Team Valor forms partnerships with racing enthusiasts and members of the industry to run Thoroughbreds at the major racing venues of the United States and abroad.

Team Valor not only is the most successful stable of partnership-owned racehorses, it is one of the most accomplished racing stables among all types of owners.

For the last several years, Team Valor has been listed among the world’s 100 leading stables by the English publication Directory of the Turf.

Statistics compiled by horses syndicated by the stable have not been approached by any other partnership-owned stable in the history of racing and annually rank Team Valor in the vanguard of all stables in North America.

Reasons that Team Valor is successful are as follows:

• Selection - Team Valor has demonstrated an uncanny ability to identify Grade 1 talent before it becomes apparent to its racing rivals.
• Development - Team Valor has shown the ability to fully develop equine talent by matching up individual horses with the trainer best suited to maximizing its potential.
• Placement - Team Valor knows where to run its horses for maximum return, as evidenced by its strike rate in stakes races throughout the world.

In short, Team Valor knows racing. It knows where to get horses, what to do with them and where to run them. Irwin selects all of Team Valor's racing stock without the need for consultants.

Proof of the high regard in which Team Valor and its methods are held is that Team Valor is the only stable of any kind in North America that is regularly used by analysts in Daily Racing Form as a handicapping factor.

The reason Team Valor is the only owner regarded as a handicapping factor by such an authority as Daily Racing Form is that Team Valor's principal is not an owner of the usual kind, but an astute professional racing manager with a track record second to none.

Barry Irwin is at home at the racetrack, both on the frontside and on the backstretch. Irwin has done it all in racing, in the process honing eye and craft to a point where he is recognized by horsemen throughout the world as being able to identify talent and develop it to the fullest extent.

The beneficiaries of Irwin’s fine work are those clients of the stable who have been on board for an astounding journey that has seen many of them standing in the winners' circle with some of the most sought after prizes in the history of the Turf.

Clover Racing Stables
1980s Pioneer of a New Concept in Racing Partnerships

Barry Irwin and Jeff Siegel, great friends since meeting in the press box in 1970, in the ensuing years owned horses together and shared a mutual interest in scouting for runners with a future.

In the winter of 1987, as introduction of simulcasting held out a promise of increased purses, Irwin and Siegel became the prime founders of Clover Racing Stables. Luck was with the venture from the beginning, as the first horse to wear the black silks with green clovers was Political Ambition.

Before that first racing season was in the books, Irwin and Siegel became the majority stockholders in Clover, Political Ambition became a Grade 1 winner in the Hollywood Derby and English import Lizzy Hare won the Grade 2 Del Mar Oaks.

Within two years, Irwin/Siegel gained reputations as the "upset kings." First they sent out 50-to-1 longshot Martial Law to win the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap. Then Prized shocked the racing world by upsetting Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Sunday Silence in the Swaps Stakes. Then they sent out Prized to win the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Turf in his first start on grass.

Early in 1992, when the two other shareholders in Clover were unwilling to inject capital into the venture, Irwin/Siegel ceased syndicating horses as Clover and formed a new entity in which they owned all of the stock.

Barry Irwin designed the distinctive crimson and forest green silks and named the new venture Team Valor, after that aspect of equine character admired most in a racehorse by him.

"We were always bold and our business partners had been restricting our creativity," Irwin said. "The first move we made on our own was to buy My Memoirs, who had never run on dirt in England. We thought he was a Belmont Stakes horse, so we had him trained on the all-weather by Richard Hannon, who produced him on race day for the race of his life. The colt came flying to finish second to A. P. Indy."

In its second season of operation, Team Valor won 21 stakes races, a figure exceeded only by multiple Eclipse Award-winning owner John Franks, who raced many more horses than Team Valor. Seasonal earnings for Team Valor was $3,465,369. The upsets continued as before, as Star of Cozzene first shocked Lure in the Caesar’s International, then robbed him of a $1 million bonus from sponsor Early Times in the Manhattan Handicap at Belmont Park.

Team Valor continues to develop Triple Crown horses, such as Captain Bodgit, Thomas Jo and The Deputy, as well as a bevy of brilliant fillies such as Golden Ballet and Cashier’s Dream.

