Solis and Litt Join Growing Repole Team

Alex Solis II and Jason Litt, who operate the Solis/Litt bloodstock agency, have joined forces with owner Mike Repole, who has continued to add to his team as both his stable and his goals have grown in recent years. Repole, who owns many horses in partnership with Vinnie Viola, has about 300 horses and has been very active in recent years at the yearling sales.

“I am all about family and friends,” Repole said. “Over the last couple of years they've been helping me out with some yearlings and colts and they have a great opinion. I am a 'dream-bigger' type of guy. I won eight Grade Is in 2022, so this year I want to win nine. The next year I want to win 10. Bringing Alex and Jason on board is part of that vision.”

As part of the transition, Solis has stepped down from his full-time role as Gainesway Farm's Director of Bloodstock but will continue his relationship with the farm. Solis and Litt's agency will also continue to work with existing clients.

As Repole has doubled the number of horses in his stable over the last two years he has assembled a deep group of advisors who assist him in a number of areas, including yearling purchases and the overwhelming daily task of running such a large stable. The team includes Ed Rosen, Jim Martin, Danielle Bricker, Jacob West and Todd Pletcher. Solis and Litt will advise the growing stable and assist in acquisitions and management, but will be called upon to contribute in other areas.

“When you double the number of horses you own, yes, you need more people,” Repole said. “I am trying to build a bigger vision and a bigger strategy. I want to get more involved in racing as a sport, not just with Repole Stables. I want people with the experience Alex and Jason have. They have tremendous vision for the sport and share the same excitement I have for the sport and the same frustrations.

“Part of the evolution of growing your brand comes from hiring a bunch of smart people who have a ton of passion and are coachable and have the same vision you have. Who knows; maybe Jason will become the VP of global and I'll buy two racetracks and Alex will run them. I have no idea.”

Solis and Litt have been together since the early 2000s and have worked for many of the top names in the sport, including LNJ Foxwoods, which campaigned top older male dirt horse Olympiad (Speightstown). Other horses they have been involved with include Shared Belief (Candy Ride {Arg}), Mizdirection (Mizzen Mast), Country House (Lookin At Lucky) and Covfefe (Into Mischief). Their team also includes Madison Scott.

“Mike has gone from 150 to 300 horses and wanted to take advantage of Solis/Litt's experience managing large portfolios,” Solis said. “We've helped Mike for the last couple of years at yearling sales, and it's exciting to start in a more prominent role. It's been a seamless transition working with his existing team…Mike is big on relationships and family, and so are we. Jason and I have been

working together for 17 years and the majority of our clients have been with us since the beginning. Maintaining those ties is of utmost importance, which Mike fully embraces. It was great to be able to partner with him and our major client, LNJ Foxwoods, on two yearlings in September.”

Repole Stable enjoyed a banner year in 2022, campaigning Grade I winners Chocolate Gelato (Practical Joke), Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo), Forte (Violence) and Nest (Curlin). Forte and Nest are expected to be named Eclipse Award winners. With most any other stable, 2022 would have been a year that cannot be topped. But Repole has never hid his ambitions and won't set a ceiling when it comes to his stable's success.

“I'm not always content,” Repole said. “I talk to somebody like Tom Brady and ask him what his favorite Super Bowl was and he says it's the next one. I am ecstatic and feel blessed about where we are but I have goals. What's wrong with trying to get better?”

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‘Plenty Of Leg And Good Bone’: Taylor Made Stallions’ Tacitus Represented By First Foals

Taylor Made Stallions' multiple graded stakes winner Tacitus, a son of perennial leading sire Tapit out of champion older female and five-time Grade 1 winner Close Hatches, sired his first reported foals in New York on Monday, Jan. 16.

The first arrivals were a colt out of the Bustin Stones mare Super Stone bred by Jerry Bilinski, DVM, and born at Waldorf Farm, and a filly produced from the stakes-winning Courageous Cat mare Lady Joan bred by Irish Hill Century Farm and foaled at Irish Hill Century Farm.

“She is what I was expecting a Tacitus foal would look like,” Rick Burke of Irish Hill Century Farm said of the filly out of Lady Joan. “She has plenty of leg and good bone. She looks a lot like him.”

A Juddmonte Farms homebred trained by Bill Mott, Tacitus was a three-time graded stakes winner who banked more than $3.7 million in a stellar racing career, while recording six triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures. He broke his maiden in his second career start at two and from that point forward, he competed exclusively in graded stakes company for the next three years.

As a sophomore in 2019, Tacitus won the $400,000 Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby in his 3-year-old debut, stopping the clock in a new stakes-record time of 1:411.90 for 1 1/16 miles, just .15 off the track record in Oldsmar, Fla. In his next start, Tacitus overcame a troubled trip in winning the $750,000 G2 Wood Memorial — a race also won by his champion sire—and vaulted to the top of the leaderboard for that year's Kentucky Derby.

