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April 8, 2008


TEAM VALOR INTERNATIONAL DECIDES TO RETIRE STRATOS FROM RACING,
JET MASTER MARE JOINS COMMERCIAL BROODMARE BAND BEING FORMED,
GRADE 1 WINNER WILL HAVE HER YEARLINGS SOLD AT THE NATIONAL SALE


Grade 1 winner Stratos joins Team Valor's broodmare band in South Africa.
Multiple stakes winner Stratos, who this season at Turffontein capped off a hat trick of Graded wins at Turffontein with a Grade 1 score in the Empress Club Stakes, has been retired to stud, it was announced by Barry Irwin, principal of Team Valor International.

The daughter of Leading Sire Jet Master will join a budding broodmare band currently being formed by TVI in South Africa, where the mares will be boarded at Klipdrif Stud, which will offer their produce annually at the National Yearling Sale.

Stratos retires with a record of 7-4-3 in 19 career outings, her resume highlighted by victories in the G1 Empress Club, the G2 Ipi Tombe, the G3 Yellowwood and the Renounce Stakes.

The 5-year-old was trained throughout her career by Michael Azzie and she was a tribute to her conditioner, who turned her out in magnificent condition despite some infirmities towards the end of her career, which came to a close April 5 when she went unplaced in the G1 Horse Chestnut Stakes.

“I don’t think we’ve ever owned a better-looking racehorse than Stratos,” Irwin said from Johannesburg, South Africa. “She frankly has inspired us to branch out into the breeding game down here.”

Set to be part of the stable’s market production team by August are such prominent females as Sunshine Lover, the young dam of 2008 rade 1 Cape Fillies Guineas heroine Captain’s Lover, and She’s on Fire, the recent 8 ¾-length winner of the Grade 2 Gerald Rosenberg Stakes.

Another mare that figures to find her way back to South Africa to join the TVI broodmare ranks is Little Miss Magic, the Jet Master daughter best last season in the Grade 1 Empress Club Stakes.

“We will start the 2008-2009 breeding season off with about 4 mares, with the intention to beef up the total to a dozen within 3 or 4 years,” Irwin said. “We think the potential to make a profit breeding yearlings for the market in South Africa is great.”