Stay Thirsty One of Five Stakes Winners for Repole

Mike Repole did not send any horses to Santa Anita for the 2012 Breeders’ Cup. Instead he designated Thanksgiving weekend at Aqueduct as the “Repole Breeders’ Cup”. He entered horses in six stakes races over three days and his blue and orange silks found the winners’ circle an amazing five times.

 

The Repole friends and family were out in force on Saturday.  They were there to share what Mike Repole had planned to be a big day. With each victory the crowd erupted. After the Cigar Mile Repole summed up the last few days, “Aqueduct is not the prettiest place in the world, but it means a lot to me, it means lot to my friends, it means a lot to my family. I grew up 10 minutes from here. I said, ‘this is my Breeders’ Cup weekend.’ We won four graded stakes. I don’t care how long I’m in racing, you’re not going to win three graded stakes in a row, two with 2-year-olds and one with Stay Thirsty, who means so much to me. This is a special, special bittersweet moment, to go out a winner, beating Groupie Doll, who’s going to win the Eclipse Award. He had the lead one time, and it happened to be when the wire came up. What a great feeling to win three stakes in a row; just amazing.”

 

First on Thanksgiving afternoon, Caixa Eletronica won for the 19^th time in his career taking the $150,000 Fall Highweight Handicap (G3). On Friday Repole took the overnight Super Mario Stakes for two year-olds on the turf with Notacatbutallama.

 

Unlimited Budget won the Demoiselle (G2) after having just broken her maiden 2 weeks earlier. This daughter of Street Sense was a $475,000 purchase in March at the Ocala sale for two year-olds. Trainer Todd Pletcher talked about their strategy, “You’re always concerned running back a little quick, but she seemed to bounce out of the race pretty well, physically and mentally. She did everything right, never seemed to turn a hair, and came back with a really good work the other day. We felt it was a calculated risk. For only her second start, it was a big effort. We thought she breezed really well at OBS and has a nice blend of stamina and speed. Very classy filly.”

 

Overanalyze won his second graded stakes race in the Remsen (G2). Along with the $150,000 winner’s share of the purse comes 10 qualifying points in the Road to the Kentucky Derby. Jockey Ramon Dominguez described the gutsy win, “When [Normandy Invasion] came to me, he actually got ahead of me. I wasn’t happy about that. My horse was taking sand by that point, but I kept after him and he kept on coming. I was very proud of the way he came back at the other horse. The other horse never stopped running. It was actually my horse doing the comeback. I was very pleased about that.”

 

The victory in the Cigar Mile was the fifth in the career of Stay Thirsty and that boosted his earnings to just below the $2,000,000 mark.  This was the last race of his career and he will now head to Coolmore for his stallion duties. Stay Thirsty has been the heart of the Repole Stable over the past three years. Pletcher said, “He was successful at 2 and won races like the Jim Dandy and Travers at 3, and the breeders love milers. He proved today he can be versatile enough to do all of those things. It was a huge win for him.”

 

Repole said, “It was Stay Thirsty that got me to the Kentucky Derby. It was Stay Thirsty that got me my Travers and now it was Stay Thirsty that got me the Cigar Mile. Stay Thirsty is a great great horse.”

 

Along with the five stakes trophies the Repole Stable took home $648,000 in purses for the wins. On his 36th birthday, Dominguez won three of the graded stakes and a total of five races today.