Official X of Mike Repole |Brand Builder| Repole Stable @NOBULL @TheUFL JUNKLESS |Nonna’s Garden | Impact Capital | St John’s |Gioia’s Dad|Family & Friends 1st
From new Thoroughbred owner to concerned fan: the sport I love needs us all in the fight. 🐎
Mid-2025 I jumped in as an owner. Early luck brought some wins and a 2026 Derby horse. Now I’m all-in on a strong group of 2-year-olds getting ready to run.
But here’s the reality check: I came in as a passionate fan, not an expert. Watching what’s happening at the macro level is concerning.
Sitting home this Saturday watching the races at Aqueduct — final weekend — I’m seeing the contrast. Decades of history and glory days versus empty stands, FanDuel/TVG pulling broadcasts, track closings across the country, and shrinking foal crops.
This isn’t doom and gloom. It’s a wake-up call!!!!!
I’m inspired by leaders like @RepoleStable Mike Repole pushing hard for change and challenging the old guard. I’ve met so many great, committed people in this game over the last year. We’re all pot-committed.
What we need now is a stronger collective voice that resonates nationally.
It’s time for every one of us — owners, trainers, fans, newcomers — to promote this sport aggressively and back new ideas.
Count me in. Who’s with me? 🔥
Happy to see something positive in horse racing this week.
Great Job by @ChurchillDowns for shining a spotlight on aftercare. 👏
I’m making a sizable donation today, and I hope others throughout the industry will join me.
For the first time, I’m optimistic that we’re finally starting to turn the corner on Thoroughbred aftercare and long term safety.
More people are working together, putting the horse first, and focusing on real solutions instead of excuses.
We still have a lot of work to do.
Thank you @ChurchillDowns
Let’s keep the momentum going.
🐎💪
Every racehorse deserves a safe future beyond the track.
Today, Churchill Downs Incorporated’s Gallop for Good will support nonprofits helping retired Thoroughbreds thrive after racing.
Learn more: https://t.co/V74qOorkMA
Today is a sad day in horse racing.
TVG/FanDuel is officially going away.
Am I surprised???
Not at all.
This is what decades of poor leadership, mismanagement, and a complete lack of vision looks like.
TVG/FanDuel wasn't just a television network.
It was horse racing's best marketing engine.
It created horseplayers. It created owners. It created lifelong fans.
For more than 25 years, TVG/FanDuel educated, entertained, and inspired people with passion, energy, integrity, and authenticity.
Nobody covered this sport better because nobody loved it more.
What a great team of people!!!!!
And now with the leadership entities in racing sitting on 100s of millions we're just letting it disappear. 🤦♂️
Don't underestimate what happens next.
Handle will decline.
Fewer fans will discover racing.
Fewer owners will enter the game.
More tracks will close.
This is so much more than losing a TV network.
This is accelerating the decline of an already struggling sport.
Personally, I wouldn't own 300+ racehorses today without TVG/FanDuel and I probably wouldn't even be the racing fan I am today without them.
Every interview and appearance on that network was an honor. Every person I met there genuinely loved horse racing and fought every day to make it better.
My heart breaks for every employee and every family affected. They all deserved better.
♥️🙏
Thank you TVG/FanDuel.
In Jan 2025, @RealPitino gave a gift to a New AD, who was navigating New World of College Athletics, and a University not prepared for it, that gift, Kenny Klein.
Devastated, but blessed to have had this HOF Person these 18 months at SJU.
Prayers/Love to Donna and family!
@EdKullStJohnsAD@RealPitino This is so so sad.
Only got to know Kenny the last 3 years, what an amazing, wonderful, caring man that impacted everyone he came across in life.
May Kenny Rest In Peace. ♥️🙏
Prayers for Donna, his entire family and his friends. ♥️🙏
@RealPitino So sorry Rick.
Only got to know Kenny over the last 3 years, what an amazing wonderful, caring man.
May Kenny Rest In Peace.
Prayers for Donna, his kids, family and friends. ♥️🙏
Wasn’t this last week’s news???
Shouldn’t you be working on more current stories like the veterinarian list/PP scandal involving the Jockey Club’s outdated, stone-age InCompass database that both the @JockeyClub and @hisa_us have access to???
