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In response to an open letter to the industry published in Tuesday's TDN from The Jockey Club, Mike Repole has proposed a four-hour, live forum between himself and The Jockey Club Board of Stewards, with a $1 million donation to aftercare. The concept was proposed o his feed on X Tuesday evening.

“I'm proposing a four-hour, live, uncensored forum between me and the Board of Stewards of The Jockey Club, broadcast for every track operator, owner, trainer, breeder, jockey, employee, horseplayer and fan in the industry to watch. Full transparency. No spin. No scripts. To further encourage you to do what's right for the people of this industry and for the Thoroughbred themselves, I propose a $1,000,000 aftercare commitment tied to this forum. I'll personally contribute $500,000. The Stewards collectively would contribute $500,000.”

The Jockey Club's letter rebutted several criticisms that Repole has aimed at the organization as well as others in the industry regarding the decline of the foal crop, aftercare funding, and access to data.

 

 

 

The post Repole Proposes Four-Hour Live Uncensored Debate appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Hip 56, a colt by New York-based sire Bucchero bred by McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds and Spruce Lane Farm, sold for $50,000 Tuesday at OBS. Photo courtesy of McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds.

New York-bred short yearling colts by Empire State-based sires Bucchero and Mind Control fared well during Tuesday’s Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s winter mixed sale.

Hip 56, a colt by Bucchero out of the stakes-placed City Zip mare Spirit of Rose, led the way on a $50,000 bid from Joe DiRico.

Bred by consignor McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds and Spruce Lane Farm and foaled at McMahon of Saratoga in Saratoga Springs, the April 20 colt is the eighth out of Spirit of Rose. She’s the dam of the stakes-placed, 14-time winner and $469,149-earner Thorny Tale, stakes-placed winner Zipalong and three other winners.

Bucchero, the sire of 2025 champion male sprinter Book’em Danno and the earners of more than $5.8 million last year, stands for $12,500 at Ironhorse Stallions in Schuylerville.

Hip 18, a son of Mind Control out of the stakes-placed Adios Charlie mare Psychic Ability, sold to M & M Bloodstock for $37,000.

Hip 18, a colt by New York-based sire Mind Control bred by Irish Hill Century Farm, sold for $37,000. Photo courtesy of Beth Bayer.

Bred by and foaled at Irish Hill Century Farm in Stillwater and consigned by Beth Bayer, agent, the colt is the first foal out of Psychic Ability. She went 2-2-2 in 10 starts, including a runner-up finish in the 2021 Stonehedge Farm South Sophomore Fillies Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, and earned $98,630.

Irish Hill Century Farm purchased Psychic Ability, carrying the Mind Control colt in utero, for $5,000 at the 2024 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga fall mixed sale. Mind Control, a multiple Grade 1-winning son of Stay Thirsty, stands for $6,000 at Irish Hill and Dutchess Views Stallions in Stillwater.

Hip 298, a daughter of Pappacap out of the winning Bodemeister mare Lady Fatima, brought the highest price for a filly on a bid of $35,000 from UNI Racing LLC.

Bred by CTR Stables LLC, foaled at Stonegate Stables in Fort Edward and consigned by Doble J Equine Sales, agent, the filly is the third foal out of $91,270-earner Lady Fatima. She’s the dam of the unraced 3-year-old New York-bred Tacitus filly Paradox of Faith and an unnamed 2-year-old New York-bred filly by Instagrand.

OBS reported sales on 23 of the 43 New York-bred short yearlings for a total of $290,000, an average price of $12,609 and median of $9,000.

The post Colts by Bucchero, Mind Control stand out at OBS appeared first on New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc. News.

A yearling filly from the first crop of multiple Grade I winner Taiba (hip 80) attracted the highest price of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's January Winter Mixed Sale Tuesday when selling for $150,000 to Marc Gunderson. The filly was one of three on the day–and two from Beth Bayer's consignment–to sell for six figures during an auction which produced increases over its 2025 renewal.

By the close of business Tuesday, 183 horses sold at the Winter Mixed sale for a gross of $3,476,100. The average of $18,995 rose 30.2% from the 2025 auction, while the median was up 60.0% to $12,000. Of the 307 catalogued lots, 257 head went through the ring and, with 74 reported not sold, the buy-back rate was 28.8%.

“The market is strong. It's very strong,” Bayer said. In addition to competitive bidding at the top, Bayer observed, “there were end-users across the board to get the other ones sold.”

During last year's Winter Mixed sale, 212 horses sold through the ring for a gross of $3,098,700, an average of $14,617, and a median of $7,500. The buy-back rate was 21.5%.

