VitaminWater Mogul Repole Talks Horses, Racing
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After sitting out the Preakness altogether, Repole and Stay Thirsty are back for Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, as the son of Bernardini will depart from post 2 underneath jockey Javier Castellano.
In advance of getting to start a horse in his hometown race for the first time, the Queens-born Glacieu Vitaminwater co-founder graciously agreed to sit for an extended interview with Horse Racing Nation last week. We discussed a host of interesting subjects over the course of the conversation, including; Repole’s commencement speech to the graduating class at his alma mater - St. John’s University, what he perceives to be the failed marketing of horse racing, the importance of fan education, and Stay Thirsty’s chances in the race on Saturday.
(Excepts of the conversation were used for my New York Times online feature, which was published earlier today.)
Horse Racing Nation: Congratulations on recently receiving an honorary Doctorate in Commercial Science from your alma mater St. John‘s University. How does it feel to be called Dr. Repole?
Mike Repole: (Laughs) Well, I actually find it funny. It’s a term that I’ve never used in my life, and there’s something that just doesn’t sound right about Dr. Repole. But it was a great honor. There were 3,000 people on hand for the commencement speech. Just the honor of speaking in front of the graduates, it was tremendous. 20 years ago I was a graduate of St. John’s with a 2.2 GPA, and to go back there and give the commencement speech -- I’ve had some big thrills in my life, and this one is right up there with any of them. I’ve been part of a company that sold for $4.1 billion. I’ve won a Breeders’ Cup race. And this commencement ranks right up there. I really had a lot of fun addressing young students who are going to go out there into the business world, or as professionals in another field. I enjoyed it a lot.
What was your message to the graduates?
I gave them three messages. And, you know, I wanted to keep it very simple, because I joked with them that I don’t remember who my commencement speaker was back in 1991, and I don‘t remember what his or her message was. So I just tried to give them these three messages - things that I’ve learned in the 20 years since I’ve graduated. The first one was; have fun, and enjoy the moment. The second was; think big, dream bigger. And the third was; success is best when shared. And I told them that two of those three always depend on friends and family.
I also told them that in the next ten years, they’ll be making the most important decisions of their lives. From the time they’re 22, 23, up to the age of 32 or so, they’re going to make a lot of key decisions. They need to recognize how crucial these years are.
(The speech) was well received. I love speaking to kids. I’ve been very fortunate, very blessed in my life. If I can share a message, or help motivate, or help inspire somebody who wants to do something that’s out of the ordinary, and they need a sounding board, I’m always here for them.
St. John’s is a commuter school. You’re not living on campus, which means you might not be immersed in the college experience as much as somebody who lives in a dorm. With that being the case, how did your bond with the university become so strong?
St. John’s basketball was a big part of my life growing up in the 80’s. In ‘85, the year before I got to St. John’s, they went to the Final Four. So my love of the school really started before I even went there. As a 12, 13, 14 year old kid, I used to take the train into Penn Station, and watch Chris Mullin, and Walter Berry play. And they’d be playing Georgetown with Patrick Ewing, or Syracuse with Pearl Washington. And I used to sit upstairs in the 400 section, where everybody looked like dots they were so far away.
I think I knew, as I was going to Holy Cross high school, that I was going to go to St. John’s. It was just something I always knew. I have a great family, and going to St. John’s allowed me to stay close to my family. To me, going away wasn’t even an option. I’ve always been close to the university. And I’ve always been about not forgetting where I came from - not forgetting things that have impacted my life. St. John’s has impacted my life in a really big way.
What have the last few weeks been like been like for you, since you were forced to scratch Uncle Mo from the Derby, knowing how close you were to seeing your lifelong dream of winning the race come true?
You know, I think you have to put things in perspective. You really have to understand the sport. I’ve said the whole time that, a) Uncle Mo is a gift, and b) you don’t know whether that gift is going to be gone in three years, or an hour. That’s the one thing about the sport, the variable of the unknown. If you’re going to be in this horse racing game, and own 82 racehorses like me, you’re going to have to be prepared. Though I can’t tell you I wasn’t disappointed when Uncle Mo didn’t win the Wood, and we discovered he had a GI infection, and we trained him up to the Derby, and had to scratch him the day before the race, I take comfort and pride in what he’s accomplished already. If Uncle Mo never runs again, you can never take away his Saratoga maiden win by 14 ¼ lengths. You can never take away his 1:34 win in the Champagne at Belmont. You can never take away his win over Boys At Tosconova in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. You can never take away his Eclipse Award as champion two year old. He is a champion whether he races twenty more times in his career, or never races again.
I was probably more disappointed for my friends, my family, Johnny Velazquez, Todd Pletcher, and Uncle Mo than I was for myself. I’ve been so fortunate and so blessed in my life that I can’t feel bad for myself. It almost would be selfish.
