Owner of Belmont Stakes favorite feels time is running out for horse racing

ELMONT, N.Y. ― Queens native Mike Repole won the Belmont Stakes last year as an owner of Mo Donegal, and as of Tuesday’s post position draw for Saturday’s 155th renewal he has the favorite in Forte.

“I should be in a little bit better mood today or a little bit more excited – for me it’s disappointing,” Repole said.

Like everything in horse racing these days, it’s complicated.

Forte was the Kentucky Derby favorite but didn't run

Repole was part of an enduring image from the current Triple Crown cycle, as he and trainer Todd Pletcher pleaded with a veterinarian at Churchill Downs not to scratch Forte, the Kentucky Derby favorite, on race day morning due to a bruised foot. It came as seven horse deaths at Churchill Downs in the week leading up to the race laser focused the public’s attention the sport’s safety record.

More: Belmont Stakes 2023: Post positions, odds, analysis with Forte the 5/2 favorite

And that was just days before it was revealed that Forte flunked a post-race drug test after winning the Hopeful Stakes eight months earlier en route to the Juvenile championship. Information on the pending drug positive had not been publicly shared, leading to renewed calls for the industry to improve its transparency. That case is currently being appealed.

Now Forte is installed as the 5/2 favorite breaking from the No. 6 post in the field of nine, having missed the Preakness because being placed on the Veterinarian’s List at Churchill Downs made him ineligible to run two weeks later.

More: Belmont Stakes 2023: Post positions, odds, analysis with Forte the 5/2 favorite

A rough ride for thoroughbred racing

Optics-wise, none of it’s been good over the past month. Including embattled trainer Bob Baffert’s bittersweet Preakness win with National Treasure, 7/2 in the Belmont morning line, after one of his trainees broke down in a race on the Preakness undercard and was euthanized.

Solutions have been hard to come by over the years, although Repole feels some good can come from the creation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, the federal organization now overseeing issues of safety and drug testing for the industry nationally.

But Repole, who by his own estimate has sunk $20 million into the sport, feels time may be running out for the sport.

“I’m at the concern level right now. But the pause level could be 18 months to two years away,” Repole said. “I’m watching all these name organizations, and they don’t make decisions. And making no decision is the wrong decision. Everything is preventative, nothing is proactive. When you run a bad business, you go bankrupt. When you run a bad industry, it can disappear.

“That I am passionate about something and now willing to let other people get into it is very concerning. I have always said horse racing is board game without instructions. Even when you think there are instructions, someone will just overrule the rule.”

Industry-wise, the hope is that that HISA, which seeks to impose national standards for safety and medication, replacing a patchwork of rules that varied from state-to-state. But HISA is off to a slow start, and frustration continues to build.

As owners and trainers gathered in the massive Belmont Park grandstand late Tuesday morning, the hope was that the narrative would change this week in the final jewel of what has been a grueling Triple Crown.

Bob Baffert a no-show

But Baffert’s return to the Belmont after last year’s ban by the New York Racing Association in the aftermath of Media Spirit’s post-race positive after winning the 2021 Kentucky Derby will be part of it. The California-based trainer was not at Belmont Park Tuesday.

Second-choice Tapit Trice is also trained by Pletcher, facing a seven-day suspension and $1,000 fine for Forte’s positive test.

Who else looks good for the Belmont Stakes?

Third choice at 7/2 is the Brad Cox-trained Angel Of Empire, a half-brother to Cyberknife, winner of last year’s Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park. Angel of Empire was third in the Kentucky Derby, after winning the Arkansas Derby.

“He’s been working really well, just like he was before the Kentucky Derby,” Cox said. “He’s showing all the signs that he’s continuing to move forward and do well physically.”

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Belmont Stakes: Forte owner Mike Repole worries for horse racing