Breeders' Cup: Repole, citing juvenile Lasix ban, won't send any horses to Santa Anita

No Lasix, no Mike Repole-owned horses for this year’s Breeders’ Cup.

Repole, who could have had as many as six starters for next month’s Breeders’ Cup races – including Stay Thirsty for the $5 million Classic – said Wednesday that he will not send any horses to California for this year’s event at Santa Anita. Stay Thirsty will make his final career start in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct on Nov. 24.

[BREEDERS' CUP 2012: DRF top 10 lists, video replays, latest news]

Repole said one of the main reasons he is not sending horses to the Breeders’ Cup is because Lasix will not be permitted for use in the five 2-year-old races. Four of the horses Repole was considering running in the Breeders’ Cup – Overanalyze, Micromanage, Coconut Shrimp, and Notacatbutallama – are 2-year-olds.

Overanalyze, winner of the Grade 2 Futurity, will start next in either the Iroquois at Churchill or the Nashua at Aqueduct. Micromanage will run in the Remsen at Aqueduct on Nov. 24. Coconut Shrimp and Notacatbutallama will run in overnight stakes at Belmont on Oct. 28.

“I’m a pro-Lasix person,” Repole said. “It’s the one drug that can prevent a horse from bleeding and help a horse. I’ve spoken to a lot of veterinarians and a lot of trainers who have given me enough information to make me feel Lasix is a drug that horses need. For them to experiment on one of America’s biggest racing days and stages makes no sense. It’s kind of par for the course.”

Repole said that forcing the 2-year-olds to race without Lasix is not only unfair to the horses, but to the betting public as well.

“Definitely, it’s not fair to the fan,” Repole said. “You’re going to be handicapping five 2-year-old races with horses that 99 percent ran on Lasix their whole careers, and now you’re asking them to run without it. They’re going to be impossible races to handicap, impossible races to bet. You might as well go by somebody’s name or number.”

In the case of Stay Thirsty, who comes off a strong second-place finish in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Repole said he is concerned about the lack of success horses shipping west from New York have had over the years in the Breeders’ Cup.

“It’s been proven when horses go from east to west – I’m not sure why, I wish I had the answer – they don’t seem to run too well,” Repole said. “Even before there was Poly out there, when you fly east to west the horses don’t travel well.”

For the 2008 and 2009 Breeders’ Cups, Santa Anita’s main track was a synthetic surface. It has since been switched to dirt.

Repole said that Caixa Eletronica, who would have had to have been supplemented to either the Dirt Mile or Sprint, will run in the Grade 3, $150,000 Bold Ruler at Belmont on Oct. 27.

Repole also said that he takes issue with the Breeders’ Cup officials who have decided not to bring the event to Belmont Park, which last hosted the event in 2005. The Breeders’ Cup will be held at Santa Anita this year and next, making it four times in six years that track will have hosted the event.

“That Belmont hasn’t had the Breeders’ Cup in almost 10 years to me is a travesty,” Repole said.