Our questions are answered by the co-owner of Mage, a partner in Marquee Bloodstock and lifelong racing enthusiast who grew up dreaming of Churchill Downs with his grandpa – but still maintains a strong international outlook
Ramiro Restrepo fulfilled a lifelong dream for himself and his family when Mage, of which he was co-owner, captured the Kentucky Derby in 2023.
Restrepo, from Miami, Florida, had been going racing since childhood with his grandfather and father and has long studied the sport with the goal of making it his career.
He bought his first horse for $5,000 in 2009, a filly who won her first start in a $50,000 claiming race. “If I wasn’t hooked already, I was definitely hooked then,” he says.
From then on Restrepo began buying his own horses. In 2018 he picked up a horse for $160,000 whom he subsequently sold for $850,000. The name of the horse was Structor, who would go on to land the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf for Chad Brown. 
It gave Restrepo, who is now a partner in Marquee Bloodstock, the confidence he had an eye for a good horse and was on the right path, which was ultimately confirmed when Mage (right) triumphed at Churchill Downs.
Restrepo donated a portion of his winnings to the Dwoskin Children's Cancer Research Fund at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at University of Miami where he was a student.
Which racing figure past or present do you most admire?
Vincent O’Brien was a legend in every way you can think about. I’ve read about all his accomplishments as a trainer, as a horseman at the sales, the way he revolutionised Ballydoyle and the impact he had on our breeds. You wish you could go back in time and have dinner with him to learn more first hand.
Which is your favorite venue, and race, anywhere in the world?
Saratoga is my favourite venue. I love the mornings there and the memories it brings back of my childhood. It is a special hallowed place.
My favourite race in the world is the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. The traditions are unmatched. I’ve been to six Arcs and I make it a tradition to go every year. Stateside of course it is the Kentucky Derby. It’s the race we all grew up loving and watching and to be able to win it was a dream come true.
Who is your favorite racehorse and why?
I have two who I can’t split. One is Lure, who won the Breeders’ Cup Mile back-to-back years in 1992 and 1993. He ran for Claiborne Farm in those bright orange colours. I loved his style of running, going to the lead and saying ‘catch me if you can’. In those two years he took on some amazing horses from Europe and Japan, Barathea, Bigstone, Ski Paradise and all the best horses in America and they just couldn’t catch him. He was so fast.
The other is Lammtarra. He had a short career undefeated but he came from the clouds to win the Derby and went on to win the King George and Arc after one win as a two-year-old. He was a little chestnut. I was following him when I was 18 and really starting to get into racing.
What is your fondest memory in racing?
Going to the races with my grandfather Luis Alvarez. He would show me the horses, we would run to get the Bloodhorse and the Daily Racing Form at the track. He taught me how to bet, how to look at horses. He instilled that passion for racing in me. It was a crazy, good feeling.
As a kid all I would hear was my grandfather and my two uncles, Harold and Cesar Alvarez, saying: ‘We’re going to lead one over to the Kentucky Derby. We’re going to have one running there’.
My grandpa passed away, my two uncles are in their late 70s, early 80s, and are retired. So it was beautiful when Mage got into the race. I called my mother and said to have her two brothers, my two uncles there. They did the Derby walk with me. That dream which I kept hearing about from my grandpa and uncles, we did it. Then to win it … you can’t even make that up in a movie.
If you could change one thing in racing, what would it be?
I wish in US racing that we had a central body of governance. It is such an essential thing to have a central governing agency that would streamline all the necessary things that are needed to develop, cultivate and enhance the sport across the country.
We have so many small, individual organisations so we are quite fractured in our leadership. Now more than ever in the climate we are in, you need a foundation to lead us into the future to be able to attract new fans, take care of current horseplayers and fans, streamline the rules and regulations under one umbrella and win back the public’s confidence in this great sport.
Ramiro Restrepo was speaking to Jon Lees
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