The sale-topping filly, both bred and consigned by Bayer, is out of Tranquil Song (Unbridled's Song) and is a half-sister to multiple stakes winner and multiple graded-placed Isolate (Mark Valeski).

Bayer purchased Tranquil Song as an 11-year-old for $2,000 at the 2018 Keeneland November sale. The mare's now 2-year-old colt by Cyberknife sold for $125,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale. In addition to her six-figure yearlings, Tranquil Song has also had a pair of foals sell for $90,000 at the OBS October sale in 2022 and 2024.

“She's been a really good mare for me,” Bayer said of Tranquil Song, who was bred and campaigned by John Sykes of Woodford Thoroughbreds. “I was working for Woodford–the first year I worked for them–and Mr. Sykes was selling some mares. Isolate was a foal at that time and he went through the ring a book or two ahead and sold for $70,000 and his momma came through empty and I bought her through the ring because I had seen him and he was so pretty. And of course, he's gone on and done all of the wonderful things he has done for the catalogue page and became such a great racehorse. And she's an Unbridled's Song mare, so I felt like I couldn't go wrong doing that.”

Of Tuesday's sale topper, Bayer said, “I have loved this filly since she was born. She was all class and a sweet, level-headed filly. She's done everything right the last four days at the sale. I kind of thought she would fall [in that price range]. I knew she had some value to her. You never know what's going to happen until it does, but I was very pleased when it did.”

Gunderson, a prolific buyer during the 2025 yearling sales season, continued to be active at the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale two weeks ago where his purchases included an $800,000 short yearling colt by Gun Runner (hip 114) and the broodmare Way to be Marie (Not This Time) (hip 502), acquired for $750,000.

Bayer also consigned the auction's second-highest offering, a yearling colt by Nashville (hip 22) who sold for $140,000 to Always Dreaming. Out of Rapid Racer (Forest Wildcat), the colt had been purchased by Racing Point for $37,000 at the Keeneland November sale two months ago.

“He was a client's horse,” Bayer said of the colt. “I was very pleased when I saw him when he came to the sales grounds. He was very well-received. He was just a big, strong colt and was very eye-appealing.”

Rounding out the trio of six-figure yearlings at the one-session auction was a colt by Simplification (hip 191) who sold for $100,000 to Rising Dividends Racing from the consignment of Danielle Loya's Silver Oaks Farm.

The post Taiba Filly Tops ‘Strong’ OBS January Winter Mixed Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

The Illinois Racing Board suspended on Monday the license of Suburban Downs, Inc, which manages Hawthorne Race Course's Harness meet, for “failure to provide documentation demonstrating its financial integrity, and proof that they can meet the minimum standards” as outlined in certain state laws, according to a press release by the board.

Monday's action to suspend Suburban Downs's authorization to operate in Illinois follows Board action to cancel January 3-4 races for failure to submit required surety bonds, the press release states. Suburban Downs had been awarded 34 Harness race dates in 2026.

All licenses granted by the Illinois Racing Board are subject to the Illinois Horse Racing Act of 1975 and all applicable administrative rules outlined in Title 11 of the Illinois Administrative Code.

“Today the Illinois Racing Board made a very difficult decision to suspend the operating license of Suburban Downs,” wrote IRB executive director Domenic DiCera in the press release. “On Jan. 15th, IRB requested bank statements that reflect the operating fund, and any fund related to racing operations at Suburban Downs. Unfortunately, their financial difficulties, including failure to provide financial documents showing their ability to operate assigned 2026 race dates, have led us to suspend their license.”

According to the press release, the racing board sent on Jan. 26 a letter to Tim Carey, Owner/CEO of Suburban Downs, outlining the sorts of financial records it's privy to under state law.

“The Board may require that the records, including financial or other statements of any licensee or any person affiliated with the licensee who is involved directly or indirectly in the activities of any licensee as regulated under this Act to the extent that those financial or other statements relate to such activities be kept in such manner as prescribed by the Board, and that Board employees shall have access to those records during reasonable business hours,”

The letter also outlines violations of 11 Ill. Admin Code 1314.120 which states “If track pays any purse by check, which upon presentation is dishonored, the matter shall immediately be referred to the Board for disposition”.

The Board will consider reinstating the licenses of Suburban Downs, Inc. should they cure the violations and provide documentation demonstrating they meet the minimum standards, including but not limited to its financial integrity, under the Act and rules contained in Title 11 of the Illinois Administrative Code, according to the press release.

The next Illinois Racing Board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 28.

