LEXINGTON, KY – Mike Repole will attend the Breeders ‘Cup at the weekend with’Uncle Mo‘ towards him.
After fulfilling a lifelong dream by one-two run in GI Belmont S. with recent retirees and There is a spending constraint Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo) and Nest (Curlin) –One of seven Repole Division I champions of the year – momentum has continued to build for the New York native team ahead of this year’s Championship in Keeneland.
The forte of ‘Rising Star TDN’ (Violence) and Chocolate Gelato (Realistic jokes), two of the bigger names on the ‘Future Stars Friday’ card, will line up respectively in the GI Breeders’ Juvenile and Juvenile Cups. The aforementioned Nest will put an exclamation point on her wildly successful 3-year campaign in front of an all-star cast of old bitches and mares in Saturday’s GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff. . All three were coached by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher.
“This has been a great year,” said Repole. “Winning Belmont is one thing. But in all my biggest dreams, I never envisioned them going down the strip with blue and orange silks at first. and Monday. We’ve won seven I’s this year, which is crazy, with an incredible team we’ve put together that includes Ed Rosen, Jim Martin, Jake West, Danielle Bricker and of course, Todd Pletcher, who under the most pressure.
“There are horses like Chocolate Gelato, Forte and Nest, I have to scratch my head every day,” Repole added.
It’s been 12 years since the leader of Repole Stable became the top male of Coolmore Uncle Mo finished his championship season with the right at the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs.
“I think Uncle Mo not just the perfect name for that horse (Editor’s note: Uncle Mo is a common sports phrase used to describe when a team or player participates in a match), but I really think he’s the perfect name for the stables,” said Repole. “Are from Uncle Mo, you get Mo Donegal. You get such horses. At the end of the day, he will become the patriarch of the stables. “
Rising stars…
Forte has the potential to become second choice in the Juvenile after the undefeated MGISW team trained by Bob Baffert and ‘Rising Star’ Cave Rock (Arrogate). Considered any kind with a debut win at Belmont Park, Forte more than made up for an off-board finish as the favorite in Saratoga’s GIII Sanford S. with a pair of high-level follow-up wins. best.
After tossing home the first of three lengths in a saturated renewal of GI Hopeful S. with the winner GI Champagne S. following next ‘Rising Star’ Blazing Sevens (Good magic) in third, Forte passed his two-turn test of style with a stiff neck decision after making a powerful, sweeping move in the long leg on the Children’s track and trip in GI Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity.
Bred in Kentucky by South Gate Ranch and co-owned with St. Elias by Vinnie Viola, Forte is one of six Category I winners for Violence. $80,000 November Weaning Keeneland and $110,000 September Keeneland aspiration come from the lingering female family of the 2-year-old Folklore champion (Tiznow).
Repole said: “We went there for Futurity with the number one goal being to prepare this horse for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. “We want to get a race on the track and get him settled at Keeneland. The way he did it was incredibly impressive. He’s getting better and better.”
Repole continued, “We have West Bank Baffert horse to beat. We know we can get behind the horse and we’ll see what happens. You never know, you have to show up, right? “
Chocolate Gelato, winner of the GI Frizette S., was chosen as the favorite cake on the morning of February 7 in the entire school number 14 for Juvenile Fillies. “I think it’s an open race,” said Repole.
Disappointingly for the third time on its debut as the most beloved on opening day in Saratoga, Chocolate Gelato has lived up to those lofty expectations the next time it airs in top fashion. with 92 career best Beyer a month later at Spa. The $165,000 Kentucky Fasig-Tipton and $475,000 2-year-old Fasig-Tipton Florida showed a different dimension than the sloppy one-mile-by-one track in Frizette, which concentrated traffic from fifth place with a flash on the long turn in the road for a professional long win.
She will be looking to become the ninth person to win the Minor Frizette/Breeders’ Cup double. Raised in Kentucky by Vince Colbert, Chocolate Gelato’s deeply female family includes GISWs Imagining, Rhythm, Girolamo, and Super Saver. She debuted twice in Juvenile Fillies.