"We now have more direct communication with our horsemen and our clients," Irwin said. "We rely heavily on the phone and e-mail to communicate with our clients and they get all of their information directly from the top.

"With no staff to supervise and no salesman to pay, I have more time to spend on managing horses and prospecting for new ones. I think the results over the past few years speak for themselves."

Irwin said that Team Valor has a loyal client base that is interested equally in success and fun. "We have a sophisticated group of partners," said Irwin. "They participate with us because they want to have the satisfaction that comes from owning a horse that can run at the top level of the sport.

"Their enjoyment comes from the pride of owning a quality racehorse. They don’t just want to participate, they want to compete. They expect us to produce winners. We know this and that is why we work so hard to keep the winners coming. If we don’t continue to produce, we know they won’t stay with us. So we never stop trying to do better."

As of July 1, 2007, Barry Irwin bought out his longtime friend and business partner Jeff Siegel and renamed the stable Team Valor International, to reflect a change in the company's business plan that had taken effect in the years immediately preceding the buy out.

"Truth be told, we had been international for years," said Irwin. "We sensed the world was going 'flat' with the revolution of the Internet and I have always been more interested in prospecting talent abroad than locally, because of the variety of horses in other countries.

"I have always said that a good horse can come from anyplace and we set about to prove the notion as the new millennium began.

"Look at all the good ones we've bought abroad, such as Santa Anita Handicap winner Martial Law and Belmont Stakes runner-up My Memoirs.

"What changed, though, was into the new millinnium we began racing a lot of horses abroad before bringing them to the United States."

Most famous horse in this trend was the fabulous filly Ipi Tombe. Bred in Zimbabwe and raced in South Africa, she had lost only twice in 10 starts. For Team Valor and partners, the filly won all 4 of her starts, capturing the racing world's imagination when she beat males in the $2-million, Group 1 Dubai Duty Free in the United Arab Emirates. She was 3 for 3 in stakes races in Dubai, setting new course and stakes records in each contest, then won her lone start in the U. S. at Churchill Downs before being retired and sold at Tattersalls' December Sale, where she topped the sale.

Since Barry Irwin moved to Kentucky just before the year 2000, Team Valor has dramatically increased the number and scope of its international quest for equine talent. During this period of time, Team Valor has had Horses of the Year, Champions and Group 1/Grade 1 winners in England, Ireland, France, Italy, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Canada, the United States and South Africa.

"We plan to continue to scour the globe to find and develop the best equine talent available," said Irwin, who in the past couple of years has bought horses in England, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, South Africa, United States, Canada, Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina.

BARRY IRWIN

Founder / Chief Executive Officer

Barry Irwin gave up fiction writing in 1969 and left his native California to pursue a career in non-fiction as a staff writer for The Blood-Horse in Kentucky. In the next decade, Irwin spent a year in the bluegrass, went home to write for and later edit the Thoroughbred of California and pen the Southern California column syndicated in Daily Racing Form. He hosted a twice-weekly two-hour radio program, as well as a weekly, one-hour television show.

During his career as a journalist, while covering racing, sales and horsemen on an international basis, Irwin reached a point where he wanted to be a player and not a writer. He had been able to pick up the fine points of the game from his unique position as an insider and as somebody who was able to ask a lot of meaningful questions of some of the Turf's greatest participants.

"I drove a lot of famous people nuts," Irwin recalls, "asking them questions. But there were things I wanted to know and I was in a perfect place to pester racing's greats for answers."

Irwin learned his lessons well. His first two runners won for Irwin while he still wrote for Daily Racing Form. Irwin left the Form at the close of the 1978 Del Mar meet to become a bloodstock agent. In the next decade, Irwin bred, raced, syndicated, bought and sold several hundred horses, including It's the One, African Sky, Moscow Ballet and Torsion. After a decade in bloodstock, Irwin in 1987 zeroed in on the aspect of racing for which he felt most suited--operating a stable of syndicated racehorses. He formed a partnership with longtime friend Jeff Siegel and the rest, as they say, is history.

