BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

November 3, 2023

Mike Repole

Santa Anita Park

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Mike Repole, and congratulations. Owner/breeder of Fierceness, winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Mike, a race you're very familiar with. A homebred, has to be extra special. Congratulations. Take us through all the Repole emotions.

MIKE REPOLE: The horse has been training great the whole summer in Saratoga. When he ran his maiden, he ran the way we thought he was going to run. Then in Champagne, he was a heavy favorite, trained, didn't have a bad day. Saratoga, he ran in the mud at Saratoga and then the mud at Aqueduct, and it didn't work out. He stumbled, but he never got himself going.

Todd and I have done this before where we took him to Keeneland. I don't think too many people would have run him other than Todd and I. He trained well, trained with Locked and with Noted.

Sometimes you got to take some chances. And he's had one bad training day, which was the Champagne, and this is how he's been performing since he got to Todd in May.

Special, special horse. I mean, you know, to win -- I didn't know I got a Breeders' Cup award for the breeder too. That's pretty cool. That's two. I like that.

The horse is out of Nonna Bella, which is out my grandmother's name, Nonna Mia, which is my grandmother, and out of Stay Thirsty. Stay Thirsty was my horse. Nonna Bella was my horse, and I'm also a big shareholder in City of Light. If I don't buy out the shares of City of Light, I probably don't breed to City of Light. The way these things come together is really special.

The other thing that's so important, 14 years ago I had a horse put me on the map called Uncle Mo. Todd, Johnny, and I won that race in our 30s. I still look like I'm in my 30s. They look like they're in their 50s and 60s. To win that race again with Johnny, that was really, really special. To see Leona and his daughter down there, it just -- we're still in the game. He's still one of the great jockeys. Todd is Todd. To win that 14 years later with Johnny was very special.

THE MODERATOR: Now you have a horse in this race, but I want to get to a couple of questions, please, very quickly here.

Q. Hey, Mike, how special is this especially in light of the roller coaster year you had when you won this race last year? What does that mean to you in light of that?

MIKE REPOLE: I won this with Uncle Mo, and I won this with Forte. They will all tell you to start thinking about the derby. I scratched Uncle Mo as the derby favorite and Forte is the derby -- so I'm not going to think about the derby with this race.

Listen, to win this race once and then win it again last year and then again, I mean, listen, we got a really, really great team from Ed Rosen, Jim Martin, Jake West, Alex Solis, Madison Scott, Danielle Bricker, Todd. We have a lot of fun at the sales. We have a lot of fun with breedings.

Ed Rosen puts together a lot of the pedigrees. It's always by committee because if we like it, we say something. If we don't like it, we say it. I'm sure everyone, when Ed put together Nonna Bella and City of Light, we all loved it. It was a no-brainer. There was probably some healthy debate that went back and forth.

The team does a good job. We've had a really, really nice run the last three years, and I think now we have three more tomorrow. If you guys let me go in 13 minutes, I'm going to have another race.

Q. Were you surprised when he drew away so far in the stretch, just kicked away?

MIKE REPOLE: Todd and I all week have said if he is sixth by 12 or first by 5, we wouldn't be surprised. We're not surprised, but we're pretty happy right now.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Mike Repole, owner/breeder of Fierceness.