There had to be a moment, though, where you’re watching Barry Irwin do the media tour in the days after the race, or you’re watching someone on TV, and you’re saying to yourself; “Man, that should be me.”
The Preakness. The Preakness was the day.
The Derby…I still had a horse in the race. I still had Stay Thirsty. How lucky am I? Who else can scratch a horse the day before the Derby and still have a horse in the race? I’ve always wondered why God gave me both horses in the same year. I didn’t know why, and I figured it out on May 7th. Instead of saying “How unlucky am I?” I took the reverse course. As a kid, I dreamt about having a horse in the Kentucky Derby. And I flew 95 family members fly in, and I scratched Uncle Mo, and I still had a horse in the race. There are 35,000 horses born every year. Only twenty of them make the Kentucky Derby. So, to make the Kentucky Derby at 42 years old is a tremendous accomplishment. It’s almost like an NCAA basketball team making the Final Four.
If you ask me if I had one tough day - and really, it was more like a tough two minutes - it was watching the Preakness, and watching those fractions go up. There’s no doubt in my mind that if Uncle Mo was in the Preakness, and he was 100 percent, he probably wins the Preakness by seven to ten lengths. So if I took two minutes to say “Oh darn,” it was those two minutes.
But a half hour later, I went out to dinner with my wife and two other couples. We had a great dinner, opened up a great bottle of wine, and it was forgotten.
But if you ask me if there was a moment…watching the slowest Preakness in 17 years, that would be the moment.
If the next week or so goes according to plan, it seems like that moment won’t be repeated for you, as Stay Thirsty appears to be on course for the Belmont. Is he ready to rock next Saturday?
Stay Thirsty is ready to rock. He was really, really training well in Kentucky. He was inside, he had no excuse. He’s training well again. He had a good work (on May 29th) . He’s got another one coming up (on June 5th. He ended up going five furlongs in 1:00.45 in a work that trainer Todd Pletcher said “went really well.”) He’s still 50/50 for the race because - as I’m sure you’ve grown tired of me saying - every horse is 50/50 until post time. But he is being pointed 100 percent for the race.
I like that he’s had five weeks off. I think that gives him a big advantage over the horses that ran in the Preakness. I do not think this is a super crop of three year-olds. Many are questioning whether this is even a good crop. He’s a Bernardini, he’s bred to run all day. I just think he’s a grinder type of horse who goes :12 every eighth of a mile. I think he’s going to run a consistent race.
If Shackleford doesn’t run (since our conversation, Shackleford has been confirmed for the race), I wouldn’t be surprised if Stay Thirsty is on the lead. He broke his maiden at Saratoga going six furlongs going wire-to-wire. He had the lead over Boys At Tosconova in the Hopeful, so he’s very versatile.
In an NTRA teleconference prior to the Kentucky Derby - as you fielded questions about Uncle Mo’s health, and procedures he may not have had - you challenged the media to ask Bob LaPenta, owner of Dialed In, some of the same questions they were asking of you. Specifically, you wanted them to ask why Dialed In didn’t break his maiden until the fall. No one took you up on the challenge. Why do you think they didn’t?
I think the media knows that, first off, I’m going to speak my mind. Second, I’ve always made it clear that if I ever have a special horse, I was going to make him very accommodating and accessible to the fans. And I’ve done that.
I’m all for full disclosure. But with full disclosure has to come education of the sport. Full disclosure without education will lead to an even quicker demise of the sport. We have done a horrible job of educating our fan base. And . Until you educate and market the sport properly, how can you fully disclose things that people won’t understand.
You’ll have fans thinking minor (procedures and ailments) are serious.
For example, take pinfiring. Probably a third of two year-olds get pinfired. If you mention the term “pinfiring” to the average racing fan, or someone who’s new to the game, they’ll probably say “Oh my God! That sounds serious.” All it really means is that they probably bucked shins, and they need thirty days of rest, and thirty days of galloping, and they come right back.
I just don’t think there’s enough education out there. You say that you pinfired a horse - and a third of them probably get pinfired - and if the horse gets hurt, people are going to say “It must be because he was pinfired. That’s why he got hurt.”
If you’re ready to educate and market the sport better, then you can fully disclose and explain to the fans why this thing is happening, or why that thing is happening. The average racing fan doesn’t know about this.
I also think there are some people who are not focused on the good of the sport and who have an agenda. I don’t have an agenda. My agenda is that I love horse racing, and I want to see it be the most popular, biggest sport in the United States.
So how would you go about accomplishing that? If you were commissioner for a day, what would you do?
If I were commissioner for a day, I think the first thing I’d do is get all the major racetracks in a room together, and get them to work together. California cares about California racing. New York cares about New York racing. New York and New Jersey are trying to put each other out of business. Florida cares about Florida racing. Kentucky cares about Kentucky Racing. Santa Anita, Gulfstream, Churchill, Belmont, they all need to work together.
