Team Valor CEO Barry Irwin and trainer Graham Motion have settled on the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Stakes for Animal Kingdom’s return on February 25 at Tampa Bay Downs. ... More
Team Valor International is off to a flying start with its international stable in the month of January, as just this week Barry Irwin’s stable of syndicated runners has won races on three different continents, namely North America, Europe and Africa. ... More
Team Valor International is off to a flying start with its international stable in the month of January, as just this week Barry Irwin’s stable of syndicated runners has won races on three different continents, namely North America, Europe and Africa. ... More
Team Valor International’s gigantic 4-year-old filly Ebony Flyer erased the memory of her first poor effort last time out in the Grade 1 Queen’s Plate by powering to an ultra-impressive victory today in the Grade 1 Majorca Stakes going a mile at Kenilworth race course in Cape Town, South Africa. ... More
Team Valor International’s Agra was not exactly a secret as the odds-on 2 to 5 favorite to make the Listed Schweppes Summer Juvenile Stakes her second win from as many outings. However, other than The Snaith Family, few racegoers today at Kenilworth were prepared to witness the utter disdain with which she dispatched her opposition in such effortless style, with a display of speed rarely witnessed by a lightly raced 2-year-old in such promising company. ... More
When home-bred Howe Great crossed under the wire 2 ½ lengths clear of stablemate Lucky Chappy giving Team Valor International a 1-2 finish in Gulfstream Park’s $100,000 Kitten’s Joy Stakes, he provided his breeder Barry Irwin with his 250th victory in a stakes with a horse he had syndicated since 1987. ... More
Home-bred Howe Great led a 1-2 Team Valor International finish today in the featured Kitten’s Joy Stakes, a $100,000 stakes at Gulfstream Park for 3-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles on the grass.
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Comtesse Dubois, facing older fillies and mares, surged from last to first under veteran reinsman Glen Hatt to win today’s Laisserfaire Stakes by a neck going 5 ½ furlongs on turf at Kenilworth race course. Her win marks the 249th stakes victory for the stable.
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Animal Kingdom’s Kentucky Derby triumph resonated as the deciding factor in the most dramatic category at the 41st Eclipse Awards ceremony on Monday night in Beverly Hills, as the Team Valor International home-bred prevailed as champion 3-year-old male of 2011.
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Team Valor International and its home-bred Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom are both finalists for Eclipse Awards, the year-end honors for American racing that will be presented on January 16 in Beverly Hills, California.
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Team Valor International completed yet another record-breaking season in 2011, smashing the mark for earnings with combined gleanings of $3,978,167.
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Team Valor International’s Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom had his first workout on the comeback trail for trainer Graham Motion under a bright blue sky on a crisp Saturday morning over the main dirt track at the Fair Hill training center near Elkton, Maryland. Going in company, Animal Kingdom breezed around the far turn on the one-mile oval and was timed in 38 seconds.
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In the last year, Team Valor has donated three horses to Renaissance Rescue Ranch in Farmington, Missouri. Barry Irwin has been impressed in working with the mom-and-pop non-profit, and he would like to invite horse owners and lovers to join him this holiday season in supporting the organization.
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Barry Irwin’s racing partnerships enjoyed their best season in 25 years of racing in 2011 and Team Valor International already is looking forward to a better one in 2012, based on the number of the stable’s promising 2-year-olds. Today in South Africa and Thursday in the United States, the stable sent out a pair of youngsters that figure to make their mark in a big way. ... More
The twice-weekly Insiders' Bulletin is Team Valor International's private newsletter for members of the stable. A special 32-page edition for December 1 is being made available to the public.
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The Stanley Bergstein Writing Award has been instituted by Team Valor International in order to foster the type of writing engaged in by the recently deceased horse racing giant and author of hard-hitting racing journalism.