"The creative challenge of spotting and developing the equine talent, coupled with the satisfaction of being able to allow other people to realize their dreams, is an unbeatable combination," said Irwin. "I am indulging my desires of being a track coach, screenwriter and Hollywood producer all rolled into one."

The nickname given him by some friends has stuck and Irwin is known among his clients as “B Eye,” referring to an uncanny ability that has gained him “legendary” status in ferretting out talent from some of the most unlikely venues the world has to offer.

Irwin was a founding director with the equine-related charity “Race for Education,” which raises money to provide college scholarships to the offspring of backstretch and farm workers. In 2006, Irwin became the organization’s inaugural recipient of the “Valedictorian Award” for outstanding service to the charity.

In 2002, Irwin had his story about his favorite racehorse Swaps published by Eclipse Press as part of its biographical series of legendary racehorses.

Email Barry Irwin

BRADLEY WEISBORD

Chief Operating Officer

Bradley S. Weisbord has been immersed in the racing industry virtually his entire life. He is the son of Thoroughbred Daily News founder and publisher Barry Weisbord, who is regarded as one of the most innovative minds in the modern era of both racing and breeding.

Bradley began in the Thoroughbred industry by working at the TDN offices in New Jersey while still attending the University of Wisconsin.

As he studied economics and real estate at the University of Wisconsin, Weisbord forged an impact on his father’s business, working on deals mostly related to stallion shares. After graduating, Weisbord went to work for Thoroughbred Daily News as a market analyst and he eventually gravitated to Colts Neck Stallions, a stallion share portfolio that Barry Weisbord and Net Jet’s founder Richard Santulli own together. From that platform, Bradley Weisbord began working with Flay and with owner-breeder Gerald Frankel.

Weisbord also cultivated a working relationship with celebrity chef and successful Thoroughbred owner Bobby Flay that began with Weisbord’s entry in the Thoroughbred business as a market analyst and bloodstock consultant. Weisbord negotiated the private acquisition of Her Smile, a filly that later delivered Flay’s first Grade 1 victory in the Prioress Stakes at Belmont Park in 2011.

Bradley at the tender age of 22 took a position as business manager for the Zayat Stables of prominent East Coast owner Ahmed Zayat. Bradley eventually added "racing manager" to his list of responsibilities and rapidly gained a reputation as the "whiz kid" in a conservative industry that historically eschews youth in favor of experience.

Bradley was thoroughly involved in all aspects of Zayat’s operation, which won 19 stakes wins between 2010 and the first seven months of 2011, including Grade 1 wins by A Z Warrior, Eskendereya, Jaycito, and Rightly So. Zayat Stables’ Nehro was runner-up to Animal Kingdom in the Kentucky Derby.

In overseeing Zayat’s roster, Weisbord worked intimately with some of America’s most successful horsemen, among them Steve Asmussen, Bob Baffert, Todd Pletcher and Dale Romans.

Bradley Weisbord was hired by Barry Irwin to assist in running the Team Valor operation. It is fully expected that after he has familiarized himself with all aspects of the company’s vast international enterprise that he will in the near future become an equity holder in the company and take over the day-to-day operation of the stable, at which time Irwin will concentrate on the international aspects of the stable and managing the stable’s select broodmare band, while consulting with Weisbord on the domestic division.

Email Bradley Weisbord

JEFF LOWE

Media

Jeff Lowe joined Team Valor International in June 2011 to handle media, after a nine-year stint as a staff writer for Thoroughbred Times.

Lowe carried duties as the lead Triple Crown and Breeders’ Cup writer for the weekly magazine and its website, and Irwin called him the "best young racing writer in America." To that end, Lowe received the Bill Leggett Breeders’ Cup Writing Award for his magazine coverage of the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Lowe lives with his Louisville-born wife Fadyia in Lexington, Kentucky.

Barry Irwin said "I am changing my own job description and that of my wife Kathleen’s as well. I love writing the Insiders’ Bulletin for our clients, but the time has come for me to start writing some books. I cannot do both, because it is too demanding. Kathleen is also contemplating writing a book. I will continue to contribute to the Insiders’ Bulletin, however, until they wheel me out on a gurney.

