Mike Repole Piece

ghostzapper said:
Arcangelo's performance was a really great story. His little known female trainer Jena Antonucci did a masterful job in preparing this horse to follow up his Belmont win with this victory in the Travers. It shows that there are many talented horse people who do great work in relative obscurity.

Sadly, this story was very much obscured by the deaths of two more thoroughbreds on the track yesterday. The second of these tragic incidents happened in the Grade One H. Allen Jerkens Memorial when the undefeated New York Thunder was on the lead and pulling away in the stretch (on his way to a certain victory) when his leg horrifically snapped in two. I have been going to the races for fifty years and have watched hundreds of thousands of races and can not remember a more visually horrific breakdown of a horse. It was absolutely brutal to see.

On Saratoga's two biggest days; Whitney Day August 5th and Travers Day yesterday, there were two high profile breakdowns of undefeated horses in Grade One Stakes races. On Whitney Day, in the Grade One Test, undefeated Maple Leaf Mel was on the lead, pulling away to victory when she broke down right before the wire. Yesterday it was the undefeated New York Thunder breaking down in mid-stretch. Both of these incidents, that happened right in front of a packed grandstand, puts a spotlight on the worst of Thoroughbred racing and gives strength to the arguments by the sport's harshest critics who have been clamoring to ban the sport entirely.

I love Thoroughbred racing and it has been a lifelong passion for me. That said, the lack of soundness of the modern day Thoroughbred needs to be looked at and actions need to be taken if the sport is to survive. There have always been some breakdowns of horses on the track, but over the last several seasons the amount of tragedies has quantum leaped. This trend needs to be reversed as soon as possible, because anything else is unacceptable.
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Decades ago when I started my career working at St. John's, the university would close at 1 pm on summer Fridays. I understand now that Fridays the university is closed.

In any event, one of my very best lifelong friends to be was a student worker employed in the same office. He LOVED horse racing, loved gambling even more, so at 1 pm every Friday we made a mad dash to our cars to get to Belmont by the 3rd race or so.

Gambling never did it for me as I always felt I worked too hard and hated losing money way more than winning. However I was drawn to the sheer beauty and magnificence of the horses.

Even by then, OTB had choked off any semblance of attendance and with a couple of hundred mostly grizzled older men we would sit in the area where they would walk the horses just before they went to the starting gates.

If you've never seen a thoroughbread that close, at a few feet I can say there may not be a more beautiful creature on earth. Up close its like witnessing an athlete that is Adonis on 4 legs. Perfectly proportioned for power and speed.

Except that their legs weren't designed to carry their own weight at those speeds, no less with a jockey riding them. At top speeds in horse racing they are almost mythological - man and beast as one thundering in unison. Horses seem to know the object is winning as its an amazing beautiful spectacle.

In my family we love animals. As a small child I'd find baby birds that fell from nests and try to rehab them. I've had aquariums since I was 12 or so, and would keep turtles, frogs, salamanders. Today i even have a backyard pond with koi and goldfish. We snorkel when in tbe Caribbean with the prize sighting near the reefs is always sea turtles and rays.

Lon long diatribe, but even as beautiful as horseracing is, too many horses die as a result of shattered legs. It's nearly impossible to repair and they are usually put down immediately.

I haven't been back to the track since those days, and one summer will make it to Saratoga which I visited once just before the season when in town on business.

We won't see an end to horse racing but a big part of me wishes it would end. Not sure if these injuries are preventable short of breeding slower but sturdier animals. Still and all, not unlike TBI injuries in football and boxing, just a part of the sport.
 
I love Saratoga it’s the best track in the world. The meet is amazing every summer and usually I rib the protesters on my walk from fifth st every race day I attend. However, with Maple Leaf Mel and NY Thunder going down, along with 4 other horses to a Aoki restaurant. One has to question what’s up. The weather has been cool for a summer. I was at Travers, for NY Thunder it did mildly pour for 10 minutes before post. Again, No crazy heat this summer especially up there. Might have to do with breeding which is industry in itself.
 
