Ownership: A Team Sport A Closer Look at Team Valor by T. K. Hilmer & K. T. Donovan
	A jubilant Barry Irwin leads Captain Bodgit to the winner's circle after the running of the third fastest Wood Memorial in history. Alex Solis is aboard. Photo by L. A. Williams

The horses loaded quickly for the start of the 1997 Wood Memorial (gr. II). The starting gate offered a brief reprieve from the torrential downpour, if only for a moment. As quickly as possible, the starter made sure horses and jockeys were all in and quiet. The gates sprang open and the field was sent on their way to race with mud slinging in every direction.

A group of owners in the grandstand focused all their attention on one horse--the favorite to win in the field of 10. They had just purchased Captain Bodgit a few months earlier, and now he was making his last start before the Kentucky Derby (gr. I). The conditions could not be more nerve wracking. The rain had been pouring in sheets all day. The track was sloppy which had a higher risk of accidental injury to the horse and history proved that winning the Wood Memorial would not be easy under any conditions. Even the mighty Secretariat was defeated in this race in 1973 on his way to winning the Triple Crown. Now there was nothing left to do but watch the race unfold through their binoculars and hope for good racing luck and a safe return.

Captain Bodgit did not let down the public or his owners. On the turn for home, Alex Solis began to ask the bay son of Saint Ballado for more run and the pair charged toward the leaders with greater speed. At the top of the stretch, Captain Bodgit raced between horses and powered home down the dark and rainy stretch at Aqueduct to the cheers of his 39 owners, Team Valor. The winning time for the race, 1:48 1/5, was the third fastest in the history of the race. The rain could not dampen the beaming smiles on Team Valor's faces in the winners circle. Captain Bodgit had, in just a few short months, provided this racing syndicate with the chance of a lifetime--owning a horse that had a legitimate chance at winning the Kentucky Derby.

It is now nearly 10 months since the 1997 Kentucky Derby was run with Captain Bodgit, Silver Charm and Free House putting on a spectacular show for the world of racing. Team Valor and their talented colt, Captain Bodgit, came within a foot of attaining the pinnacle of racing, having lost the race by a head to Silver Charm. The Captain then went on to show a tremendous amount of courage in the Preakness Stakes, finishing a dramatic third after an explosive burst of speed to catch Silver Charm and Free House at the wire. Unfortunately, racing luck ran out for The Captain that day. He strained a tendon and had to be retired. The losses in the Derby and Preakness were disappointing. However, if you asked many members of Team Valor if they would do it all again, the answer would be an emphatic YES! Owning a top Thoroughbred racehorse is one of the most incredible journeys a person could experience and Team Valor had provided them with the chance to be a part of it.

In the ideal world, each individual could afford the cost of purchasing his very own champion caliber horse of the bluest blood. Each person could pay for the horse to be stabled at the most luxurious farm and then send him to the best trainer money could buy and sit back and enjoy the ride. In the real world, the best yearlings sell for over a million dollars. Then, after you fork out that kind of cash, there is no way of knowing that the horse you just purchased will ever make it through training and into the starting gate. Even if you are lucky enough to have your millionaire start in a race, the chances of winning back what you paid for the horse are very slim.

That is why real world finances make looking into the prospect of syndication an exciting idea. There are many types of syndicates. Team Valor is a national syndicate which focuses on the fulfillment of owning a horse that is capable of winning at the highest levels and keeping the horse in training as long as possible. Dogwood Stable is another national syndicate which mainly focuses on the younger horses with classic pedigrees. Westpoint Thoroughbreds is based mainly on the East coast and in Florida, offering partnerships in stakes and allowance level horses as well as claiming partnerships. There are even internet-based syndicates like Virtual Owner Partnerships (VOP) and Cyberspace Racing Team (CRT).

Since 1987, when Barry started Clover Racing Stable with his friend and partner Jeff Siegel, nearly 850 people have been a part of the syndicate. Wanting to develop a better class of horse, Siegel and Irwin branched off from Clover in 1992 and started Team Valor, and the original Clover went by the wayside.

