DEAUVILLE, France– On Nov. 19 at Aqueduct, Leslie's Rose (Into Mischief–Wildwood Rose {Ire}) by Galileo {Ire}) made a spectacular debut, demolishing the competition by almost 10 lengths, becoming her sire's 42nd 'TDN Rising Star'. Nothing new there. But the Into Mischief cross with a Galileo mare got Mike Repole thinking.
Repole, the American entrepreneur who looks set to earn his second straight Eclipse Award with a champion juvenile, this time with his homebred GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Fierceness (City of Light), has become more and more invested in the breeding end of the business over the past few years, and is now looking to Europe for strains of soundness and stamina, according to the team of Eddie Rosen and Alex Solis who represented him at the Arqana December sale this week.
“Mike is a student of the game and he's very forward-thinking,” said Solis, who has worked as an advisor to Repole for several years. “In the U.S., the medication rules are changing, and becoming more like they have been in Europe for a long time, so jumping into those European pedigrees where horses are more durable and have stamina makes sense to him. So we're mixing up the bloodlines and trying new things. The mares we bought over here are really of a shape that works on the dirt.”
“Now that we're more involved in breeding, Mike has realized that the infusion of bloodlines from all over the world would be helpful to our breeding program,” said Eddie Rosen, who serves as General Manager of his Repole Stable. “We participated at Goffs and Tattersalls this year, and while Alex has been here many times, it's my first time at Deauville and Mike thought it would be a good experience for me to be here.”
Solis said that the win by Leslie's Rose in such an impressive performance made Repole think that the mixing of American and European bloodlines was the way forward for his breeding program. He has since spent €450,000 at Goffs on four mares through Jacob West, and bought three more at Tattersalls for 480,000gns. But he saved most of his powder for France. From Arqana, the team will bring back five purchases; four in-foal mares and one 2-year-filly, for a total of €875,000.
“He started buying European mares at Goffs because of the Niarchos reduction,” said Solis. “He then purchased three mares at Tattersalls. Along the same theory with the European mares, he'd like to find some South American mares.”
Repole's father was born in Nice, France, and it wouldn't be surprising to have him turn up personally in Deauville in the future, Solis said. “I have helped Mike at the sales for the last three years, and he has turned from someone I advise to a friend. It's amazing how motivating he is and the thing I really appreciate about Mike is that he's willing to try all kinds of things.”
All five of his Arqana purchases will be sent home to America. Repole keeps mares at Lane's End, Brookdale Farm, and WinStar.
Lot 45, All Grace (Fr) (Kingman {GB}), is a 7-year-old mare in foal to Too Darn Hot (GB), and brought €250,000. Lot 97, Baltic Duchess (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), is nine, and in foal to St Mark's Basilica (Fr), and sold for €180,000. Lot 104, Pamplemousse (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}), is a 9-year-old also in foal to Too Darn Hot and brought €100,000. Deep Impact (Jpn) mare Tempel (Fr) (lot 482), an 8-year-old winner who ran fourth in the G3 Prix Penelope, joined the Repole fold for €95,000 in foal to successful Grey Sovereign (GB)-line sire Kendargent (Fr) during Sunday's session.
While Repole retired his potential turf champion Up To The Mark to Lane's End Farm this winter, matings for the mares have not yet been determined, said Rosen. “They are all by sires that we like, out of very strong female families, in foal to young, very promising sires. Kingman is a sire that we have great respect for and he's had a lot of success in America, so he's appealing to us,” said Rosen of All Grace. “And this mare is from an excellent female family and we believe that Too Darn Hot is a young sire and we have confidence in him succeeding.”
“Lope de Vega, much like Kingman, has had tremendous success in America. She's in foal to St Mark's Basilica, another young sire that we think is a good prospect, and this mare [Baltic Duchess] is stakes-placed from a strong family.”
Of Pamplemousse, Rosen said, “Siyouni is another that Mike really, really likes, a successful sire, and the kind of blood we want to bring to America. It's another strong female family, and again, in foal to an excellent young prospect.”
His fourth Saturday purchase, the 2-year-old filly High Handed (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}) will be shipped home to America and pointed to a racing career. She was purchased for €250,000.
Rosen, a lawyer by trade, has served as a pedigree advisor to various clients for years, selecting horses such as Tale of the Cat and More Than Ready, among others, and recently gave up his law career to work for Repole full time. He said that Repole was very involved in the selection process, and ran up an international phone bill talking to Solis and Rosen throughout the day as he watched the sale from home in America.
“We haven't had a breeding program for a long time, but we have now bred the presumptive 2-year-old champion, and Mike likes to participate in every aspect of the business. I think that he's found that the breeding side of it is appealing to him. We have tried to upgrade the quality of the broodmare band, and have sold quite a few and purchased a few others, in order to have an exclusive broodmare band to breed from. Part of that plan was acquiring bloodlines outside of American breeding.”
“Mike is directly involved in every aspect of the program,” said Rosen. “He's very hands-on, he's brilliant and he thinks outside the box. That's why this appealed to him. He likes to try different approaches in an attempt to succeed at every level.”
Rosen tried to make the most of his first visit to Deauville, taking a D-Day tour on the Thursday before the sale with his wife, Barbara. “It has been a wonderful experience. Deauville itself is an incredible place. The D Day tour was a very emotional and educational experience. The food is fantastic, from breakfast to dinner, and meeting new people is a great part of the experience. And Arqana has been wonderful. They have been very warm and welcoming and made our stay really incredible.”
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