The post Illinois Racing Board Suspends Suburban Downs Organization Licenses appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Since 2023, Mike Repole has waged a campaign of inflammatory social posts and public statements targeting The Jockey Club and other leading Thoroughbred organizations. His rhetoric relies on selective facts and false narratives–fueling division, eroding trust, and distracting from the real work our industry needs to move forward. His campaign offers no solutions or concrete plans and appears instead to be part of an effort by Mr. Repole to anoint himself the “Commissioner” of the sport.

As Stewards of The Jockey Club, we work to improve racing and breeding in ways that protect the horse, support workers, grow the industry, and build public trust. Our priority has been to focus on the work and avoid giving oxygen to Mr. Repole's baseless charges. But faced with escalating threats and a torrent of misinformation, it is time to set the record straight–with facts, not rhetoric.

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. We will also highlight the ways in which The Jockey Club supports Thoroughbred racing and breeding throughout the Thoroughbred's entire life cycle. Our responses follow:

 

Claim: Mr. Repole alleges that the Board of Stewards is rife with conflicts of interest and engages in personal self-dealing for implied financial benefit.

Reality: Mr. Repole's allegations about the Board of Stewards are baseless and represent the worst kind of attack, the sort that attempts to damage reputations through insinuation rather than facts. Mr. Repole has even admitted that he has no facts to rely upon and that filing a lawsuit is his only way to try to find anything relevant.

These reckless accusations are irresponsible, unfounded, and deeply unfair to the individuals who volunteer their time and act in good faith to support the activities of The Jockey Club, a New York Not-for-Profit that operates in compliance with the conflict-of-interest requirements of the New York Not-for-Profit laws.

 

Claim: The Jockey Club misuses its cash reserves.

Reality: Over the past 15 years, The Jockey Club has contributed $112 million to support a wide range of racing, breeding, and aftercare-related matters outside of our companies' operations. For 2026, The Jockey Club has committed an additional $7 million to support those causes. This nearly $120 million investment is instrumental in driving growth and innovation, and in supporting multiple efforts to increase support for aftercare organizations, equine safety, increased national television coverage, and marketing, all of which are essential to the industry's vitality and public appeal.

 

Claim: The Jockey Club has failed to address aftercare.

Reality: Aftercare is a shared industry responsibility. The Jockey Club has performed its role dutifully, and it is wrong to assert that it has ignored aftercare or that “nothing has changed.” The Jockey Club is the single largest funder of aftercare–contributing $2.5 million this year and $23 million over the past 15 years–and is a founding member of Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance.

Further, Mr. Repole recently posted an aftercare “plan” on X and criticized The Jockey Club for not implementing it. But what he shared was a bare-bones “Funding Model Projection” that largely mirrors Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance's funding approach and, as was clearly communicated to him by The Jockey Club, lacked key components of a complete and actionable plan, i.e., how donors would be incentivized, how the additional funds would be spent, and how success would be measured.

The Jockey Club is increasing its support for Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance in 2026 and continues to work with sales companies and other stakeholders to support Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance and broader initiatives such as retraining and traceability.

 

Claim: All industry data should be distributed for free.

Reality: Mr. Repole argues that racing-related data compiled by Equibase (a joint venture of The Jockey Club and the Thoroughbred Racing Associations of North America racetracks, including Churchill Downs, NYRA, and Stronach racetracks) “should be [distributed] free just like every other sport.” He ignores that the gathering, compilation, quality control, and distribution of racing data is not costless–it requires continuing expenditures to support significant human resources and technological infrastructures to deliver vital and reliable data.

At the same time, the premise that other major sports “give away” all of their commercially usable data is flat-out incorrect as they regularly monetize their data. (See for instance, Data Ain't Dead: Protecting the numbers as the sports data industry matures.)

 

Claim: Mr. Repole continually blames the declining Thoroughbred foal crop on The Jockey Club, such as in an X post last August: “[U]nder the Jockey Club's watch, supply has been gutted. For over 20 years, while claiming to act for the 'betterment' of the sport, they've mismanaged it into the ground. The foal crop has dropped from 50,000 to less than 20,000.”

Reality: The decline in the foal crop is the result of a complex mix of forces–economic cycles, industry consolidation, and competition from other forms of gaming and sports wagering.

As a key example, tax policy has been a major driver of breeding economics for decades, and the Tax Reform Act of 1986 removed incentives that previously helped fuel breeding investment. In 2025, The Jockey Club worked with other industry organizations to help make 100% bonus depreciation for horse purchases permanent. For an in-depth examination of the foal crop decline, see The Jockey Club's Chair Everett Dobson's Nov. 6, 2025, Thoroughbred Daily News essay, Open Letter: The Declining Foal Crop and The Road Ahead.

