Mike Repole Threatens The Jockey Club Lawsuit With Renegade At Derby
mike repole showed up at Churchill Downs on Thursday with Derby favorite Renegade, and he said he may drop a lawsuit next week aimed at The Jockey Club. The horse also drew the No. 1 post for the 2026 Kentucky Derby, a spot that has not produced a winner in 40 years.
Repole said, “Maybe there’s something meant to be about this race and this horse.” He added, “I think I’m on a bit of a racing crusade right now,” then tied the dispute to his wider push for change in the sport.
Renegade Draws No. 1
Renegade’s No. 1 post position gives Repole’s horse the kind of setup that dominates Derby conversation before the gate even opens. The post has not won in 40 years, and the favorite now carries that number into one of the sport’s most watched races.
Repole has made the horse central to his public posture all week. He said, “I named him a year and a half ago, not thinking we’d be here with the Derby favorite.”
Repole And The Lows
Renegade is owned by Repole with Robert Low and Lawana Low, longtime horse people from Missouri who are both in their 70s. He asked them if they wanted to buy back 50 percent of a horse they bred, a deal that brought the partnership together around the Derby favorite.
Repole’s rider is Irad Ortiz. The ownership group enters the Derby with a favorite, a difficult post, and a horse that now sits at the center of his next move against The Jockey Club.
Inside Repole’s Push
Repole, 57, has spent years around major races, including the Travers, Breeders' Cup Classic and Belmont Stakes, after getting into Thoroughbreds following the 2007 sale of Glaceau for more than $4 billion. He said he first fell in love with racing as a teenager, sometimes skipping school to place bets at Aqueduct, before building his fortune in beverages and later expanding into shoes, apparel and the United Football League.
He arrived at Churchill Downs with football players from the United Football League, and he said his latest fight fits the same pattern. “What are they going to do? Sue me? Fine me? Throw me out of the game? I’d be lucky if they did that. But I’m not gonna go away. I got in this to change the sport.”
His parents, both in their 80s, were coming to the Derby, giving the day a family edge as the legal threat and the favorite horse collided at the same track. Repole called himself “The Commissioner,” and the next step in his fight is the one he put on the table: a possible lawsuit next week aimed at The Jockey Club.
