Mike Repole said he is in the process of filing a lawsuit against The Jockey Club and would welcome the chance to lock industry leaders in a room until they agreed on fixes for horse racing. He made the comments this week on The TDN Writers' Room Podcast Presented By Keeneland after asking for equal time following last week’s interview with Jockey Club chairman Everett Dobson.
Repole, the Gainesway Guest of the Week, said his dispute with the organization runs far deeper than one podcast appearance. He said he and The Jockey Club do not agree on 95 percent of things, and if Dobson’s description of that relationship were true, then the sport has a serious execution problem. If it were false, he said, then someone was lying.
Repole’s blunt tone matched the broader message he delivered about the state of racing. He said he does not see much that is working, from the foal crop to the tracks, and asked where the innovation is. He also said he tried to set up a meeting with industry leaders and was rejected by The Jockey Club.
“All I wanted to do was get a bunch of industry experts together,” Repole said. “Let’s just lock each other in a room for 24 hours, maybe two days, and just talk about what’s working, what’s not working, and what can we do to make it better in the most non-threatening way.”
The friction matters because Repole has become one of the sport’s loudest critics of its leadership, and The Jockey Club sits near the center of that fight. He said he is targeting the organization as part of a larger complaint about how racing is being run, and he added that he gets nothing from the Breeders’ Cup or The Jockey Club while HISA is accelerating the death of the sport.
That clash gives added weight to his latest public appearance, but Repole also used the podcast to talk horses. He said he co-owns Renegade with Robert and Lawana Low and believes the colt is likely the favorite in the GI Kentucky Derby. He said Renegade is training incredibly and should improve with added distance, while Zany is a top contender for the GI Kentucky Oaks.
“He looks wonderful,” Repole said of Renegade. “He’s training incredibly. He’s only going to get better with more distance.”
The question now is not whether Repole will keep pressing his case. It is whether the people he says are driving the sport will finally sit down with him before the conflict hardens any further.
