Flatter: Welcome Repole’s new ideas, embrace new solutions

Mike Repole is like so many big personalities in horse racing. He is not shy to express his opinions, and that makes him polarizing. That does not mean he should be dismissed out of hand.

When he formally launched the 21st-century version of the National Thoroughbred Alliance on Thursday, Repole really put his money where his mouth has been this year, even as 2023 has been an annus horribilis for his Eclipse Award winner Forte.

Repole’s colt was disqualified from a 2022 win because of a disputed drug test. He was scratched the day of the Kentucky Derby over a disputed injury. He was retired when his hoof disputed its fitness. But each time the glare hit Forte’s bad news, Repole turned it into a spotlight for his idea to reform the hierarchy of racing.

Idea is the key word here. Repole hired Pat Cummings, who was the guiding force the past five years behind the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation that was bankrolled by Glen Hill Farm’s Craig Bernick. Cummings will shut down the TIF and take his talents to the NTA, an idea that first was broached three decades ago before it was folded into the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.

The case could be made that Repole merely bought the TIF from Bernick. We shall see. What Cummings brings with him, though, is credibility that will make Repole’s critics pause or even stop in their tracks.

Cummings ran the TIF like a think tank. He authored exhaustive studies time and again, quantifying a range of concerns from batch betting by computer players to the faux wisdom of run-ups to getting racing out of its own economic dark ages. Just this week in what might have been the last act of the TIF, Cummings shined a light so bright on a Pick 6 screwup at Santa Anita that it prodded track management to pay off a jilted bettor.

For some time I felt Cummings was long on identifying ideas but short on executing solutions. That was before he saw to it that Kentucky last year became the first state to require penny breakage on payoffs. No more rounding to the nearest nickel in favor of the track. By coalescing legislative support to make that happen, Cummings truly was the solution. He can dine out on penny breakage while I eat my words.

Now Cummings combines forces with Repole, who himself has been an idea man. Some of his ideas have been good, like Vitaminwater and Bodyarmor. Some have not, like a Breeders’ Cup Derby a month after the rest of the Breeders’ Cup. He is a regular Bill Blazejowski from “Night Shift.”

Teaming the brash Repole and the measured Cummings to replace the TIF with the NTA feels like Damian Lillard joining Giannis Antetokounmpo to play basketball in Milwaukee. On paper the duo looks formidable, but only time will tell if there is enough ball and cooperation to go around.

Repole did not have a lot of concrete details to offer Thursday on what the TIF will do and how it will do it. At the risk of invoking unnecessary politics, it was reminiscent of the first mentions of MAGA. In this case it would be MRGA. To try and be fair and equal, let’s throw in the New Deal, the Great Society and the Contract with America. They all began as concepts, and the details fell into place over time.

A clue to their priorities may have come from a social-media statement two weeks ago. Foretelling Thursday’s announcement, Repole said things like “Thoroughbred retirement has always been incredibly important to me,” and “we need to do a lot more and better for the gambler.”

If those are the starting points for Repole and Cummings, they will separate themselves from the mission of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority. At least for now. At some point their mission is bound to wander into that domain.

That raises the point of another idea that was brought to the public stage this fall. The Racehorse Health and Safety Act introduced in Congress by Republican Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana would replace HISA with the promise that horsemen would have a greater role in rewriting national medication and safety rules and return enforcement power to state racing commissions.

The RHSA has the support of Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Associations who have led court fights to strike down HISA. It also ignited a cauldron of criticism from HISA supporters who said the RHSA was nothing more than a desperate attempt to return to the bad old days of letting states look the other way on cheating trainers while propping up racetrack cronyism.

We all know where the devil is in all these Scrabble tiles. If bookmakers took action on these new ventures, they would be expected to post long odds for their success. Whether it is the TIF or the NTA or HISA or RHSA, there has been plenty of chum to feed the cynical sharks.

I count myself among them. With every overreach of its authority, HISA has provided me with an argument against those who have contended it was necessary discipline for a sport totally lacking it. To me, HISA was like solving famine with dog chow and branding it as filet.

I also said, though, HISA critics needed to offer a better idea just as opponents of Obamacare should have come up with a viable plan B. The RHSA finally checked that box last month. Even if it turns out to be another brand of dog chow, at least it provides an alternative and, with it, another jumping-off point to encourage constructive dialogue. Besides, if HISA is struck down in the courts, RHSA could be the logical next step.

When it comes to the reform of this sport, we are not exactly in the 21st century. Throw in the racial injustice that was cooked into racing about 120 years ago, and the 20th century might be a pipe dream, too. We in this game really are living in the movable-type era.

The drawing board is where racing is right now, especially as it tries to find its place while its best days are a distant memory beyond the range of the rearview mirror. There should be plenty of room for ideas. Good ideas that probably do not include the National Thoroughbred League. And especially great solutions that might include the NTA.

If one is addicted to picking at Repole and his eccentricities and even the times he protests decisions that go against his own horses, so be it. It comes with the territory. The same may be said in acknowledging the salvos I regularly fire at HISA.

Count me among those who welcome what Repole and Cummings cook up in the coming weeks and months. Whether I agree with it is immaterial at this point. I am hopeful their work will be constructive with meaningful support from movers and shakers. I really want to see their ideas and especially their proposed solutions.

That all this comes as the Breeders’ Cup is about to celebrate its 40th running is more than appropriate. The championships were the brainchild of the late John Gaines. Here is hoping Repole and Cummings can follow in his footsteps.