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Ebony Flyer cruised to a 3-length victory today over 7 1/2 furlongs in a race that looked more like a Grade 1 than an Kenilworth allowance prep for the Grade 1 Queen's Plate. The one-turn event was run at a slow tempo into a stiff headwind down the homestretch. Although the Amazon had the benefit of a debut run at 4 this season over the Durbanville bullring in October, she broke sluggishly today, being ahead of only one of her 5 rivals when the gates sprung open. Veteran reinsman Felix Coetzee, however, soon had the filly balanced, as she took up a wonderful position one horse width off the rail and right behind forwardly placed In Like Flynn.
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The seasonal earnings record for Team Valor International was broken this evening when Summer Soiree ran second in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes, her $50,000 payday boosting Barry Irwin's stable of partnership owned runners to reach $3,916,429. The previous stable record was set in 2007.
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Churchill Downs Vice President of Communications John Asher: The Derby is not like winning the King's Bishop, the Haskell Invitational, the Swaps, the Travers, Preakness or Belmont. All of those are wonderful races, but there is only one Kentucky Derby and Animal Kingdom won it on the square.
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The United Arab Emirates' national newspaper cited Animal Kingdom's scheduled Dubai World Cup bid in a story about the race for a series commemorating the UAE's 40th anniversary. ... More
Team Valor International had a big day today at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale in Lexington, Kentucky, where three females sold for big balloons. ... More
Master Shade had to wait a week to have a chance to become a stakes winner after Belmont Park's Middle Stage Stakes was postponed last week due to inclement weather, but she earned black type today in the 1 1/16-mile event that was re-staged at Aqueduct. Master Shade became stakes winner number 13 this season for a Team Valor International runner and was winning stakes race number 17 for the Kentucky-based stable of partnership owned racehorses. ... More
Drosselmeyer, winner of today's $5-million Breeders' Cup Classic, was produced by former Team Valor runner Golden Ballet. Team Valor bought Golden Ballet as a 2-year-old filly just after she broke her maiden in taking a sprint stakes at Hollywood Park. Barry Irwin said "When I saw her, my first thought was 'Wow, she looks like a female Secretariat, and she's only a 2-year-old filly!" ... More
Pluck, last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner, underwent successful surgery on Thursday night at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington, where he was rushed after exhibiting signs of colic a few hours before his scheduled return in the Grade 3 Commonwealth Turf Stakes at Churchill Downs. ... More
When Graham Motion returned to the Churchill Downs backstretch with his five-horse contingent for this weekend's Breeders' Cup World Championships, the 47-year-old trainer noticed a new adornment tacked outside the entrance to Barn 22: a colorful plaque commemorating Animal Kingdom's victory in the Kentucky Derby last May. ... More
Heading toward the home stretch that features next week's Breeders' Cup World Championships, Team Valor International continues to at least double the next highest totals among public racing syndicates in the key stakes categories for 2011. ... More
Pluck will resume his racing career on November 3 in the Grade 3 Commonwealth Stakes at Churchill Downs, the site of his victory in the 2010 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf. Campaigned by Team Valor International and the Vinery, the son of More Than Ready has been out of action since April.
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Changingoftheguard, under an ultra cocky ride from jockey Richard Fourie, proved a hands down winner of the Racing Association Stakes today at Fairview race course in Port Elizabeth in South Africa for Team Valor International and partners. "Richard had ridden him in work, so he knew what he had underneath him today," said Jono Snaith. "That why he rode him with such utter confidence." ... More
With two Grade 1 winners in the United States, including Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom, you'd think Team Valor International is having an extraordinary year. But the operation's CEO, Barry Irwin, called it "normal" with the exception of Animal Kingdom's Kentucky Derby victory. "It's on par with previous years," Irwin said, somewhat matter of factly.
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Ebony Flyer, the South African version of Black Caviar, showed she is back to her best with an emphatic victory in the Grade 3 Diana Stakes (1400m) at Durbanville in the Cape on Saturday. The big black filly returned after 280 days off, which included a wind operation, but although still a bit bulky, she was on her toes in the parade ring and appeared fit. ... More
From today's Wall Street Journal article "The Art of Teaching Horses to Fly" -- Graham Motion oversees 120 horses at his training facility in Fair Hill, Md, including this year's Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom. His technique for cultivating a racing champion is to make sure the horses are as relaxed as possible.