Wouldn’t that be a more important and relevant story???
Or is that a story you won’t touch because it would create an uncomfortable situation for your majority owner, The Jockey Club???
Also, this story is inaccurate.
This case against @NYSGamingComm is still VERY active and going to a higher level.
A New York appellate court rules Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher will not be allowed to appeal its unanimous ruling affirming a 10-day suspension imposed on the trainer by N.Y. stewards. https://t.co/1u5g6MGnZr @DowneyProfile
Welcome to the @TheUFL , Brendan Sorsby.
The UFL is the league of opportunity.
We created our Regional Player Initiative to keep great players closer to home, closer to their fans, and on the field.
Let’s do this!!!!!
Brendan Sorsby, welcome to the @UFLRenegades.
Have your people call my people!!!!! 🏈💪
The NFL has informed teams that it will NOT be holding a Supplemental Draft, meaning Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby will not be eligible to enter the NFL in 2026.
The CBA allows the league to decide whether to hold a Supplemental Draft, and this year, it won’t.
🚨WARNING to all horse racing participants:
As we enter Year 3 of the NTA, the accomplishment I'm most proud of is that @PatCummingsNTA and I have helped give people a platform, and the courage, to speak openly about the real issues facing this sport.
For too long, too many people stayed silent.
We've pushed for transparency, demanded answers, and refused to allow industry organizations, including the @BreedersCup, @jockeyclub, @NTRA, @TOBAhorses, @hisa_us, sales companies, racetracks, ADWs, and others, to ignore the problems that continue to plague horse racing while remaining comfortable with the status quo.
What we've discovered is that the challenges facing this sport are even worse than we anticipated.
While we are proud of the collaboration and industry progression made in areas such as:
• Increased financial support for aftercare • Advancing the SAFE Act • introducing untimed gallops at sales • Bringing serious attention to CAWs • Raising awareness about the declining foal crop and struggling state-bred programs • Highlighting the continued erosion of the everyday horseplayer • Pressuring the old guard to embrace change, including leadership changes at the Jockey Club
…I believe the next two years will be the most important in the history of American Thoroughbred racing.
If these issues are not addressed simultaneously, with urgency, collaboration, and meaningful change, I can see the sport shrinking another 50% and becoming largely regionalized.
For every step forward we've taken, we've uncovered two more steps backward.
What do I see by 2028 and beyond if nothing changes???
• No racing in California • Tampa the only track left in Florida • Tracks like Monmouth, Delaware, and Parx closing • Maryland facing even more uncertainty • State-bred programs severely weakened • Foal crop falling below 10,000 • Handle declining from $11 billion toward $6 billion • A largely empty and financially challenged Belmont Park • The state of Kentucky and Oaklawn remaining strong while many others struggle to survive
• The retirement of great horsemen and women who have carried this sport for decades with a younger generation not interested in replacing them.
• Trainers like Todd Pletcher eventually stepping away.
• Owners like me holding dispersal sales
The future of this sport will not be determined by one issue. It will be determined by whether we can finally unite, collaborate, and align to address all of these challenges together.
The time for change isn't tomorrow.
It was yesterday.
Who is going to step up???
Agree or disagree, what are your thoughts???
@RepoleStable@SweezeyK@NYSGamingComm Well said commissioner, NY racing is a cesspool full of incompetent and arrogant scums, they build a 1/2 billion plus monstrosity that will be a ONE DAY WONDER, empty 90% of the time and maybe bussy 2-3 days a year.
Kentucky and Oakland is the future of racing.
NYRA should consider renaming the Hopeful Stakes the "Forte Stakes" in honor of this dominating performance.
The useless and incompetent New York Gaming Commission @NYSGamingComm can sponsor it. 😂
Four years later they're still spending taxpayer money defending the suspension of Todd Pletcher for something that wouldn't even violate today's tougher HISA National rules. 🤦♂️
Think about that….this isn’t an infraction under today’s HISA rules!!!!
NY Gaming will spend more money on this case than the $500m new Belmont Park. 🤦♂️
Bureaucratic, Arrogant, Disconnected and Incompetent.
What a clown show!!!!! 🤡
Forte won the race on the track.
