Visionaire rewarded the seven-figure splurge with a graded stakes victory that paved his way to the Kentucky Derby, and he delivered a Grade 1 victory that August on the supreme stage of Saratoga Race Course.

Michael Matz trained Visionaire for Team Valor and the previous owner, Vision Racing, which retained a minority 49% interest after the private transaction struck a few days after the Grand Slam colt rolled to a 5 ½-length victory at Gulfstream Park.

Two months later, the chestnut colt unleashed a memorable, if not entirely visible, rally through a dense fog to capture Aqueduct’s Grade 3 Gotham Stakes by a nose. After encountering trouble in a 12th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, Visionaire returned to shorter distances and pinpointed his niche by closing from last to win a 6 ½-furlong allowance victory at Saratoga that proved to be a perfect prep for the Grade 1 King’s Bishop Stakes there a month later.

Visionaire came through with the race of his life, sweeping from the back of a ten-horse field and powering away to a 2 ¼-length triumph in the seven-furlong race that is widely considered to be North America’s most prestigious one-turn event for three-year-olds.

Visionaire additionally placed in the Grade 3 Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds and the Grade 3 Northern Dancer Stakes at Churchill Downs among his five wins in 12 career starts and career bankroll of $465,882.

The Team Valor partnership retained Visionaire as a stallion and sent him to South Africa for stud duty beginning in 2011. He was the Leading Freshman Sire in his new homeland.

Visit the Video Library for VISIONAIRE

Copyright © 2001 - 2023 Team Valor International. All rights reserved.