classof2010 said:
I love Saratoga it’s the best track in the world. The meet is amazing every summer and usually I rib the protesters on my walk from fifth st every race day I attend. However, with Maple Leaf Mel and NY Thunder going down, along with 4 other horses to a Aoki restaurant. One has to question what’s up. The weather has been cool for a summer. I was at Travers, for NY Thunder it did mildly pour for 10 minutes before post. Again, No crazy heat this summer especially up there. Might have to do with breeding which is industry in itself.
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Breeding has a lot to do with it. Up thru at least thru the 1970s , the breed was bred for stamina and not speed. They raced more often and there were fewer breakdowns. Now when a young horse wins one or two races with enormous purses, they are retired after their three year old campaigns and head to the breeding shed were they produce as many foals as possible to sell at yearling sales for big money. Recently I read an interesting article written by Mark Casse, a Hall of Fame trainer in both the US and Canada, who had the statistics on the number of breakdowns on the three types of racing surfaces, dirt turf and tapeta an artificial surface. Not surprisingly the most happen on dirt followed by turf and the least on the artificial surfaces. It has to do with strike angle of the hooves hitting the surface and the type of movement of the hooves after they hit the surface. Interesting to note that Belmont Park is putting in an artificial surface that will probably be ready when they reopen for racing in the spring of next year.
 
jackfro said:
Breeding has a lot to do with it. Up thru at least thru the 1970s , the breed was bred for stamina and not speed. They raced more often and there were fewer breakdowns. Now when a young horse wins one or two races with enormous purses, they are retired after their three year old campaigns and head to the breeding shed were they produce as many foals as possible to sell at yearling sales for big money. Recently I read an interesting article written by Mark Casse, a Hall of Fame trainer in both the US and Canada, who had the statistics on the number of breakdowns on the three types of racing surfaces, dirt turf and tapeta an artificial surface. Not surprisingly the most happen on dirt followed by turf and the least on the artificial surfaces. It has to do with strike angle of the hooves hitting the surface and the type of movement of the hooves after they hit the surface. Interesting to note that Belmont Park is putting in an artificial surface that will probably be ready when they reopen for racing in the spring of next year.
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An addendum, just learned that NYRA is considering doing away with the inner turf course at Saratoga and replacing it with an artificial surface
 
Saratoga 6th race Monday.
Pitino's 2yo colt Aggelos the Great (RAP Racing) is running against Repoles Quiet Wisdom. QW probably won't draw in the race as he is #16 as also eligible and Ricks is first AE.

Repole also has a 2yo colt entered in the prestigious Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes Monday. Be You #10. This is also the 20th anniversary of my colt Storm Cadet running in the Hopeful Stakes. IMG_20230903_210140.jpg
 
Alumni Hall said:
Saratoga 6th race Monday.
Pitino's 2yo colt Aggelos the Great (RAP Racing) is running against Repoles Quiet Wisdom. QW probably won't draw in the race as he is #16 as also eligible and Ricks is first AE.

Repole also has a 2yo colt entered in the prestigious Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes Monday. Be You #10. This is also the 20th anniversary of my colt Storm Cadet running in the Hopeful Stakes. View attachment 1285
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There are few better places to spend a summer afternoon than Saratoga Springs.
 
jackfro said:
An addendum, just learned that NYRA is considering doing away with the inner turf course at Saratoga and replacing it with an artificial surface
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NYRA now considering running the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga the next two years at a special 2 or 3 day meet in June and then returning to Aqueduct. However it would be run at a mile and a quarter and not a mile and a half. All this necessitated because of all the construction at Belmont Park. In my opinion changing the distance would cheapen the Triple Crown. They could just as easily run it at Aqueduct as they did in the late '60s during the last reconstruction of Belmont Park
 
jackfro said:
NYRA now considering running the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga the next two years at a special 2 or 3 day meet in June and then returning to Aqueduct. However it would be run at a mile and a quarter and not a mile and a half. All this necessitated because of all the construction at Belmont Park. In my opinion changing the distance would cheapen the Triple Crown. They could just as easily run it at Aqueduct as they did in the late '60s during the last reconstruction of Belmont Park
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$$$$$
 
Second to last.

Bobbled start on the sloppy track and 4 wide all the way around. Lost race 10 yards from starting gate.

But should have not went off 2/5 favorite
 
I was at Aqueduct for the Champagne and Repole was there touting Fierceness for the Breeder's Cup. However he had a bad break and never got into the race at all that day losing by twenty lengths at 1 to 2. Today he was 16 to 1 because of his poor Champagne performance and was a significant overlay. Instead he ran back to the form of his dominating Saratoga maiden victory that made him odds on in the Champagne.
 
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