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Graham Motion continues to be a prominent figure across all sorts of media platforms, from his monthly column in Thoroughbred Times or this lighthearted feature from the National Thoroughbred Racing Association's weekly notebook.
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As the American racing season swings into crunch time this fall, Team Valor International is poised with a bevy of stakes engagements over the first few weeks of October.
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Team Valor International, which has completed drafting new racing prospects at yearlings sales both domestically and abroad, will go into the 2012 racing season with 18 young prospects that will race at age 2 in the United States, Canada, Germany and France. Barry Irwin, chief executive officer of the international stable, said "This is a record number of juveniles for us to begin the season with and represents a reshaping of our stable to rely on our strengths.
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Team Valor International today offers a yearling colt that Barry Irwin describes as being a prime prospect for racing early as a 2-year-old next season. "He's got 2-year-old written all over him," Irwin said. The yearling colt is by successful sire Harlan's Holiday, best in 4 stakes at 2 from 6 starts, and is out of a fast Saint Ballado stakes mare named Preach It that won 3 races and earned $120,839.
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Team Valor International today offers a yearling colt that Barry Irwin describes in glowing terms as an "extraordinarily easy mover." Irwin says he has that "unmistakable fluidity of a born athlete." Team Valor's CEO said the colt reminds him of Political Ambition in his walk. "Horses like this, the naturally gifted athletes, move with an ease that is at once recognizable and singles them out as future stakes winners," Irwin said.
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As the racing schedule accelerates into the crucial fall season that culminates with the Breeders' Cup World Championships, Team Valor International is poised at the top of the leaderboard in several key owner categories.
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Animal Kingdom has done well in his first few days of exercise on the water treadmill at Bruce Jackson's Fair Hill Equine Therapy Center, adjacent to the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Maryland.
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In instituting an award "to recognize the outstanding achievements of Marylanders in the horse world," the Maryland Horse Industry Board looked to none other than Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Graham Motion for its first recipient.
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Home-bred 4-year-old filly Hasay, an internationalist born in Great Britain, raised in France and first raced in Germany, is the living embodiment of the global span of Team Valor International's reach. Today she became a stakes winner number 14 for the stable. Team Valor leading all of the public syndicates is nothing new, as it has been a normal feature of the stable's impact on the domestic scene year after year. ... More
Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom has been cleared to resume exercising, 60 days after he underwent season-ending surgery on his left leg. Dr. Dean Richardson of the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center was pleased with follow-up X rays taken on Friday.
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When State of Play held off a determined charge from Optimizer to win Thursday's renewal of the $150,000 With Anticipation Stakes at Saratoga, the colt became the 75th individual Graded stakes winner to represent a partnership formed by Barry Irwin, chief executive officer of Kentucky-based Team Valor International. ... More
Stepping up from a debut win at 5 1/2 furlongs, State of Play stretched out and led virtually every step of the Grade 2 With Anticipation Stakes on Thursday at Saratoga Race Course. The key element may have been the stride or two in the stretch when he lost lead.
