LEXINGTON, KY – Mike Repole is heading into Breeders' Cup weekend with 'Uncle Mo' on his side.
After fulfilling a lifelong dream by running one-two in the GI Belmont S. with the recently retired and Spendthrift-bound Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo) and Nest (Curlin)–one of Repole's seven Grade I victories on the year–the momentum has continued to build for the native New Yorker's stable ahead of this year's Championships at Keeneland.
'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence) and Chocolate Gelato (Practical Joke), two of the bigger names on the 'Future Stars Friday' card, will line up in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile and Juvenile Fillies, respectively. The aforementioned Nest will look to put an exclamation point on her brilliant 3-year-old campaign against an all-star cast of older fillies and mares in Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Distaff. All three are trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher.
“This has been an amazing year,” Repole said. “It's one thing to win the Belmont. But in all my biggest dreams, I never envisioned them coming down the stretch with the blue-and-orange silks in first and second. We won seven Grade I's this year, which is insane, with the incredible team that we've put together of Ed Rosen, Jim Martin, Jake West, Danielle Bricker, and, of course, Todd Pletcher, who has the most pressure.
“Having horses like Chocolate Gelato, Forte and Nest, I have to scratch my head every day,” Repole added.
It's been 12 years now since Repole Stable's flagship runner turned Coolmore leading sire Uncle Mo concluded his championship season with authority in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs.
“I think Uncle Mo not only was the perfect name for that horse (Editor's Note: Uncle Mo is a popular sports expression used to describe when a team or player gets on a roll), but I really think that he's been the perfect name for the stable,” Repole said. “From Uncle Mo, you get Mo Donegal. You get horses like that. At the end of the day, he's gonna be the patriarch of the stable.”
Stars in the Making…
Forte is likely to go off as the second choice in the Juvenile behind the unbeaten Bob Baffert-trained MGISW and 'Rising Star' Cave Rock (Arrogate). Looking to be any kind with a blowout debut win at Belmont Park, Forte has more than made up for an off-the-board finish as the favorite in Saratoga's GIII Sanford S. with a pair of subsequent wins at the highest level.
After splashing home first by three lengths in a saturated renewal of the GI Hopeful S. with next-out GI Champagne S. winner 'Rising Star' Blazing Sevens (Good Magic) back in third, Forte passed his two-turn test in style with a hard-fought neck decision after making a powerful, sweeping move on the far turn over the Juvenile track and trip in the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity.
Bred in Kentucky by South Gate Farm and co-owned with Vinnie Viola's St. Elias Stable, Forte is one of six Grade I winners for Violence. The $80,000 Keeneland November weanling and $110,000 Keeneland September yearling hails from the extended female family of champion 2-year-old filly Folklore (Tiznow).
“We went out there for the Futurity with the number one goal to prepare this horse for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile,” Repole said. “We wanted to get a race over the track and for him to be stabled at Keeneland. The way he did it was incredibly impressive. He's getting better and better.”
Repole continued, “We have that West Coast Baffert horse to beat. We know we can sit behind horses and we'll see what happens. You never know, you got to show up, right?”
Chocolate Gelato, winner of the GI Frizette S., has been installed as the 7-2 morning-line favorite in a full field of 14 for the Juvenile Fillies. “I think it's a wide-open race,” Repole said.
A disappointing third on debut as the heavy favorite on opening day at Saratoga, Chocolate Gelato ran to those lofty expectations next time out, airing in front-running fashion with a career-best 92 Beyer a month later at the Spa. The $165,000 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky yearling and $475,000 Fasig-Tipton Florida 2-year-old showed a different dimension over a sloppy track going a one-turn mile in the Frizette, rallying through traffic from fifth with a blitz on the far turn en route to a professional-looking one-length victory.
She will seek to become the ninth filly to pull off the Frizette/Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies double. Bred in Kentucky by Vince Colbert, Chocolate Gelato's deep female family includes GISWs Imagining, Rhythm, Girolamo and Super Saver. She makes her two-turn debut in the Juvenile Fillies.
“She sat behind horses, got mud in her face and she fought down the stretch,” Repole said of Chocolate Gelato's Frizette win. “She's on the backstretch sitting in fourth or fifth on the inside and I said to everyone around me, 'If this is a good horse, she's gonna win this race because this is a really tough spot.' She was 8-5, but at that point, if there were live odds, I would've made her 6-1. Irad [Ortiz, Jr.] said she came through willingly and the rest is history.”
