NYRA/Adam Coglianese

Mike Repole seems to like pretty much everything about horse racing. Growing up in Queens, New York and hanging out at Aqueduct Racetrack, he absorbed the flavor of the track, reveling in its grittiness and its beauty, its excitement and its challenges.

Now an owner and a breeder, his enthusiasm is undiminished, perhaps heightened by his success at all levels of the sport, undaunted by the setbacks and the challenges. He’s known for the dozens of family members and close friends he herds into the winner’s circle, and a Repole horse can often be easily identified by its name—those Nonna horses, the namesakes of his cherished grandmother, and the ones named for his wife Maria.

Over the last six months, a new name has emerged as a Repole trademark, surprising no one more than the owner himself.

Continue reading at New York Breeder (p. 34)