A game third despite a wide trip in the Kentucky Derby, defeating Grade 1 winners Improbable, Game Winner and War of Will, Tacitus remained one of the top 3-year-olds of his crop, subsequently finishing second in the Belmont Stakes and the G1 Travers Stakes. The following season at age four, Tacitus won the 1 1/4-mile G2 Suburban Stakes at Belmont Park, overpowering rivals for an 8 3/4-length victory in the sparkling time of 1:59.51.

Tacitus, who stands the 2023 season for $10,000 S&N and bred 188 mares in his initial book, is produced from Juddmonte's 2014 champion older female Close Hatches, a descendant of 1982 Broodmare of the Year Best in Show.

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Betsy Blue ‘Gives You An Effort Every Time,’ Tries Seven Panels In Saturday’s Interborough

Cloud Nine Stable's Betsy Blue will see added ground as she seeks to begin her 5-year-old season on the right foot in Saturday's $100,000 Interborough for fillies and mares 4-years-old upward going seven furlongs over the main track at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Betsy Blue, who boasts a record of 20-9-7-2 and field-best earnings of $604,510, enters off a 1 1/4-length triumph in the six-furlong Garland of Roses on December 10 here. The daughter of Tonalist took to the rear of the five-horse field, moving off the rail into the stretch and collared pacesetter Beguine in the final strides to the wire.

Bred in New York by Blue Devil Racing Stable, Betsy Blue was claimed by Rice out of a Big A starter optional claimer for $50,000 in March 2021. Two starts later, she earned her first stakes conquest when capturing the Bouwerie that May at Belmont Park by 5 1/4 lengths.

She competed mainly against open company last year, including a six-length romp in August at Saratoga Race Course going the Interborough distance that earned a career-best 96 Beyer Speed Figure. Following a close fourth in the state-bred Iroquois in October at Belmont at the Big A, Betsy Blue tried graded stakes company for the first time in the Grade 3 Go for Wand on Dec. 3 going a one-turn mile at Aqueduct, finishing third beaten eight lengths.

“I think her kick is most effective at 6 1/2 furlongs,” said Rice, who captured the 2016 Interborough with La Verdad. “She likes a fast pace in front of her and then to just lay off it. But she's pretty versatile and gives you an effort every time whether it's a mile, seven or six [furlongs].”

Rice will also saddle Winning Move Stable's Piece of My Heart, who recently defeated local allowance company going seven furlongs on January 5. The 6-year-old Flat Out chestnut has finished no worse than second in her last four starts, including a runner-up effort behind Betsy Blue in September over the Ozone Park oval. Her last out triumph was her first victory since capturing Oaklawn Park's Gardenia in May 2020, when trained by McLean Robertson. Piece of My Heart was claimed by Rice for $62,500 following a fourth-place finish in July at Saratoga.

“I think the seven-eighths is a good distance for her. Six furlongs is a little short, she's always struggling to get going by then,” Rice said.

Betsy Blue will be piloted by Jose Lezcano from post 5, while Kendrick Carmouche picks up the mount aboard Piece of My Heart, who will leave from post 3.

Aveen Campion's Flight to Shanghai enters off a distant fourth in the Go for Wand for trainer Horacio De Paz. The 5-year-old Shanghai Bobby bay boasts a consistent 16-3-3-2 record, including a third-place finish in the two-turn Serena's Song in May at Monmouth Park for former trainer Jane Cibelli.

The Go for Wand was Flight to Shanghai's first start for De Paz, who said he was encouraged by the effort.

“She's been very forward and consistent in her training,” De Paz said. “The Go for Wand was a pretty good, honest effort on her part. If you consider the field of horses she ran against, it was a huge step up.”

Breaking from post 4, Flight to Shanghai will be piloted by Jorge Vargas, Jr., who rode Bella Aurora to victory in the 2021 Interborough.

Stoneway Farm's Kentucky homebred Miss T Too seeks her first victory since September 2020, entering off a pair of third-place finishes for trainer Michael McCarthy. The Into Mischief 6-year-old bay contested the all-weather surface at Turfway Park in a last out allowance event going six furlongs on December 15, which came after a five-furlong allowance tilt on November 10 at Churchill Downs.

Eric Cancel will ride Miss T Too from post 2.

Completing the field are six-time winner Self Isolation [post 1, Dylan Davis] and starter stakes winner Easy To Bless [post 6, Jackie Davis].

The Interborough is slated as Race 8 on Saturday's nine-race card. First post is 12:20 p.m. Eastern.

America's Day at the Races will present live coverage and analysis of the Aqueduct winter meet on the networks of FOX Sports. For the broadcast schedule and channel finder, visit https://www.nyra.com/aqueduct/racing/tv-schedule.

NYRA Bets is the best way to bet every race of the Aqueduct Racetrack winter meet. Available to horse players nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at www.NYRABets.com.

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