. Iturn around, and nobody’s there. I’ve heard that too many times.
Is there something you can do as a first step? “One smallstep for man.” Here we are 55 years after Neil Armstrong (said that walking onthe moon) almost to the day. Is there something you could do as a small stepfrom Mike Repole to try to move this boulder up the mountain? An early firststep.
Pat Cummings, who’s done an amazing job for me running theNTA, which I fund 100 percent. I’d like you to find another owner that wouldfund that 100 percent. Actually, don’t even try, because there are none. We areworking on an aftercare program. We’ve already talked to tracks. We’ve alreadytalked to owners. We’ve already talked to the sales companies. We’re puttingtogether a program by Sept. 1. We’re doing the pre-selling right now. Basicallyby taking pennies for entering horses, taking pennies at the sales ring (from) buyers,seller and sales company, (taking) decimal points, we think we can raise $15-20million.
Believe it or not, even though I’m talking about chumpchange in the big scheme of things, there are still some big organizations andbig companies that are, like, “I think that’s too much.” You know what? I’vegot news for you, the selfish, greedy people in this sport. If you can’tsupport aftercare, I’ll support it for you, and I’m also going to let everyoneknow who didn’t support it. You can’t buy a horse, sell a horse, run a horseand give $25 for an entry fee or get charged 0.002 percent at a sale.
One of the proposals with the sales companies is you buy ahorse, for $100,000, you pay $200 to aftercare. Two-hundred dollars. If yousell it for $100,000, you pay $200. The sales company, they pay $100. So that’s500 bucks. If you’re buying a horse for $100,000, and you don’t want to pay $200for aftercare, or you sell one, get the hell out of the game. You shouldn’t behere. By the way, if you buy a horse for $1 million, you pay $2,000. The wayPat and I did the math with this 0.002 (percent) and then (0.001 for salescompanies), with $1.2 billion traded last year at all the sales, that would be $6million in aftercare. That’s breakage money. Okay? Six million. Right now (theThoroughbred Aftercare Alliance) raises $3.5 million from tourists just by charging,God, a point-zero-zero tariff or tax or whatever you want to call it. Making itmandatory, you could raise $6 million.
I’m also saying stallions. If you breed a stallion over 100times, you have to give one stud fee. If I own Uncle Mo with Coolmore, when hebreeds 200 times at $150,000, and he makes $30 million, we have to give $150,000again this year. We probably should give more. You add that up, that’s another$2, 3, 4 million. If somebody just went out there and had common sense.
My frustration right now is you’ve got to get 19 out of 19or 18 out of 18 (steps in a proposal), and I don’t have time for that. We’re puttingall these in steps. We’re going to present it at a certain point, but at theend of the day, no one has to listen to me. No one has to listen to the NTA.They don’t.
I’m sure you’ve heard this before. “I like Mike Repole’sideas,” or, “I think Mike Repole is an a------.” I’m fine with either one, bythe way. In fact, being the a------ probably motivates me more than “it’s agreat idea.” I want to thank those people.
I know this is right. I know this is right for the sport. I’mone of the top owners in this country. ... A guy like me that’s winning twoEclipse Awards back-to-back years and one of the top owners shouldn’t befighting to make it more competitive and shouldn’t be fighting for what’s goodfor the sport 20 and 30 years from now, but I am. Because I was that 14-year-oldkid that had no money that wanted to get into horse racing. You know what?There should be more trainers, and there should be more owners, and thereshould be more syndicates.
And then there’s the 2-year-old sales that I’m totallyagainst. When was the last time you watched the race, and (referencingbreeze-up times at these sales) you saw a horse go 9-and-3 or 9-and-4 (fifthsseconds) down the stretch? Show me when they’ve got do that again. They dobefore their second birthday. They’ll say, “Mike, some of the horses haveturned out to be great horses.” I said, yeah, the strongest people in the worldwill survive like the strongest horses, but that other horse that could havebeen very usable will be a cheap claimer or never race. There was a horse thatjust galloped that brought $1.2 million last year. It’s happened. I was theunderbidder. I bought two horses that galloped for $200,000 and $300,000.People go like this to me, the best thing they’ve ever said. “Mike, would youpay $500,000 for a horse that doesn’t breeze?” I said I paid $1 million for ayearling that just f------ walks. So, yeah, I would. What am I getting as ayearling? I see the 9-and-3 breezes as a yearling, and six months later he’sbreezing 9-and-3, so you know what? That’s got to stop.
The sales companies need to step up. There’s too muchcheating and the lying going on at the sales. In fact, people can even identifymany of the liars and cheaters, but we look the other way. Instead of callingthem out, you say, “We don’t buy from him. Just stay away from him.” That’s gotto stop.
I’ve been buying horses in Europe and Japan. What I lovedabout Japan was the horse comes into the ring, and the reserve is 199. Thefirst bid has to be 200. We don’t have these bid spotters who say, “Santa Claussays 20,000. Easter bunny says 40,000. The tooth fairy up there says 60,000.” Tellme what the f------ reserve is, and make it whatever you want to make it. Tellme what the reserve is, and that’s it. In England or France, they don’t tellyou the reserve, but they say, “The horse is on the market,” which means he hithis reserve. “The horse is on the market.” Here we play the hidden-ball trick.
More people have to breed to race, not to sell. Horses getsold as weanlings, yearlings, 2-year-olds. By the time they go to the track,there’s many horses that have been sold three times in their career. Every timethat horse sells, the person who’s selling them has to make sure that horse wasperfect, because that’s his Kentucky Derby. How much is left by the time theyget to the track? Then you want to blame the trainers when you’re sending himhorses that three legs to begin with.
This has all been self-inflicted. We’ve done it. I wish Ihad an organization or a team around me that really would want to rally behindfixing this for the long term. There’s a way to fix and fly the plane. Right now,listen, we’re crashing. We just haven’t hit the ground yet. I don’t know if it’sgoing be two years or 20 years, but we all know the support is getting lessdesirable, more frustrating.
I think HISA (the Horseracing Integrity and SafetyAuthority) is great, but I think that if you add a little common sense to whatthey do and a little bit of low forgiveness vs. just zero tolerance, I think wecan clean up this game, and everybody can just jump in and row in the samedirection.
There’s a lot out there, man, and it seems like I’ve got theonly answer. I’m not the only one that has these views, but it seems like I’mthe only one that wants to put my voice out there. I want to thank every ownerand every stallion farm and everyone in the world that says, “Mike, the silentmajority is with you.” Right now I’m getting a little tired of the silentmajority. I would just like the majority to be with me. People who know me knowI’m not going to give up, and if it means being liked less, I think that’s abonus. That would be a bonus. Less people to talk to in my life.
I know that this is the right thing. I’m not doing this for MikeRepole. I’m not doing this for anything but the best of the sport. Every sporthas evolved. The NFL, NHL, NBA. This is a global game. I just spent $2.7million in Japan. I’ve spent millions in Europe. They come over here and spend.We can make this really, really big. The NFL isn’t global. This could be aglobal game, and it’s not about the Breeders’ Cup on one weekend.
I’m excited. I’ve applied for a Japanese (racing) license. Idon’t think any American has a Japanese license. I’m not saying I’m getting it,but I don’t think anybody has one. I’m excited about you know maybe going outthere one day for the Japan Cup or racing a couple horses out there. I’m goingto run some horses in France this year. I want to grow the sport, man. I wantto grow it, and I’m worried about (it).
I’m 55. I’m pretty old. In this game, they call me kid, but whatabout the 20-year-olds that have a passion and the 30-year-olds and the 40-year-olds? I’m really fighting for them more than anybody else.