"So when I decided to bring somebody on board to eventually handle most of the writing duties and take over the website, statistics, Facebook and set up a Twitter account, I decided to start at the top, so I contacted Jeff."

Lowe grew up just north of Columbus, Ohio in Delaware, Ohio, where his father was general manager of the Delaware Ohio County Fair, home since 1946 of the Little Brown Jug, the nation’s "Derby" for pacers. Young Mr. Lowe "did all kinds of little stuff" for his dad on the frontside of the racetrack.

While attending Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, Lowe made his first visit to a Thoroughbred track as a freshman when he went to the races at Keeneland.

When it came time to carve out a career for himself, Lowe went directly into sports writing, working for a newspaper in Virginia. When the opportunity arose, he took his substantial talents to the Thoroughbred Times and fashioned one of the most respected by-lines in Thoroughbred racing.

Irwin said "I wanted the best for our partners and we got him! Fabulous."

Email Jeff Lowe

AMY COLLINGSWORTH

Administration

Amy Delwiche Collingsworth joined the Team Valor operation in 2006 upon the recommendation of Anne Buchanan, who left Team Valor to promote the 2010 World Equestrian Games set for the Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky.

Anne gave high marks to Amy, said Team Valor would not be disappointed and she was extremely accurate in her assessment.

Daughter of a now retired career officer in the United States Air Force, Amy was born in Sedelia, Missouri, lived in 6 different states when she was young and spent most of her formative years in Virginia.

“I was always horse crazy,” she said “but my parents wouldn’t let me ride until I was 16.”

Amy made up for lost time, as she quickly became involved in fox hunting in Virginia and rode through college, graduating from Virginia Tech. She majored in animal husbandry and moved to Kentucky when she worked as an intern as part of her involvement with KEMI (Kentucky Equine Management Internship) Program.

After she interned at WinStar Farm, which was a partner in ownership of stakes winners Ipi Tombe and Tiger Hunt with Team Valor, Amy was offered a job at the Versailles-based equine nursery, where she worked for Bill Casner and Kenny Troutt under the direction of General Manager Doug Cauthen.

Furthering her education and fleshing out her resume, Amy then spent a stint working at the world famed Woodford Veterinary Clinic about 2 miles down the street from Team Valor’s headquarters on Main Street in Versailles.

“My dad and two of my brothers are involved in the military,” Amy said. “We did a lot of traveling. I am looking forward to settling down in one place and working for Team Valor for as long as possible.”

Amy resides in Lawrenceburg, is married to computer whiz Monty Collingworth and spends as much time as possible with brand new baby daughter Nicole. Amy is expecting a second child in June.

Assistant to Barry Irwin, Amy has a unique background and an adroit ability to communicate with racing secretaries, veterinarians, farm managers, trainers and racing partners in an effective, efficient and most extraordinarily pleasant way.

Email Amy Collingsworth

MARY HOPE KRAMER

Administration

Mary Hope Kramer joins Team Valor International's staff as of 2011. Like Megan Jones, and Amy Collingsworth, she has a wealth of practical horse experience.

For the past 7 years, Mary Hope has been employed by Shadwell Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. While she enjoyed her lengthy stint at the famed bluegrass nursery owned by United Arab Emirate's ruler Sheik Hamdam al Maktoum, for whom she was a member of the foaling staff, Mary Hope longed to work in a racing environment, because her heart and interest are in that branch of the industry.

While at Shadwell, she spent much of her free time on the Internet, where she followed racing, especially international horseracing.

A university graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Science, Mary Hope brings a rich store of experience to Team Valor.

Among her credentials is an award for "top student" in 2003 while enrolled in the Kentucky Equine Management Internship. She did her internship at Prince Khaled Abdullah's legendary Juddmonte Farm in Lexington, Kentucky.

Earlier, while at the Miner Agricultural Research Institute in New York, she conducted, presented and defended an equine research study.

Prior to her research at Miner, Mary Hope worked for 2 years as a veterinary assistant for the Centre Court Clinic in Atlanta, Georgia.