“She was on the back of her horse, she got mud on her face and she fought hard,” Repole said of Chocolate Gelato’s win over Frizette. “She was sitting on the back of the last seat, sitting in fourth or fifth place in the back and I said to everyone around me, ‘If this is a good horse, she will win this race for this. is a really difficult location.’ She’s 8-5, but at that point, if there were live odds, I’d make her 6-1. Iraq [Ortiz, Jr.] said she was ready to pass and the rest is history. “
That top 1% of the 1%…
It’s been a memorable season for the division-led Nest, led by a trio of incredible Class I wins over her peers in Keeneland’s GI Central Bank Ashland S. and Saratoga American’s GI Coaching Club Oaks and GI Alabama S. Also a solid second-best favorite in the GI Kentucky Oaks, the $350,000 Keeneland September graduate flopped once again after a stunning fall stumbling at the head in front of the boys in the final of the Triple Crown. Repole Stable, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Michael House colorbearer took their ticket to Lexington with a tough 9 3/4 victory while going head-to-head with older dogs and mares in the GII Beldame S. at the Aqueduct.
Repole said: “I am very lucky to have 1st class, special horses. “The only horse I own that I can even remotely compare at this moment with is Uncle Mo. Uncle Mo has a luminance level of the top 1% of that top 1%. Nest has that. She is a once in a lifetime person and she will be back next year. She is just getting better. “
Nest can be prioritized in Distaff field for ages also including her champion ‘Rising Star’ you stabilize Malathaat (Curlin), MGISW Clairiere (Curlin) and GI heroine Kentucky Oaks Secret Oaks (Arrogate).
“I used to dream of watching races like this when I was a kid,” Repole said. “Forget that she is capable of being the favorite. It is an honor and a blessing to be part of a race like this.”
Bred in Kentucky by Ashview Farm and Colts Neck Stables – also breeders of Mo Donegal – Nest was one of 19 top tier winners for mighty Curlin. Her Full Brother GI Santa Anita H. Idol Winner (Curlin), campaigned by Calvin Nguyen, will begin his career as a Repole Stable / Taylor Made Stallions Venture in 2023. Their 2-year-old half-brother Lost Ark (Violence), the troubled sixth in Breeders’ Futurity, is imported into the Young.
“I have been following the career of Idol since the day we bought Nest as a hobby,” said Repole. “A few weeks after we bought Nest, Idol broke her girlhood and showed incredible talent. It’s exhilarating that he won first place in California. Now that Nest and Idol are both tier I winners, I’m excited about the future potential of both – Idol as a stallion, and Nest, one day in the future, as a chicken drum. “
The power of numbers…
Smart money says you’ll see more Repoles in the coming years at the Championships. Co-founder of Glaceau Vitaminwater (reportedly sold to Coca-Cola for $4.1 billion in 2007) and sports drinks BodyArmor (also sold to Coca-Cola for $5.6 billion in 2007) 2021) and Viola’s St. Elias Stables led all buyers for the second year in a row at its September sale in Keeneland, purchasing 31 annuities for $12.84 million (average $414,194).
In addition to Forte, Repole and St. Elias, of course, teamed up to lobby GI Breeders’ Cup Classic 2019 winner and older men’s champion Vino Rosso (Curlin), myself as a $410,000 KEESEP graduate. Now standing at Spendthrift Farm, Vino Rosso was represented by a first crop that brought in $550,000 in the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale.
“It was a good run, so I enhanced it a little bit,” said Repole. “I thought I was too cheap, so I decided to spend a little more last year and this year. I say I do this with 5% of my time. I think I’ll increase it to 10%, so let’s see what happens. “
With a focus on creating stallions, Repole, singly or in partnership, purchased a total of 70 stallions at Keeneland in September for a total value of $26.67 million. Some other well known Repole partners include: Coolmore, Eclipse, West Point, Spendthrift and Gainesway.
“At first, I was really against the partnership,” says Repole. “I want to call the footage. But at the end of the day, you know? First, it builds relationships and partnerships that are very important to me. And second, do you want to own 50% of the 100 horses? Or 50 horses at 100%. I want to double my chances, or in some ways, triple my chances.
“What I’m most proud of with this year’s seven-time Class I champions is that you teamed up with me with Eclipse with Nest, Forte with my friend Vinnie Viola, Mo Donegal with Donegal Racing and Chocolate Gelato who is 100% Repole. It’s nice to have those four horses, own 50% or more of them all, and have all the different partners.
Repole concluded, “We want to win, we want to have fun and we want to share the success. Those are the goals of the stables.”