That Top 1% of 1%…
It's been a season to remember for the division-leading Nest, led by a trio of jaw-dropping Grade I victories against her peers in Keeneland's GI Central Bank Ashland S. and Saratoga's GI Coaching Club American Oaks and GI Alabama S. Also a solid second as the favorite in the GI Kentucky Oaks, the $350,000 Keeneland September graduate ran terrific in defeat once again after stumbling at the start against the boys in the final leg of the Triple Crown. The Repole Stable, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Michael House colorbearer punched her ticket to Lexington with an effortless 9 3/4-length win while taking on older fillies and mares for the first time in the GII Beldame S. at Aqueduct.
“I've been so blessed to have Grade I, special horses,” Repole said. “The only horse I've owned that I can even remotely at this time compare her to is Uncle Mo. Uncle Mo had the brilliance of that top 1% of 1%. Nest has that. She's a once-in-a-lifetime filly and she's coming back next year. She's just getting better.”
Nest may be favored in a Distaff field for the ages that also includes her champion 'Rising Star' stablemate Malathaat (Curlin), MGISW Clairiere (Curlin) and GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Secret Oath (Arrogate).
“I dreamed of watching races like this as a kid,” Repole said. “Forget that she's potentially the favorite. It's an honor and a blessing just to be in a race like this.”
Bred in Kentucky by Ashview Farm and Colts Neck Stables–also the breeders of Mo Donegal–Nest is one of 19 top-level winners for the mighty Curlin. Her full brother GI Santa Anita H. winner Idol (Curlin), campaigned by Calvin Nguyen, will begin his career at stud as a Repole Stable/Taylor Made Stallions Venture in 2023. Their 2-year-old stakes-winning half-brother Lost Ark (Violence), a troubled sixth in the Breeders' Futurity, is entered in the Juvenile.
“I've been following Idol's career since the day we purchased Nest as a yearling,” Repole said. “A few weeks after we bought Nest, Idol broke his maiden and showed incredible talent. It was very exciting when he won a Grade I in California. Now with Nest and Idol both being Grade I winners, I'm excited about both of their future potentials–Idol as a stallion, and Nest, one day in the future, as a broodmare.”
Strength in Numbers…
Smart money says that you're going to be seeing a lot more of Repole in the coming years at the Championships. The co-founder of Glaceau Vitaminwater (sold to Coca-Cola for a reported $4.1 billion in 2007) and the sports drink BodyArmor (which also sold to Coca-Cola for $5.6 billion in 2021) and Viola's St. Elias Stables led all buyers for the second straight year at the Keeneland September sale, purchasing 31 yearlings in partnership for $12.84 million ($414,194 average).
In addition to Forte, Repole and St. Elias, of course, teamed up to campaign 2019 GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner and champion older dirt male Vino Rosso (Curlin), himself a $410,000 KEESEP graduate. Now standing at Spendthrift Farm, Vino Rosso was represented by a first-crop filly that brought $550,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale.
“It's been a good run, so I stepped it up a little bit,” Repole said. “I thought I was being too cheap, so I decided to spend a little bit more money last year and this year. I say I do this with 5% of my time. I think I'm gonna increase it to 10%, so let's see what happens.”
With an emphasis on creating stallions, Repole, either alone or in partnership, purchased a total of 70 yearlings at Keeneland September for a total of $26.67 million. Some of Repole's other high-profile partners include: Coolmore, Eclipse, West Point, Spendthrift and Gainesway.
“At first, I was really against partnerships,” Repole said. “I kinda wanted to call the shots. But at the end of the day, you know what? Number one, it builds relationships and partnerships that are very important to me. And number two, would you rather own 50% of 100 horses? Or 50 horses at 100%. I'd rather double my chances, or in certain ways, triple my chances.
“What I'm most proud of with the seven Grade I wins this year is that you've got my partnership with Eclipse with Nest, Forte with my friend Vinnie Viola, Mo Donegal with Donegal Racing and Chocolate Gelato, who is 100% Repole. It's pretty cool to have those four horses, own 50% or more on all of them and have all these different partners.
Repole concluded, “We want to win, we want to have fun and we want to share success. Those are the goals of the stable.”
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