I understand Mike Repole. Mike might not understand me.
I used to have great difficulty accepting a situation for being the way that it is, if it wasn't the way I wanted it. I don't always like the fact there are situations not the way I want them. I understand Mike Repole. Mike has some good ideas as they relate to the horse business in North America. Frustration brings forth ideas from winners like him.
These ideas when put into action will either solve a problem or take you away from realizing something more important, or that's what happened with me. Sometimes, the truth is hard to swallow. Life doesn't always go my way. I've primarily learned this as a result of my involvement in the horse business and also being absolutely broken by alcoholism and drug addiction. The horse business is the greatest game in the world for a guy like me to learn life's lessons. By Grace, I'm not broken anymore whether life goes my way or not.
I live in the greatest country in the world. We are a capitalistic country, for now, and I pray for America to remain a capitalistic society. We have free enterprise. We have local, state, and federal laws, rules, and regulations that are suppose to be for everyone who are involved in the activity to which the particular laws, rules, or regulations apply. And private businesses and companies make their own rules and guidelines within the bounds of local, state, and federal rules, regulations, and laws. We have too much government in my opinion, and that's a difficult fix, too.
The American horse business has been a transaction or sales oriented industry since the mid-1980s and began losing focus then of long-term consequences from not being process oriented and process focused. Anyone can play in the horse business. That doesn't mean, however, anyone can always win at whatever facet they are involved in, yet they can try their best. Mike Repole tries his best. He appears to me to be that type of person. Most horse owners I know have that characteristic. They are winners. And most winners hate to lose. That's who makes up the horse business.
My experience is that men like Mike Repole either get deeper into the horse business at this juncture, or they get out. I got in from the womb, I got out from not being able to handle some difficult truths, and I got back in because of the horse. The horse, to me, is the greatest animal in the world. Jesus is coming back on a horse and there are few more important truths than that, whether you believe it or not. Back to the matter at hand.
I hope Mike stays in and works on fixing the existing process and not just creating another facet to add to our existing mess. Less will be more. How does one fix the mess that is the horse business in America? First accept where we are playing. We are playing in a capitalistic, free-enterprise country. While I'm not nuts about what Churchill Downs' focus is, which to me is, to brand and monetize the Kentucky Derby, and make money regardless of other people's dissatisfaction about what and how they do what they do. You've gotta hand it to them – they do it very well and they make no bones about it. Mike Repole doesn't appear to hesitate to state his position, either.
Mike obviously isn't satisfied without being uber successful at and in everything he does. The horse business is the greatest equalizer and educator of the human ego. Mike knows he won't win them all. He's realizing and obviously aware this game is multi-faceted and not his own single-focused private enterprise. The horse business needs winners like Mike Repole; however, like most everybody else in the horse business that doesn't mean it will all go your way when even the stage is set just the way you want it. You win some on the track … you lose more. The horse business needs winners like Mike Repole to stay in the game to help set the stage for a better future.
Finn Green, Frankfort, Ky
An active fourth-generation horseman, Green provides consulting and management services to thoroughbred industry participants through his deWaal Thoroughbreds, LLC.
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