 

Claim: Mr. Repole has stated that the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) has done nothing to improve equine safety and criticizes The Jockey Club for supporting HISA. In fact, one of his lawyers sent The Jockey Club a letter on October 2, 2025, stating categorically: “Any suggestion that the sport is safer, or in any way better due to HISA, is demonstrably false.”

Reality: Racing under HISA is safer. As reported to the Equine Injury Database:

In 2021–the year preceding the HISA safety program–the fatality rate was 1.39 per 1,000 starts. In 2024 the rate at HISA-regulated tracks declined to 0.9 per 1,000 starts. In contrast, in 2024 the fatality rate at U.S. tracks not overseen by HISA was 1.76 per 1,000 starts. (Please see Equine Injury Fatality Rate 2009-2024. Figures for 2025 are still being compiled as tracks are still submitting their reports.)

 

In summary, Mr. Repole disagrees with The Jockey Club and most of the industry on these and other issues. 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.

We hope that sharing facts will provide clear insights into Mr. Repole's baseless accusations and illustrate the concerted efforts by The Jockey Club and others to help sustain and grow the sport. We will continue to work with members of the Thoroughbred industry to maintain a constructive and collaborative path forward.

 

Board of Stewards of The Jockey Club:

• Everett R. Dobson (Chair)
• Louis A. Cella
• William S. Farish Jr. (Vice Chair)
• Gary Fenton
• Terry Finley
• Ian D. Highet (Treasurer)
• Marc Holliday
• Stuart S. Janney III
• Bret Jones
• William M. Lear Jr. (Secretary)
• David O'Farrell
• Vincent Viola

The post An Open Letter To The Thoroughbred Industry From The Board Of Stewards Of The Jockey Club appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

New benchmarks were set Jan. 27, where a condensed session saw 188 yearlings sell for total receipts of NZ$12,247,000, a 25% rise on last year's results. The average jumped 80% to NZ$65,145, while the median finished at NZ$60,000, up 124%.

To better accommodate buyers and sellers in the wake of a nationwide winter storm and persistent freezing temperatures, Inglis Digital USA has pushed back the key dates for its February Sale.

The board of the Gerry Dilger Equine Scholarship Foundation announced the two recipients of its 2026 Irish National Stud scholarships for Irish citizens—Bobby Ring and Niamh Carr.

Less than 24 hours after trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. ran 1-2 in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1), he was represented by the topic of this week's Maiden Watch, Code Review. 

Keeneland will debut interior hospitality spaces within its newly constructed paddock building during the upcoming spring meet.

The Jockey Club Thoroughbred Incentive Program announces the approval of more than 8,000 awards and classes at more than 1,600 shows in 42 states and five Canadian provinces for 2026.

Oaklawn Park announced Jan. 27 the cancellation of its Jan. 30 - Feb. 1 racing programs. The Southwest Stakes (G3)  and its full supporting card, as originally drawn, will now be contested on Friday, Feb. 6.

Ted Noffey and Sovereignty, honored as 2025 champions at the Eclipse Awards ceremony last week in Florida, remain popular choices in early-season media voting this year.

Fasig-Tipton has cataloged an additional 19 entries to its upcoming Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale, to be held Feb. 9 in Lexington. These newest entries include several stakes winners and a half sister to recent grade 1 winner Skippylongstocking.

As much as there were several Eclipse Awards categories that seemed like toss-ups, there were no real surprises in the announcements of 2025 champions the evening of Jan. 22 at The Breakers Palm Beach in South Florida.

Byron King's Top 12 on the Road to the Kentucky Derby, presented by Spendthrift Farm.

While Florida's Road to the Kentucky Derby starts Jan. 31 with the Holy Bull Stakes (G3), to the north of Gulfstream Park, the newly minted champion 2-year-old male of 2025 is busy preparing for his 3-year-old debut at the end of next month

Grade 1 winners Burnham Square and East Avenue returned to the worktab Jan. 25 at Palm Meadows Training Center for the first time since racing in August.

Speaking on the Jan. 26 episode of the BloodHorse Monday podcast, French trainer Francis-Henri Graffard expressed an interest in growing his presence on the American racing calendar.

The Ocala Breeders' Sales' one-day Winter Mixed Sale will be Jan. 27, beginning at 11 a.m. OBS has cataloged 307 hips, including supplements, short-yearlings, broodmares, and broodmare prospects.