Kentucky Derby favorite Renegade faces uphill battle after drawing unfavorable starting position

By Dana O’Neil, CNN

Louisville, Kentucky (CNN) — Minutes after his beloved St. John’s basketball team lost to Duke in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, a dejected Mike Repole stood in the Capital One Arena stands in his Red Storm jacket and shrugged.

Smiling morosely, he said to CNN Sports, “At least we have the Arkansas Derby tomorrow.’’

Such is the world that Repole, the business magnate, operates in. One sports door closes, another opens for the St. John’s alum who is equally devoted to the ponies.

But Repole’s sporting success has proven far more elusive than his golden touch in business. The founder of Vitamin Water, Repole sold that business for $4 billion and then started BodyArmor, a sports energy drink, eventually selling that for $5 billion.

Yet his Red Storm, the roster built at head coach Rick Pitino’s suggestion with Repole’s financial backing, still have not crested their way back into the Final Four, and his horses are 0 for 8 in the Kentucky Derby. Three – Uncle Mo, Forte and Fierceness – were favorites; Uncle Mo and Forte were scratched before the race and Fierceness finished 15th.

Repole will get another shot with another favorite on this first Saturday of May. Renegade, the horse he was itching to watch after the Sweet 16, not only won that Arkansas Derby, he was slated as the 4-1 pick in this year’s Kentucky Derby following yesterday’s post position draw.

Except, like most things in Repole’s sporting life, Renegade’s run will not come without complications. The Todd Pletcher-trained horse drew the dreaded No. 1 position, starting on the rail in the 20-horse field, which can be a traffic nightmare as the horses run for the first turn. The last horse to win from the rail was Ferdinand, a full 40 years ago.

Another one of Repole’s Derby entrants, Mo Donegal, drew the rail in 2022. The 10-1 pick got shoved to 19th early before rallying to finish fifth.

As Renegade’s post position was announced, the crowd of horse racing fans gathered around the Churchill Downs paddock groaned audibly. Repole and Pletcher were not in attendance. “Better him than me,’’ trainer Brad Cox, who has three Derby entrants, said of Renegade, with a grin.

That, as they say, is horse racing in all its beautiful cruelty, a sport built on the promise of possibility and often undermined by the slimmest of wind shifts. The allure of possibility is what attracted a big crowd to the Churchill Downs track on a sun-splashed Saturday afternoon.

As the day’s racing paused for an hour for the Derby and Kentucky Oaks draws, fans in their finery watched from the balconies and others mingled outside the ropes where the owners and others attached to the Derby entrants gathered.

The important people – the trainers and owners – sat inauspiciously in the folding chairs.

Michael McCarthy, who had last year’s favorite Journalism, chatted amiably with people while Bill Mott, who won last year’s Derby with Sovereignty, sat in the back dressed casually in a pair of jeans and a black puffer vest. Mott has another shot this year, with Chief Wallabee, who is 8-1 out of the 12th position. Bob Baffert, who has two horses in this year’s Derby (Litmus Test and Potente), is the last trainer to win the big race in back-to-back years.

Mott at first tried to brush off the idea that coming to the draw as the Derby winner offered a different feeling. “It’s kind of ‘been there, done that’ and on to the next,’’ he said.

But then he paused and reconsidered, “I guess it does takes a little of the pressure off.”

Mike Repole would love to know that feeling.

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