I’d also make it a priority, as I’ve just talked about, to educate the fans. I’d go after new fans. I bring so many people to the track, and a lot of times, I wind up being the educator. They’ll ask me, “Mike, what’s an exacta box?” or “Maiden special weight to maiden claimer. What does that mean?” If I weren’t there to help explain things, they’d pick numbers and names. And I think a lot of people do that.
You could go to a racetrack, spend $200, have a great meal, spend five or ten dollars a race, and maybe even walk home with some money. If you go to a restaurant, and you have a great dinner, not only do you go back, but you also tell your friends about it.
With horse racing, people go to the track, and they don’t want to go back because, a lot of times, they don’t know how to enjoy they experience properly. At the end of the day, you’ve got to educate people on how to do that.
And I think there are such great stories out there in horse racing. They just need to be told. Whether it’s John Velazquez winning the Derby after Uncle Mo scratches, or Kathy Ritvo winning with Mucho Macho Man in New Orleans after a heart transplant, there are so many great stories.
Let’s go back to the Breeders’ Cup. If I were marketing the sport, and I looked at the owners of the Breeders’ Cup horses over the two days last year, and I saw Bobby Flay (owner of More Than Real, Juvenile Filly Turf winner), Mike Repole, and Kevin Plank (CEO of Under Armour, owner of Shared Account, Filly and Mare Turf winner), I would say “Please God, let these three guys win races.” Three guys, all between the ages of 38 and 45. You’d think that somebody would be smart enough to say, “Wow. Here we’ve got three young entrepreneurs, that aren’t traditional, Kentucky blue-blood, 85 year old men, who can add value to the sport, and leverage this into something bigger for the game.”
And, you know, I saw one article (that called us the) “Young Turks.” I saw one or two others here and there. But, overall, no one has the national best interests of racing at heart. There are people who have the best interests of New York racing at heart. There are people who have the best interests of Kentucky racing at heart. But no one has the best interests of national racing at heart.
Imagine the NBA without David Stern. Imagine the NFL without Roger Goodell. How would they work?
They would work the way boxing works. Which is to say, not very well.
Exactly. And that’s why the UFC has come along and stolen a lot of boxing’s thunder. You have the Nevada commission, let’s say. And the Jersey commission. And one of them will say that a certain fighter can’t fight in one place - they revoke his license in one place - but not in another. Boxing’s a dead sport. And we’re headed down that path.
So if the powers that be approached you, and they asked you to assume a formal position of some kind, to get out there and help promote the sport, would you consider it?
I’m an advocate for the sport, and I love the sport. That’s a little different than being a poster child for the sport. I do this because I love it. I do this because I have a passion for it. I fell in love with horses when I was 13 years old, just watching them run down the stretch. I love handicapping. I love ownership. I love the competition. Love being around my yearlings. I love being around the barn for it. I love being at the track. I have a true love for the sport.
I think that, in a way, I’ve already become an advocate for the sport because I have decent horses and because I have such a passion for it.
So I think the answer would be yes because I think the sport needs it in the worst way. But the only way that would ever happen is if there were a national governing body.
Can the NTRA be that body?
No. The tracks need to buy in. The organizations that are out there now haven’t gotten the major tracks to buy in.
I think what’s going to happen is that one of the states will get it right - and get it right in a big way. And they’ll become an example for some of the other tracks. New York, California, Kentucky, Florida, let’s get the big fish first.
Right now, we haven’t gotten it right. I’ve been an owner for seven years, and I think that, in a way, it might be getting worse. For a guy who loves the sport (as much as I do), that’s hard to accept.
People ask me, do I encourage other owners to get into the game? Absolutely.
But, to get back to education, there’s education as a fan, and education as an owner. If you were an owner, and you went to trainers and bloodstock agents - ninety-five percent of them - and you said “I’m willing to spend five million dollars” on Tuesday, you know how much you’d have left by Friday? Zero.
A real trainer, or a real bloodstock agent would step back and say “Let’s invest two million the first year, two million the second year, and let’s evaluate how we’re doing. And if we’re making money, we’ll increase our investment.”
But that’s not how people think in this game. This whole game is about short-term thinking. There’s no long term thinking. There’s no long-term vision. There’s no long-term strategy for this sport. And until somebody sits back and says; “Where is this sport going to go two years from now? Five years from now? Ten years from now?” This sport will continue to go backwards, and lose its fan base, and have four or five horse fields at Aqueduct. I don’t blame NYRA for this. But some of the fields at Aqueduct have been horrible - horses that should never be running in New York.
A quick note: This conversation took place last Wednesday, shortly before Uncle Mo was officially diagnosed with cholangiohepatitis. I did ask about Repole about Uncle Mo’s status, but given the new information of the last few days, I now consider his answer to be irrelevant, and am, thus, withholding it from the transcript.
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