The New York State Gaming Commission @NYSGamingComm is everything that is wrong with horse racing regulation.
In my opinion, they are incompetent, inflexible, arrogant, and completely disconnected from the people and horses they are supposed to serve.
Todd Pletcher was just suspended 10 days over an issue that would not even be a violation under today's tougher national rules.
Think about that.
As we were negotiating in good faith and making progress, the rules changed, stubbornness moved in, and then common sense left the room.
This should have been resolved years ago.
Instead, bureaucracy won.
Egos won.
Taxpayer-funded lawyers won.
The sport lost.
Then they tried to bully me into submission.
Bad move. 😂
I have spent my entire life betting on myself, fighting for what I believe in, and standing up to people who think a government title gives them the right to push others around.
This case will continue as long as necessary.
If that means going all the way to the Supreme Court, so be it.
What's truly amazing is how much taxpayer money New York is willing to waste defending a position that makes no sense in today's environment.
Horse racing has enough problems already.
The horses deserve better.
The owners deserve better.
The trainers deserve better.
The jockeys deserve better.
The grooms, hotwalkers, exercise riders, veterinarians, breeders, farms, and backstretch workers deserve better.
And the horseplayers and gamblers who help fund this sport deserve better.
Saratoga is a great place to race. Expensive, but great.
But Todd, myself, and many others do not need the Belmont Park and New York Gaming nonsense that comes with doing business in New York.
New York just spent, most likely wasted, more than $500 million building a new racetrack @TheNYRA.
Yet the arrogance of New York regulators continues to drive away the very people who invest in the sport.
Owners have choices.
Trainers have choices.
Horsemen have choices.
States have choices.
Kentucky understands that horse racing is about horses and people.
We can easily just run for MORE money at @ChurchillDowns and one of its other tracks with 1/2 the expenses.
Too often New York acts like horse racing is about regulators and power.
That arrogance is leading to exactly what it deserves.
A costly, beautiful, new EMPTY building, with fewer horses.
Fewer owners.
Fewer trainers.
Fewer bettors.
Fewer customers.
And fewer reasons for people to come.
Other than major stakes races, Todd and I are seriously questioning how much year round support we want to give New York racing.
In all honesty, racing here hasn’t been much fun. Todd and I are both far from perfect 😂, but we really try to well represent New York racing and all racing in general.
Horse racing doesn't need more bureaucracy.
Horse racing doesn't need more politics.
Horse racing needs leadership.
And New York desperately needs some.
F$&k them.
Your beloved Commisioner,
Mike from Queens
from someone that has seen and talked to lobbyists in DC for years to ban horse slaughter- believe one thing, @RepoleStable through @PatCummingsNTA are making more headway than ever- this is one of the most important efforts we can do in racing- thank them.
Statement from David O'Rourke, NYRA President & CEO
"Horse racing in New York is a community of hard-working people linked together by a shared commitment to the horses. This morning's tragic fire at the Saratoga Hotel Casino Harness Track will have a profound impact on that community, and NYRA extends our condolences to all those affected by this loss.
“NYRA stands ready to support our neighbors at Saratoga Hotel Casino with any assistance they may need at this time."
THINK BIG. DREAM BIGGER.
A year ago, people said I was crazy for investing in the @TheUFL
Maybe they were right.
Take chances.
Take risks.
Bet on yourself.
The biggest opportunities in life usually sound crazy at first.
Congrats to the @UFLKings on becoming United Bowl Champions.
Thank you to our teams, players, coaches, staff, partners, networks, and most importantly, our fans.
Proud of Year 1.
We'll get better in Year 2.
🏈💪
🚨 UNITED BOWL DAY 🚨
Today. 3 PM ET. ABC.
The biggest game in @TheUFL history.
We're looking for our first-ever 2 million viewer game, and the excitement around this matchup has been incredible.
And yes, before anyone points it out...
I can officially confirm this will be the most attended and most watched professional football game in history for the month of June. 😂
Thank you to our fans, players, coaches, partners, and everyone who believed in this league.
Now let's go crown a champion!!!!!
LFG. 🏈💪
Who do you like. @UFLDefenders or @UFLKings ???