Barry Irwin said of Mary Hope, "She has been hired to take over some of the duties of Amy Collingsworth, who is expecting her second child in June. I fully expect Mary Hope to be involved in the racing side of our company, in addition to her administrative duties.

"Mary Hopes has a great background and comes very highly recommended."

Email Mary Hope Kramer

MEGAN JONES

Customer Relations / International Tours

Megan Jones was hired by Team Valor International to augment the staff and run the Versailles office during latter stages Amy Collingsworth's pregnancy and subsequent childbirth.

It quickly became apparent that this lifelong racing fanatic would become a valuable addition to the team.

Megan grew up in rural South Carolina. "I bought the book Ruffian: Burning from the Start," she recalls. "You know Frank Whiteley, who trained her, is from Camden, South Carolina. After I read that book I subscribed to The Blood-Horse." As a young teenager, Megan recalls cutting out pictures of Team Valor's Kentucky Derby runner-up Captain Bodgit.

A lifelong horsewoman, Megan said "I had a pony since before I could walk. Later, I did hunters and jumpers and equitation." Megan's parents logged a lot of miles vanning their daughter's horses up and down the Eastern Seaboard to various shows and competitions.

Because she wanted to stay close to home and her horses, Megan decided to attend college locally, first receiving a B. A. and later a Master's Degree in marketing from the University of Clemson in South Carolina.

"I think the experience she received from working for her family's business, coupled with a love of animals and the sport of racing has allowed Megan to gain the perfect mix of a young business woman with the heart of a sportswoman in love with animals, racehorses in particular," said Barry Irwin.

"From having grown up in a household of an entrepreneur and worked for her family, Megan learned what it took to keep a business afloat through times good and bad. This kind of experience is invaluable.

"Megan has a bright, cheery outlook and our clients have quickly bonded with her."

"Megan has a winning personality and a great interest both in people and horse racing. In April of 2010, she arranged and conducted a highly successful and enjoyable trip with about 20 Team Valor partners that went over with such a bang, that she has been put in charge of Customer Relations and the new venture, Team Valor International Tours, which in 2011 plans trips to Meydan Race Course in the United Arab Emirates for the Dubai World Cup, The Curragh in Ireland for the Irish Two Thousand Guineas in May and Ascot in England in June for the famed Royal Ascot meeting."

Email Megan Jones

KATHLEEN IRWIN

Website / Statistics

Kathleen Jones Irwin joined Team Valor as its only employee in 1999. She worked as Barry Irwin's secretary and office manager for about 7 years. She currently maintains the stable's website and statistics, as well as coordinates the presentation on-line of new acquisitions to the stable. Additionally, she does the layout and photos for Team Valor's twice-weekly in-house publication known as the Insiders' Bulletin.

Born in Cherokee, Oklahoma, Kathleen spent her teen years in the Northwest, where she became enthralled with racing at nearby Playfair racetrack in Spokane, Washington. What led the fair maiden to that den of iniquity on the leaky roof circuit was something as innocent as a Stallion Register bought at a downtown used book store in Portland, Oregon.

"I have always been interested in geneology," admitted Kathleen "and I just became fascinated with the families and pedigrees in that book. It led me to the racetrack, where I found the game intriguing in all of its aspects."

Kathleen eventually moved to the bluegrass of Lexington, Kentucky, where she operated the foreign research wing of Bloodstock Research Information Services.

An award-winning author, Kathleen has written both fiction and non-fiction of distinction and import. Her tutorial on dosage, which can be found on this website on the links page, has aided many a newcomer to the industry in understanding the basic principles of the discipline. She has written extensively about the history of the Triple Crown and its participants.

Along with her sister Joy, she started and helped to maintain an on-line database of all horses to ever participate in the Triple Crown races.

Two of her short stories have been included in an anthology of award-winning fiction published in 2007 by the Thoroughbred Times named "Thoroughbred Tales."

She is married to Barry Irwin and resides in Versailles, Kentucky with her 17-year-old cat Wicket.

Email Kathleen Irwin