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Team Valor International is in a unique position to be able to offer a 50 percent interest in Three Hearts, the yearling half-sister to its 2010 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf hero Pluck and be able to offer terms on the bay filly, as the stable owns 60 percent of her dam Secret Heart. ... More
From Thoroughbred Daily News comes this in-depth look at Team Valor International's approach and success with horses from Germany, the latest chapter coming in a Grade 2 win from German-bred Daveron in the Ballston Spa at Saratoga. ... More
Daveron continued her amazing improvement with age today when she roared to a 1 ¾-length score in the Grade 2 Ballston Spa Stakes at Saratoga, a prestigious middle-distance fixture carrying prize money of $200,000. The 6-year-old mare remained unbeaten in 3 outings this season, winning her second Graded event in New York, as earlier this season she accounted for the Grade 3 Beaugay at Belmont Park and was coming off a similarly sharp victory in the $200,000 Dr. James Penny Memorial in Pennsylvania. ... More
Barry Irwin achieved a significant milestone on August 20 when Summer Soiree prevailed in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks. Irwin is in the midst of his 25th season syndicating and managing racehorses, and Summer Soiree is his 25th individual Grade 1 winner. ... More
Team Valor International acquired Summer Soiree with a view that she could develop into one of the top turf fillies in the nation, and she lived up to the projection on August 20 in scoring a Grade 1 victory in the $250,000 Del Mar Oaks. ... More
Bradley Weisbord has been hired by Barry Irwin as chief operating officer of Team Valor International. Weisbord spent the last 2 years as business/racing manager for leading owner Ahmed Zayat. Earlier he worked at Thoroughbred Daily News, which was established by his father, Barry Weisbord. ... More
Barry Irwin, founder and chief executive officer of Team Valor International, could have counted on a trip to the back of the line for good fortune once he grasped the Kentucky Derby trophy for home-bred Animal Kingdom.
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Team Valor racked up its 10th stakes win of 2011 last week in South Africa. The crimson and green crew has more than twice as many stakes wins as any other stable of syndicated horses.
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My Kazzie closed out her 4-year-old season and, likely her racing career, today with a stakes score in the East Cape Breeders' Paddock Stakes, a Listed black-type event over a mile at Arlington in South Africa. The Western Winter filly actually finished a neck behind the first-place finisher, however, she was put up following an inquiry, which was precipitated by Generous Anna sawing off the eventual winner in mid-stretch. ... More
State of Play was all business in a striking debut on Wednesday afternoon in the first 2-year-old turf race of the prestigious Saratoga meet. The handsome War Front colt kicked away powerfully to score by 2 1/2 lengths under jockey Ramon Dominguez, completing 5 1/2 furlongs in a sharp 1:02.99 on firm ground. ... More
Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom has come through surgery on June 30 in good order, reports Barry Irwin, CEO of Team Valor International. Dr. Dean Richardson performed the operation that required two screws to be inserted to compress a hairline slab fracture that was discovered with a CAT scan. ... More
Daveron ran what Barry Irwin referred to as the "first fully realized race of her career" when she split rivals entering the stretch at Parx Racing, exploded once she changed leads in the lane and roared to a 2 ¼-length victory in the $200,000 Dr. James Penny Memorial Stakes. ... More
Team Valor International and The Vinery's Pluck, who won last year's Breeder's Cup Juvenile Turf, will be returned to training tomorrow, after Dr. Larry Bramlage gave the green light to trainer Graham Motion. ... More
Summer Soiree, making her first start on grass, blew away her field today in the Grade 3 Boiling Spring Stakes at Monmouth Park, pulling away to post a stunningly impressive 8 ½-length score in the $150,000 fixture. ... More
Team Valor International's homebred Brigantin jumped into the mix for Australia's premier race, the $6.3-million Melbourne Cup Handicap, when he overcame less-than-ideal ground conditions on June 15 and gutted out a third-place finish in the Gold Cup, the history-laden anchor of the elite Royal Ascot meet. ... More
Jeff Lowe has been hired by Team Valor International to handle media, it has been announced by Barry Irwin, who called the 33-year-old "the best young racing writer in America." Lowe has written for the Thoroughbred Times since 2002. ... More
