CLAIMING HORSES Caixa Eletronica was claimed for $62,500 and won the $1 million, Grade 2 Charles Town Classic and Grade 2 True North Handicap for owner Michael Repole
horse who doesn’t win can remain at the same level – just not at a lower level. The varying claiming rules haven’t slowed down multiple Eclipse Award-winning owner and breeder Ken Ramsey, who seems to claim horses as frequently as he blinks and knows the inherent risk. “Nobody bats one thousand,” he said. “I put my money up and I take my chances.” Ramsey delights in the considerable success of his most astute claims, which have helped him win multiple owner titles at Churchill Downs, Keeneland, Belmont Park, Saratoga, and Gulfstream Park. He is Churchill Downs’ all-time leading owner and set a record for victories at Saratoga with 22 in 2013. On April 25th, 1999, Ramsey and trainer Rick Schosberg claimed Catienus for $50,000 and were immediately rewarded when he won a $55,000 stakes at Delaware Park in his next start. Catienus then finished second in the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap, third in the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap, and second in the Grade 2 Saratoga Breeders’ Cup Handicap, a race he finished second again in the following year. Then he
became a successful sire. “Catienus turned out to be a blue-collar stallion,” Ramsey said. Ramsey and trainer Mike Maker claimed Furthest Land for $35,000 on October 24, 2008, and he captured the Grade 2 Kentucky Cup Classic and the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile a year later. Of course, other Ramsey claims have tanked. “I claimed a bunch of duds, but I only want to talk about the winners,” he laughed. Asked why an owner who’s won at racing’s highest level enjoys the claim game as much as he does, Ramsey laughed. “Well, I’m very competitive,” he said. “I’ll do whatever it takes to win.” The trainers he uses to upgrade his claims include Maker, Chad Brown, Wesley Ward, and Joe Sharp, a former assistant to Maker who is having a sensational first year on his own.
Ramsey’s Saratoga challenger
Owner Michael Repole, a lifelong New York Mets fan from Queens, got hooked on racing as a young teenager. “I’ve been
coming to the track, mostly Aqueduct, since I was 13 years old,” he said. “I used to find the nearest old man and give him $2 to bet on a horse for me.” Repole, 46, makes his own bets now. His ultra-successful career has fueled his substantial involvement with horseracing. Repole was the president and co-founder of Glaceau, the maker of Vitaminwater and Smartwater. Repole sold Glaceau to CocaCola for $4.1 billion in 2007. He also served as chairman and majority owner of Pirate Brands, the manufacturer of Pirate’s Booty snacks that was sold for $200 million in 2013. He is now the majority shareholder in Body Armour Super Drink. Repole bought his first horse, Da Rodeo Man, for $22,000 in 2002. Six years later, he purchased 27 horses at auction to beef up his stable, and he finished as the leading owner in New York in 2009. Trainers Todd Pletcher and Bruce Levine handle his current stable of 80 horses. Repole has enjoyed success at racing’s top level with such horses at Uncle Mo, the Eclipse Award Champion Two-YearOld Male in 2010, and other Grade 1
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