Visionaire sweeps past all to win G1 King's Bishop Stakes at Saratoga VISIONAIRE
(2005 chestnut colt, Grand Slam-Scarlet Tango, by French Deputy)


Won King's Bishop Stakes-Grade 1
Won Gotham Breeders Cup Stakes-Grade 3
3rd Risen Star Stakes-Grade 3
3rd Northern Dancer Breeders Cup Stakes-Grade 3

At the time Team Valor International acquired Visionaire as a Triple Crown prospect in January 2008, he was the most expensive racehorse the decorated stable had ever purchased.

Visionaire rewarded the seven-figure splurge with a graded stakes victory that paved his way to the Kentucky Derby, and he delivered a Grade 1 victory that August on the supreme stage of Saratoga Race Course.

Michael Matz trained Visionaire for Team Valor and the previous owner, Vision Racing, which retained a minority 49% interest after the private transaction struck a few days after the Grand Slam colt rolled to a 5 ½-length victory at Gulfstream Park.

Two months later, the chestnut colt unleashed a memorable, if not entirely visible, rally through a dense fog to capture Aqueduct’s Grade 3 Gotham Stakes by a nose. After encountering trouble in a 12th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, Visionaire returned to shorter distances and pinpointed his niche by closing from last to win a 6 ½-furlong allowance victory at Saratoga that proved to be a perfect prep for the Grade 1 King’s Bishop Stakes there a month later.

Visionaire came through with the race of his life, sweeping from the back of a ten-horse field and powering away to a 2 ¼-length triumph in the seven-furlong race that is widely considered to be North America’s most prestigious one-turn event for three-year-olds.

Visionaire additionally placed in the Grade 3 Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds and the Grade 3 Northern Dancer Stakes at Churchill Downs among his five wins in 12 career starts and career bankroll of $465,882.

The Team Valor partnership retained Visionaire as a stallion and sent him to South Africa for stud duty beginning in 2011. He was the Leading Freshman Sire in his new homeland.


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