The Jockey Club rebuts criticism from Repole

The Jockey Club has released a statement rebutting an avalanche of criticism directed at the organization over the past several years by Mike Repole, the outspoken owner and breeder.

The statement, which is attributed to The Jockey Club’s board of stewards, takes direct aim at some of the most common remarks made by Repole, who has increasingly put The Jockey Club in his gunsights since he appointed himself the “commissioner” of Thoroughbred racing and started an advocacy organization, the National Racing Alliance, late in 2023.

In an interview on Wednesday afternoon, Repole dismissed the response and, in response to a direct question, said that none of the letter expressed valid criticisms of his opinions.

“I stand by what I am doing,” Repole said. “My intention is to improve this game that we all know is hurting. . . . And I think that response did more damage to them than anything else could do. It just shows how tone-deaf and delusional they are. All of their comments are excuses.”

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The statement says that The Jockey Club has avoided responding to Repole in public as a strategy to “avoid giving oxygen” to his criticism, but it goes on to say that the statement released on Tuesday afternoon would be the first in a series of responses to any further criticism.

“Faced with escalating threats and a torrent of misinformation, it is time to set the record straight, with facts, not rhetoric,” the statement said. “Starting today, we will train a lens on Mr. Repole’s attacks to show why these accusations are based on incomplete facts and falsehoods and are harmful to our sport.”

The statement denies that the board of stewards is “rife” with conflicts of interest, and it cites a statement made by Repole in which he said that he has no evidence for such a claim while threatening to file a lawsuit to uncover any conflicts. It also forcefully rebuts an accusation that the organization has misused its cash reserves, citing nearly $120 million in funding it has provided to initiatives “outside of our companies’ operations.”

The statement also takes issue with Repole’s ongoing criticism of the organization’s “commitment” to aftercare, saying that The Jockey Club is “the single largest funder of aftercare” in the industry. The statement says that members of The Jockey Club have met with Repole to discuss the issue on “multiple occasions” where they have communicated that Repole’s own plan, recently posted on social media, “lacked key components of a complete and actionable plan.”

In the interview on Wednesday, Repole accused Jockey Club officials of refusing to submit his aftercare plan to the board of stewards.

“They’re blocking it,” he said. “They’ve done nothing but stand in the way.”

Repole has blamed The Jockey Club, in part, for protracted declines in the foal crop over the past 20 years, but the statement disputes that criticism, saying that the decline is “the result of a complex mix of forces,” including economic cycles and tax policy. The statement references The Jockey Club’s support for a tax and spending bill passed in 2025 that had significantly favorable provisions to owners and breeders of horses.

The statement also rebuts claims by Repole that The Jockey Club should make past-performance information produced by Equibase, which it co-owns with a racetrack trade group, entirely free, and it takes aim at criticism that The Jockey Club’s support of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority has not made the sport safer for horses and jockeys, citing a pronounced decline in the fatality rate since HISA’s rules went into effect in most major racing jurisdictions in 2022.

“In summary, Mr. Repole disagrees with The Jockey Club and most of the industry on these and other issues,” the statement concludes. “Members of the Board of Stewards have met with Mr. Repole on multiple occasions to try to address his comments in a productive manner. Unfortunately, those meetings devolved into a one-way stream of heated accusations and demands from Mr. Repole.

"Diatribes and disagreement do not give him special authority to dictate the industry’s direction and appoint himself as the ‘Commissioner’ of our sport — especially when his positions are not based in fact or reality and he has yet to articulate any concrete or viable plans for progress.”

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