Motovato staved off a stretch-long bid from old nemesis Mambo Meister on the outside and youngster Jackson Bend on the rail to gut out a victory Monday in the $75,000 Memorial Day Handicap at Calder. Motovato completed an unlikely comeback, as he had been on the shelf for a year prior to returning earlier in the month to place in a sprint at Calder. ... More
Crimson China trailed all the way today in the Lamplighter Stakes at Monmouth Park as the heavy 1 to 2 odds-on favorite, but his backers never had a moment's worry, even though the 3-year-old was last of 5 runners turning into the homestretch. Crimson China needed only 100 yards to put away his field. ... More
Animal Kingdom lost the Preakness Stakes at the break through no fault of his own and turned in a visually impressive display of talent and courage to get to within a half-length of Shackleford at the end of the second jewel in Thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown. ... More
Team Valor International home-bred Brigantin punched his ticket for next month's famed Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup at the Royal Ascot meeting in England with a gutsy nose victory at Longchamp in Paris in the Group 2 Prix Vicomtesse Vigier. ... More
A collection of news articles recapping the sensational victory in the 137th Kentucky Derby by Team Valor International's home-bred colt Animal Kingdom. ... More
Team Valor International launched a FaceBook page today for their impressive Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom. The stable plans to use the site to share photographs of the colt and post useful news and information regarding the Grade 1 winning son of Leroidesanimaux. ... More
In an effort to assist the media in the hectic week leading up to the Kentucky Derby, Barry Irwin has brought together all the pertinent information that is generally asked for by members of the press, and by fans, regarding Derby-bound horses. Here's the background on Animal Kingdom. ... More
Animal Kingdom qualified for a stall in the starting gate for the Kentucky Derby by earning $285,000 in the Grade 3 Spiral Stakes last month, but today he convinced his connections that he was a viable prospect, when he showed that he was able to act on a dirt track in his first breeze on a dirt surface since the spring of his juvenile season. In 4 career outings - 2 last season and 2 this season - Animal Kingdom had run 3 times on an all-weather surface and once on turf. ... More
Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Pluck, who has disappointed in both of his starts this season at 3, will be turned out in a paddock for the next 60 days, as a result of bruising on both of his hind cannon bones. The More Than Ready colt underwent a complete lameness exam this morning at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. Dr. Larry Bramlage said "He was lame on both hind legs. He has bone bruising on each cannon bone of his hind legs. The prognosis is favorable, as they will resolve with a break in training." ... More
It takes great training skills, good fortune, and exceptional horses to propel a trainer up to the ranks of America's elite. That rarified air is reserved for only a handful of horsemen. Graham Motion may not be up there with the likes of Pletcher, Baffert, Asmussen, Zito, and McLaughlin, but don't be surprised if he reaches that plateau in the near future. We can't think of any trainer whose stock is rising faster than the native of Cambridge, England. ... More
Team Valor International has bought last Saturday's runaway 10 ¾-length Grade 3 Bourbonette Oaks winner Summer Soiree from Brereton C. Jones, his son Bret and Wahoo Partners LLC and will turn her over to Graham Motion. The new trainer, who trains all of Team Valor's American-based stock, will point the filly to the May 6 renewal of the Classic, Grade 1, $500,000 Kentucky Oaks the day before the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs... More
A weekend full of surprises at tracks in Louisiana, Kentucky and New Mexico has put the names of these 3-year-olds on the AP's latest Run to the Roses Top 10 list of Derby contenders. Pants On Fire (entering the Top Ten List at number 7), Animal Kingdom (number 9) and Twice the Appeal (number 10)
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Jeff Lowe, writing in The Thoroughbred Times Today: Barry Irwin's Team Valor International has tapped diverse sources for its racing stable for many years, perhaps most notably in the discovery of Zimbabwe sensation Ipi Tombe (Zim), by way of South Africa. A similarly wide-open breeding approach has yielded fireworks from a fairly small group of homebred three-year-olds ... More
