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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.
Based on the recognition of
Irwin’s eye for prospecting talent and the
placement of his horses, handicappers in Daily
Racing Form have made a habit of referring to
Team Valor's "clever" purchases within
the confines of their analyses.
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.
Team Valor
1990s Pioneer Turned Leading Owner
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.
Team Valor moved its headquarters from California
to Versailles, Kentucky in order to sharpen its
focus on acquisitions both at home and abroad, as
well as allowing Irwin more accessibility to Team
Valor’s horses trained in the Midwest and the
East Coast.
"The move
has been a boon," Irwin said. "It has
allowed us to drastically reduce the company’s
overhead. We no longer have a large office staff
or a sales force. The office is just me, my wife
Kathleen Jones Irwin and my assistant Amy Delwiche
Collingsworth.
"We now
have more direct communication with our horsemen
and our clients. 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."
Team Valor International
Stable Goes Global in 2007
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 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 is 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.”
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
Aron Wellman, a
30-year-old attorney living in Southern
California, joined Team Valor in January of 2008.
Prior to becoming Racehorse Administrator for the
stable, he founded his own successful racing
stable named LGL, an acronym for “Let’s Get
Lucky.”
True to the
spirit of that Southern California venture, in
which Wellman formed syndicates to race, LGL
Racing hit pay dirt immediately and showed it was
no fluke by repeating his successes to prove it
was not luck, but talent that put Wellman on the
map.
Among the stars
prospected, syndicated and managed by Wellman were
the nationally-ranked grass fillies Valbenny and
Three Degrees.
Bought
reasonably abroad, both fillies won the Grade 2
Honeymoon Handicap at Hollywood Park and placed in
more than one Grade 1 race. Three Degrees
unfortunately suffered an early demise, but
Valbenny was sold for a large profit at the close
of her 3-year-old season in 2007 when she realized
a final bid of $1.2 million in Kentucky.
The son of
longtime Thoroughbred breeders and owners, Mike
and Cory Wellman, Aron was “born into” the
sport. Described by Barry Irwin as a “true
student of the game,” Wellman learned about
racing at the foot of his parent’s close
friends, Bill Shoemaker and Eddie Delahoussaye.
As a teen, he
took full advantage of his proximity to top
trainers, such as Kentucky Derby-winning horsemen
Charlie Whittingham and Eddie Gregson, and gleaned
a vast amount of knowledge.
Wellman began
walking hots before he was 10 years old and
groomed horses during his family summer vacations
at Del Mar. One filly he groomed, Veille Vigne,
won the 1991 Grade 2 Chula Vista Handicap for
trainer Jude Feld. He was 14 years old.
A star soccer
player in high school and college, Wellman
graduated from the University of Santa Barbara and
earned a law degree.
At age 25 he won
his first race with a gelding he had claimed a
month earlier. Within a few years he was winning
Graded races on the same circuit.
“I started a
stable that experienced success and I enjoyed
it,” Wellman said. “But when I had the
opportunity to become part of Team Valor, I jumped
at the chance, because what I want to do in life
is have the ability to be involved with top
horses, year in and year out.
“One day I
hope to be running Team Valor International. This
is the opportunity of a lifetime and I look
forward to working with Barry Irwin and the
stable’s racing partners.”
Aron resides
with his South African-born wife Talya close to
the track in Del Mar, California.
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Aron Wellman
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
Lexington, is married to computer whiz Monty
Collingworth and spends as much time as possible
riding her Thoroughbred Monarch Bay, who was not
quite cutting it the “claiming circuit.”
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.
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Amy Collingsworth
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 Lawrenceburg,
Kentucky with her 14-year-old cat Wicket.
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Kathleen Irwin
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