Repole is an ‘interested buyer’ for Gulfstream Park

Thoroughbred owner Mike Repole said he would be “a very interested buyer” for Gulfstream Park and would continue racing at the Florida track.

“We’ve had meetings,” he said in an X post. “I can’t force anyone to sell.”

Tiffani Steer, vice president of communications for Gulfstream owner 1/ST racing, did not return a message seeking comment.

Repole said in the post that he will attend the OBS spring 2-year-olds in training sale next week in Florida to support state horsemen against decoupling racing and slot-machine licenses.

Repole said he is “100% against decoupling,” adding that thousands of horses bred and foaled in Kentucky are shipped to Florida for raising and pre-training. Proposed decoupling legislation passed a Florida Senate committee on April 1, despite impassioned opposition from stakeholders.

Danny Burgess, the committee member who sponsored the Senate bill, said he hopes it would push both sides to hammer out a compromise that would preserve Florida’s racing industry.

“To sit here and say that it’s not with like a heavy heart that we’re having this conversation would be a lie,” said Burgess, a Tampa Bay-area Republican. “There’s no satisfaction in presenting a bill and getting it passed when you have so many in the audience that understandably are incredibly scared and concerned about what happens to their livelihoods and their line of work and everybody that’s affiliated with that. There’s no pleasure in that. All I can reassure you with is a deep commitment that we are seeking to get this right.”

Burgess noted that the amended bill would not allow Gulfstream Park to decouple for three years with a requirement for at least four more years of racing before any shutdown. By comparison, a bill in the House would require two years’ notice and three more years of racing.