Team Valor is finishing up strongly as the clear leader among North American based public partnerships, based on number of stakes wins globally in the calendar year of 2018. The stable maintains a 3 win margin over the next-nearest syndicate.
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Capla Temptress, a Grade 1 winner in her second race after Team Valor privately acquired her as a 2-year-old in 2017, closed the book on her 3-year-old season in high style on December 15 when she kicked away to a strong win against elders in the Grade 3, $100,000 My Charmer Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
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Team Valor will go into the New Year with a rare abundance of both quantity and quality among the Northern Hemisphere 2-year-olds who are about to turn 3.
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Team Valor and Gary Barber bought Hastalavistababy when she made a dramatic improvement when stretched out to a mile and switched to turf in her third career start, flashing a solid turn of foot in a 5 1/4-length maiden win. On Sunday, she showed a similar kick on the Tapeta synthetic track at Woodbine in falling a head short at the wire in the Ontario Lassie Stakes and with an abundance of stamina to boot, as she galloped out far in front.
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Bombshell relaunched her career with two wins and a stakes placing on turf this summer but she made the most of a dirt opportunity at Aqueduct on November 23, drawing away powerfully to win the $150,000 Forever Together Stakes by 4 1/4 lengths.
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Following the exploits of dual champion Songbird (Medaglia d Oro) two years ago, Team Valor International s Barry Irwin struck to secure the filly s half-sister Wide Range (Mineshaft) and repatriated the then 11-year-old mare from Thailand. Her first foal born since she returned to the U.S., a colt by Medaglia d Oro, went through the ring at Keeneland Monday and sold for $470,000 to Clear Ridge Stables.
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After consistently running well in stiff competition all year, Va Bank looked to be up against it for a change on November 4 when the turf course for his seasonal finale deteriorated to a water-logged mess at Capannelle racecourse in Rome, yet the game 6-year-old gutted out his biggest win to date in the $297,000, Grade 2 Premio Roma.
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Devant's name is French for "in front," and she got there in the Group 3 Prix Miesque at Maisons-Laffitte today, following up on a painfully close defeat in her Team Valor debut over the summer in a similar event.
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When Devant crossed the line first today at Maisons-Laffite racecourse in Paris, she was winning stakes number 9 this season for Team Valor International. It was sweet compensation for an earlier nose loss in the Group 3 Six Perfections at Longchamp to the nostril of a Godolphin runner.
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In the Group 3 Prix la Rochette on September 2, The Black Album succeeded as the first-ever Group stakes runner for trainer Jane Soubagne. On November 2, the recent Team Valor International acquisition will bring Soubagne, based at La Teste de Buche in southwest France, to racing's highest level as a participant in the $1-million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Churchill Downs.
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Nisreen, a bargain $46,000 buy at Tattersalls last autumn, continued her impressive development at Saint-Cloud racecourse in Paris today by making win number 4 in 7 outings count, as she took the Listed Prix Dahlia under an inspired ride from Yutake Take.
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When Va Bank powered home by 5 lengths today in Berlin to win his Group 3, he became individual stakes winner 150 for a horse syndicated by Barry Irwin since 1987. Team Valor International in 2018 has now exceeded the $2-million plateau in earnings with annual gleanings of more than $2,052,000. TVI has now exceeded $2 million in 7 of the last 10 years.
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Va Bank dusted off his dazzling form of old with a dominant win in Berlin today in the Group 3 Preis der Deutschen Einheit that was certainly welcome and well-deserved after he had dropped a pair of Group races this summer by miniscule margins.
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Team Valor International has acquired The Black Album, recent winner of the Group 3 Prix La Rochette at ParisLongchamp, and will point him to the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf on November 2 at Churchill Downs.
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From France's Jour de Galop: Since 1987, Team Valor has won 263 podiums at the black type level and has 28 winners of
Gr1. The famous union of American owners is still talking about him this year in Europe, with horses like Devant, Kingstar or Va Bank. Barry Irwin, who heads the entity, answered our questions.
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Free from the shadow of established leaders within her division, Talk Veuve to Me added a new element and continued to climb the ladder herself on July 14, cruising to a nearly 5-length win at 1-to-10 odds in the $200,000, Grade 3 Indiana Oaks.
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From Bob Ehalt comes the following for Thoroughbred Racing Commentary: If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, then Barry Irwin has every right to feel extremely flattered.
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French import La Sardane recorded her third straight win and fourth overall in five starts for Team Valor as the stable wrapped up the first half of the year well ahead of its pace from 2017.
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La Sardane, despite a preposterous morning-line price of 20-to-1, stood out on back class in yesterday s Grade 3, $200,000 Intercontinental Stakes at Belmont Park and she showed that she has been restored to that form, gallantly prevailing by a neck in her third start in the U.S.
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Since Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron jockey joined the Team Valor executive staff during Kentucky Derby week, horses near and far have been running lights out for the stable, piling up nine wins from 25 runners.
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When Belvoir Bay cruised to victory on Memorial Day, her Grade 2 triumph fashioned yet another new accomplishment for Barry Irwin s racing partnerships. Since 1987 Irwin s partnerships have developed 149 individual stakes winners that now have won 300 stakes races.
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Belvoir Bay, small in stature but not in breadth, speed or heart, once again dominated her rivals in a sprint down the hill at Santa Anita by taking her first career Grade 2 in the $200,000 Monrovia on Memorial Day. She has now won four stakes in her last five starts.
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Chris McCarron has joined Team Valor International and will be part of the executive team of the far-flung organization. He starts this week and will be involved at Churchill Downs, where the operation races three runners (two in stakes) this week in Louisville.
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With no local opportunity available against fillies and mares, Belvoir Bay nearly was flown across the country for a Listed race at Belmont Park, but her connections decided to keep her home and take on males instead in the Grade 3 San Simeon Stakes on April 29 at Santa Anita. She responded with a dominant victory, her sixth Black-Type triumph in Southern California for trainer Peter Miller.
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Mark Belling is one of Team Valor's longest-running partners, dating back to the early 1990s, and he has been involved in many of the stable's top horses over the years. What he had not been able to make a dent in was a Team Valor contest until now, as Belling came out on top of the first-quarter partner contest carrying a first prize of $3,500.
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Imported from England as a 2-year-old in 2015, Belvoir Bay became a stakes winner for the fourth season in a row for Team Valor and Gary Barber and trainer Peter Miller, getting up by a head in Sunday's Listed Mizdirection Stakes over the hillside course at Santa Anita.
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After a frustrating outing in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes on March 3, Storm Runner will get another chance on the Triple Crown trail at Gulfstream Park in the $1-million Florida Derby on March 31.
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Apparently Storm Runner was trying to tell his connections something all along, as he jumped into a new dimension on the Gulfstream Park dirt on Sunday.
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Hayabusa One, less than two months after escaping the Lilac fire at San Luis Rey Training Center, went toe-to-toe with the top horse in the Southern California turf division, Itsinthepost, in Saturday's Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes, as the French-bred duo hooked up in one of the most exciting races thus far in 2018.
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