"I'd say there is a core of 85 people who we can pretty much count on to keep buying horses with us, and 250 who will occasionally," Barry estimated. "We have 19-20 owners right now. We're down. We usually have around 33." The syndicate finds owners by word of mouth and providing enough excitement that the partners attract repeat customers. The very first client they ever had, the one who wrote them their very first check in 1987, called recently and wanted to get in on a horse with them.

Once the horse has been purchased, a decision has to be made about who will train the horse and where the best location to train might be. Barry Irwin chooses his trainers carefully.

"What we do is match the horse to the trainer. One guy can't do it all--even a guy like Whittingham or Mott--nobody can do everything. So we put a sprinter with a sprint trainer, a turf horse with a turf trainer. We had 13 trainers last year." He appreciates those that want to work as part of the Team, that tell him what is going on and include him in some of the decision-making. "I will point them in the right direction, but I don't tell them how to train the horse. I just give them a go, then tell them 'now go get 'em!'"

Having a piece of a good horse is what Team Valor is all about. Overall, they have syndicated 142 horses, and made $19 million in 11 racing seasons. Of those, 52% have won or placed in a stakes race, 25% have won a stakes, and 16% have won or placed in a graded stakes. Team Valor has raced such stellar horses as Prized (Clover Racing Stable) and Star of Cozzene. Many clients think that they were incredibly lucky to have such a horse, and doubt that lightning can strike twice. "They believe that they will never get another one like that, so they take the money and run. But there have been others who have hung in there, and gotten that really good horse three, four and five times," Barry said.

Some of the horses Team Valor has in training right now include Tenbyssimo, a 3-year-old import in Neil Drysdale's barn at Santa Anita who is expected to run in the March 4 $100,000 Baldwin Stakes (gr. IIIT) at about 6-1/2 furlongs on the turf. Others to watch are Brac Drifter, a nice stakes-placed filly who was twice second to Countess Diana, and Copy Editor, winner of the Mac Diarmida Handicap (gr. IIIT) and third behind Flag Down and Buck's Boy in the $200,000 Gulfstream Park Breeders' Cup Handicap (gr. IIT) on February 14 in his last out.

Irwin's favorite, however, is Star of Valor, a colt by Phone Trick which won the Aqueduct Handicap (gr. III) and finished second in the $75,000 Stymie Handicap (gr. III) at Aqueduct his last race. Star of Valor was purchased as 2-year-old at Keeneland for $225,000, and given to a trainer named John Terranova III. "No one's ever heard of him," Irwin said. "But the guy listens, and nobody works harder. He and his girlfriend are always at the barn." Star of Valor had undiagnosed ulcers for a while, then after the problem was discovered, finding a solution became a problem in itself. "This guy worked with him and worked with him," marveled Irwin of Terranova. "I wanted him turned out in a paddock a couple of times a day, just to relax, and Terranova did that. And now the ulcers are gone and the horse is fine."

Irwin's concern for the horses continues after their racing careers are over. The top horses are sold either privately or through the regular sales, and the males are placed in stud. The horses that are not sought after to be bred are donated through a network of friends and relatives who are actively on the lookout for safe homes for the ex-racers. Irwin's mother-in-law is very involved in the Pony Club, and his sister-in-law was an alternate to the '96 Olympics in dressage. Trainer Eddie Gregson's wife also helps find homes for Team Valor's retired horses.

"Last year at Oak Tree (Santa Anita's fall meeting) I was looking at a pony horse," Irwin relates, "and the pony girl said, 'You know this horse, don't you?' and I said, 'He looks familiar' and she said he had been a Team Valor horse. So they are all resuscitated somewhere!"

Irwin has a belief that Team Valor succeeds because they focus on the thrill of ownership rather than looking at the horses as an investment only. "People always ask me how much money my people have made. I really don't know. I ask [them] what value are you after? Because if it's dollars and cents, don't do it. But if it's... did you get the most bang for your buck, then yeah, my people got a lot out of it. I tell them that if people were in this for the money, we could have made more if we had sold the horses at their peak. But my people aren't in it for that. They want to own a racehorse. They are not after the money, they are in it for the pleasure. We race some of the horses until they are seven or eight, because they like it."

Whether you are the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or a computer operator, there is a syndicate that fits your niche and you too can experience the thrill of Thoroughbred racing from the owner's box.