Mike Curry, writing in The Thoroughbred Times: Animal Kingdom closed from last to first to win the Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes (G3) in his stakes debut on Saturday at Turfway Park, passing a class test and opening up the option of trying him on the dirt to see if he is a Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) contender. More
Animal Kingdom went from last to first and scored a decisive 2 ¾-length triumph in the $500,000 Spiral Stakes today at Turfway Park in Northern Kentucky. The $285,000 in Graded earnings is enough to qualify him for the Kentucky Derby and his connections—trainer Graham Motion and owner/breeder Team Valor—will now determine if he has the dirt capabilities to go along with his prodigious stamina. More
Pluck will begin his 3-year-old season on Saturday under modest circumstances in an allowance race with a $27,000 purse at Tampa Bay Downs, passing on the $150,000, Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes the same afternoon at nearby Gulfstream Park. Post time for race number 7 is projected to be 3:20 p. m. Pluck has drawn the advantageous number 2 post position in a full field of 10 sophomores. More
On Her Toes, dead-heat winner at 2 of the Grade 1 Allan Robertson Fillies Championship at the Scottsville race course in South Africa, has been retired from racing. She raced for the partnership of Team Valor International and Anant and Vanshree Singh. The Western Winter mare retires as the winner of 5 races in 14 outings, with 1 second and 1 third. More
Comtesse Dubois became Team Valor International's first 2-year-old winner in South Africa this season today when she absolutely cruised to a 2 ¼-length victory in the first race at Kenilworth race course in Cape Town. More
Pluck has been training well this winter at Palm Meadows for trainer Graham Motion and is on schedule for his major prep in advance of a trip to Ireland or France for the Irish Two Thousand Guineas at The Curragh or the French counterpart at Longchamp. Both races are contested over a mile on grass in May and as the races near, Team Valor will make a decision as to which of the Classics the homebred son of More Than Ready will contest. His major prep will be the Grade 3 Transylvania on Keeneland's opening day on April 8 in Lexington. More
Team Valor International's Crimson China injected himself right into the Triple Crown conversation today when he used a relentless late stretch kick to fashion an improbable victory at Gulfstream Park for trainer Graham Motion and jockey Rajiv Maragh. Making both his United States and grass debut, the import showed more early interest than in either of his all-weather races in England at 2, as he saved ground from his number 1 draw, racing about 6 or 7 lengths off the pace. More
Trip costs and itinerary have been set for Team Valor partners and prospective partners to attend Royal Ascot in June, Megan Jones announced Monday. Racing trips such as this one to the Royal Ascot meet have been instituted by Team Valor International in order to allow our partners and those considering joining a racing partnership the opportunity to learn more about the industry while socializing in an exciting International racing setting. More
Barry Irwin's Team Valor and Craig and Holly Bandoroff's Denali Stud have formed a strategic alliance this week in Kentucky that, among other things, will see the international racing stable using the bluegrass nursery and consignor as its exclusive boarding and sales agent. More
Ribbons for Thee ran second Saturday at Kenilworth in South Africa sprinting 5 1/2 furlongs in the Laisserfaire Stakes, to become runner 200 from 423 starters for a partnership formed by Barry Irwin in the last 25 years to win or place in a black-type race recognized by the International Cataloging Standards. Irwin has a 47-percent strike rate for stakes horses. More
Nick Wilby, writing at Racingbase.com previews 2011 Dubai World Cup and in particular Team Valor International's five-year-old horse Gitano Hernando who was favored in the race last year. More
Sting Operation remained unbeaten from 2 starts at 3 with an easy-as-pie victory in the Swallow Stakes, a black-type event this evening at Turffontein race course in Johannesburg. In the process, she became the first stakes winner from the very first horse owned in partnership by Team Valor and leading South African owner Markus Jooste and the first stakes winner from the first runner trained for Team Valor by Charles Laird. More
Each season for the past few years, Team Valor International has enjoyed so much success on the race courses of the world, Barry Irwin wonders how the Versailles-based racing stable can possibly do it again and steels his mind to adjust for an off year. But so far it has not happened. In fact, Irwin is optimistic about 2011. TVI in 2009 posted double the stakes victories of it's nearest competitor among public partnerships, and in 2010 improved to nearly triple the score of the runner-up. More
THE TEAM 
