When the prominent New York thoroughbred owner Mike Repole was forced by veterinarians in May to scratch his Kentucky Derby favorite, Forte, hours before the race after the horse suffered a hoof bruise, he told reporters he thought the decision was “overly conservative.”

“The safety of the horse is the most important thing,” a distraught but diplomatic Repole added. “I’m more concerned about the systems that we have than scratching this horse under these bright lights.”

Concern with “the systems” in horse racing is why Repole’s fellow racehorse owner, Craig Bernick, founded the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation some 5½ years ago. With prominent figures like Donna Brothers serving on its board and a mission to advocate for horse bettors and owners alike, the TIF achieved some notable goals despite operating on a relative shoestring, with much of the credit for those successes going to its tireless executive director, Pat Cummings.

“Penny breakage, Category 1, accuracy on race timing, transparency, improved steward communication, fixed odds awareness, pool manipulation — everything we did with TIF we did with less than $750,000 across the entirety of 5½ years,” Cummings told US Bets on Monday, days after news broke that Repole had hired him away to head up a self-funded advocacy organization called the National Thoroughbred Alliance.

The NTA, which takes its name from a like-minded organization started in the 1990s that has since morphed into the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, will not be strapped for cash. Having made billions of dollars through the sales of various sport-drink brands to Coca-Cola, Repole “has made it known that this is millions, not billions, but this is a serious effort backed by his resources,” said Cummings.

“Mike’s interest has been pretty well-known publicly — his general frustration and desire to improve the business,” Cummings added. “The difference between Mike and just about anybody else is the tremendous resource base available to him. He doesn’t have to be in this business; he chooses to be in this business. It really all crystallized at the beginning of October, and Mike was a quick mover to secure my services. He flew into Keeneland and we had some dialogue.”

.@CBredar talks with Mike Repole about the heartbreaking scratch of FORTE. pic.twitter.com/R2xpWDM3P3

— TVG (@TVG) May 6, 2023

As negotiations grew serious, Cummings let Bernick know that he would be leaving the TIF if he and Repole agreed to terms. 

“As it crystallized a little more, I had [Bernick’s] blessing to go forward,” said Cummings. “It’s a natural follow-on to build an infrastructure that we didn’t have with TIF.”

‘Pat was a universal choice’

When it was announced that Cummings would be leaving the TIF to work for Repole’s new group, Bernick decided to simultaneously sunset his organization.

“I never thought the TIF would be one of these organizations that needed to go on forever,” he told US Bets. “Too many horse businesses spend half their time trying to figure out how to make it go rather than doing the work. Our work will stay on the website; people can use it. I think Pat was always gonna move on to another role when he found the right one. We sort of thought this was a three-year thing and it went for five. The last two years, a lot of the success happened.

“I think a lot of what Pat will try to do, if this alliance becomes successful, a lot of the TIF work will be captured in that. I don’t think anyone’s gonna forget about horseplayers. Pat’s gonna remain an advocate for horseplayers, I’ll remain an advocate for horseplayers. With Pat moving on, it was a good time to wind things down.”

Of Repole, Bernick said, “Mike has been frustrated with the direction of the horse business. I think a lot of us have. When I started TIF, we built something I thought could help make the horse business make better decisions. Mike is going to have many more resources and grander ideas, but when he asked around for who would be best to implement this, Pat was a universal choice. When this happened, I was excited for Pat and I was excited for the horse business.” 

‘Invest, innovate, advocate, and educate’

In discussing his new role, Cummings made it clear that the NTA is very much in its fact-finding phase and that he didn’t want to speculate as to which specific issues the organization would be tackling first.

“What Mike envisions and what we want to build is a structure that will enable substantial reforms that affect many shareholders positively and put a team together that will help do that,” said Cummings. “Structure will come. Of tremendous importance is engagement. The early feedback that I have received … is overwhelming and overwhelmingly positive. I think that just goes to reflect the undercurrent of both frustration and hope. If we are successful, everyone will be successful.”

If there’s one area in which Cummings isn’t shy about sharing the organization’s intent, it is, as he puts it, on “the lifespan of the thoroughbred beyond just when they are in the race.” In pledging that the NTA will “invest, innovate, advocate, and educate,” Cummings pointed to a recent breakdown of a racehorse’s life that he’d seen, explaining, “Less than two-ten-thousandths of a horse’s life was spent racing. … How do we educate the general public to the lives of the thoroughbred, how carefully curated their life is, their pedigree, what they do in the field by themselves when no one’s looking? 

“There are plenty of races that take place in those fields, the shadowboxing that horses will do in the field, many of them here in Kentucky. We have to educate people more wholly on the life of the horse. What ‘thoroughbred’ means is a heck of a lot more than just their 10, 12, 15 minutes of racing each year.”

Photo: John Conrad Williams, Jr./Newsday RM via Getty Images