Louisville, Kentucky
Minutes after his beloved St. John’s basketball group misplaced to Duke within the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, a dejected Mike Repole stood within the Capital One Arena stands in his Red Storm jacket and shrugged.
Smiling morosely, he stated to CNN Sports, “At least we have now the Arkansas Derby tomorrow.’’
Such is the world that Repole, the enterprise magnate, operates in. One sports activities door closes, one other opens for the St. John’s alum who’s equally dedicated to the ponies.
But Repole’s sporting success has confirmed way more elusive than his golden contact in enterprise. The founding father of Vitamin Water, Repole offered that enterprise for $4 billion after which began BodyArmor, a sports activities power drink, ultimately promoting that for $5 billion.
Yet his Red Storm, the roster constructed at head coach Rick Pitino’s suggestion with Repole’s monetary backing, nonetheless haven’t crested their means again into the Final Four, and his horses are 0 for 8 within the Kentucky Derby. Three – Uncle Mo, Forte and Fierceness – have been favorites; Uncle Mo and Forte have been scratched earlier than the race and Fierceness completed fifteenth.
Repole will get one other shot with one other favorite on this primary Saturday of May. Renegade, the horse he was itching to look at after the Sweet 16, not solely gained that Arkansas Derby, he was slated because the 4-1 choose on this 12 months’s Kentucky Derby following yesterday’s submit position draw.
Except, like most issues in Repole’s sporting life, Renegade’s run won’t come with out problems. The Todd Pletcher-trained horse drew the dreaded No. 1 position, starting on the rail within the 20-horse area, which is usually a visitors nightmare because the horses run for the primary flip. The final horse to win from the rail was Ferdinand, a full 40 years in the past.
Another one in all Repole’s Derby entrants, Mo Donegal, drew the rail in 2022. The 10-1 choose received shoved to nineteenth early earlier than rallying to complete fifth.
As Renegade’s submit position was introduced, the group of horse racing followers gathered across the Churchill Downs paddock groaned audibly. Repole and Pletcher weren’t in attendance. “Better him than me,’’ coach Brad Cox, who has three Derby entrants, stated of Renegade, with a smile.
That, as they are saying, is horse racing in all its lovely cruelty, a sport constructed on the promise of risk and infrequently undermined by the slimmest of wind shifts. The attract of risk is what attracted an enormous crowd to the Churchill Downs observe on a sun-splashed Saturday afternoon.
As the day’s racing paused for an hour for the Derby and Kentucky Oaks attracts, followers of their finery watched from the balconies and others mingled outdoors the ropes the place the house owners and others connected to the Derby entrants gathered.
The vital individuals – the trainers and house owners – sat inauspiciously within the folding chairs.
Michael McCarthy, who had final 12 months’s favorite Journalism, chatted amiably with individuals whereas Bill Mott, who gained final 12 months’s Derby with Sovereignty, sat within the again dressed casually in a pair of denims and a black puffer vest. Mott has one other shot this 12 months, with Chief Wallabee, who’s 8-1 out of the twelfth position. Bob Baffert, who has two horses on this 12 months’s Derby (Litmus Test and Potente), is the final coach to win the massive race in back-to-back years.
Mott at first tried to brush off the concept coming to the draw because the Derby winner supplied a special feeling. “It’s type of ‘been there, done that’ and on to the subsequent,’’ he stated.
But then he paused and reconsidered, “I guess it does takes a little of the pressure off.”
Mike Repole would like to know that feeling.
