Team Valor International

Ultimately, Barry Irwin, a native of Los Angeles and owner of 2011 Kentucky Derby and 2013 Dubai World Cup winner Animal Kingdom, discovered that owning and breeding Thoroughbreds was more rewarding than working in the racing media. Long before he became an internationally successful owner and industry leader, he wrote  fiction before taking a staff job for The Blood-Horse in 1969. Returning to California, he wrote for and edited Thoroughbred of California and became the Southern California columnist for the Daily Racing Form. He also hosted horseracing radio and television shows. 

At the end of the 1978 Del Mar meet, he changed direction by becoming a bloodstock agent, forming Pacific Thoroughbreds the following year. In 1987, he formed a partnership with long-time friend Jeff Siegel and two others, to create Clover Racing Stable. That very year, Political Ambition won the Grade I Hollywood Derby. Five years later, Irwin and Siegel went on their own, establishing Team Valor. In its first year,  English turf horse, My Memoirs, finished second to A.P. Indy in the Belmont Stakes. Team Valor was a co-owner of 1989 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Prize.

In 2007, Irwin bought out Siegel. In 21 years as partners, they won 170 stakes races, including 21 Grade I’s.   

Throughout his glittering success in racing, Irwin has given back to racing. Team Valor International has partners around the globe, and they annually donate one percent of their world earnings to The Race for Education. Team Valor International then matches that total to double the contribution. The Race for Education is a charity that offers college scholarships to the children of backstretch and farm workers. In 2006, Irwin was presented the inaugural Valedictorian Award by The Race for Education.

Irwin has been an outspoken advocate against race-day medication in North America and also a long-time friend of horse rescues.  

Andrew Bentley Stables LLC

Horseracing provided a thrill Andrew Bentley, who has Down Syndrome, could never have imagined. His dad, Gregory, purchased Hardest Core for $210,000 for his son’s 30th birthday at the November 2013 Keeneland Mixed Sale, hoping the three-year-old gelding, who had finished second in a $100,000 grass stakes at Saratoga, might prosper in steeplechase racing, where Gregory has had his most success as an owner in Unionville, Pa.

They’ll have to wait to find out. Hardest Core isn’t going to be converted to a jumper any time soon. The 2014 Arlington Million was a “Win and You’re In,” Breeders’ Cup stakes, meaning Hardest Core automatically gets into the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita. Andrew said he’ll be able to handle that: “I only get excited,” he said. “Never nervous.”

His dad said, “I’m just proud of Andrew’s continued interest in racing. Andrew is our biggest racing fan. When he looks through the condition book, he can spot a race; and when he looks through the program, he can spot a winner in many cases. It’s just another example of believing in people and what they can accomplish, given the chance.”

Hardest Core won the Arlington Million by a length. And there in the winner’s circle afterwards, was Andrew Bentley receiving the winning trophy from former Chicago Bears Head Coach Mike Ditka. The smile on Andrew’s face told you all you needed to know about that moment.

Southern Equine Stables LLC

Michael Moreno’s entrance into Thoroughbred racing was accidental. His success since then is undeniable.

A native of Lafayette, La., Moreno moved to Houston in 2007, where he, his wife Tiffany and their daughter Gabrielle, live.

Moreno owns and operates Dynamic Industries Inc. (DII), an oil and gas company based in Houston and Louisiana, and Moreno Group LLC. Under his leadership, DII went from an off-shore hook-up company with 150 employees to a thriving organization across the world with over 2,000 employees. 

Moreno was introduced to racing by a business partner who owed him money. In lieu of cash, the man gave Moreno three two-year-old Thoroughbreds he had purchased at a sale in Ocala. Moreno sent the trio to trainer Eric Guillot, whom he had met at a housewarming party. Guillot won races with all three, then with a fourth one Moreno owned in partnership with Guillot and Brian Cain. That horse, Show Me the Stage, won 13 stakes and earned just under $680,000. “I got hooked right away having a classy filly like her,” Moreno said.

This success induced Moreno and Guillot to establish Southern Equine Stable LLC in the late 1990’s. They started out with a farm and training center, expanded to 200 acres, then added the former Parrish Hill Farm near Lexington, Ky., in 2005. The farm is now home to the stable’s 30 to 40 broodmares.

Southern Equine hasn’t scrimped in building a broodmare band.

Southern Equine purchased Maryfield, the winner of the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint in 2007, who was subsequently named the first Eclipse Champion Female Sprinter, for $1.25 million at the 2007 November Fasig Tipton Mixed Sale.

At the January 2008 Keeneland Horses of All Ages Sale, it bought Irish Cherry for $2.7 million on the way to spending a sale-topping $3,862,000 for 10 horses.

Southern Equine purchased Better Than Honour, the dam who produced consecutive Belmont Stakes winners Jazil (2006) and Rags to Riches (2007) in partnership with John Sikura. Deciding it wanted 100 percent of the mare, Southern Equine purchased her for a record $14 million, November 2, 2008, at the Fasig-Tipton Select Mixed Sale.

“I love the game,” Moreno said. “I felt, in order to be successful, we were going to have to play at the highest level. It’s extremely difficult to make money in this business, especially at the level where we were doing it. She was the best mare in the world. She was a Picasso.”

Antonino Miuccio

Even before he became a legend as a Thoroughbred owner—claiming Palace for $20,000 and watching him become a millionaire and two-time Grade I stakes winner under the astute handling of trainer Linda Rice—82-year-old Antonino Miuccio was a legend as a baker in Albany, N.Y., and a long way from his native Sicily. “I was a baker in Italy,” he said in a phone interview. “I came to the U.S. and met my wife.”

Miuccio was smart enough to bring his recipes from Italy with him in 1954, and after settling in Albany, just a half hour south of Saratoga Race Course, he opened Nino’s Bakery, which is still doing well long after he sold it in the 1990s. He then was the baker at Aromi d’Italia in Guilderland, just outside of Albany. His recipes for focaccia, an Italian flat bread, and pizza are still popular, long after he retired.

Previously owning horses briefly, he was out of racing for some years. “Two years ago, he showed up at my barn one morning and introduced himself,” Rice said. “He said hadn’t owned horses for 20 years.”

Their decision to claim Palace has certainly worked out well. “He’s a very sharp guy,” Rice said. “He really gives me the liberty to do my job. We took several breaks with Palace. He ran a couple sub-par races, and we turned him out for a couple of months. We’ve done that with Palace several times. He’s always great about that.”

He’s obviously delighted that he returned to racing. “It gets inside you,” he said. “You’ve got to be lucky. When he does well, you feel good—for the people involved, too. You never know from today to tomorrow.”

He knows he’s having fun with Palace. “Sure, I have a lot of fun,” he said. “Anybody has fun when they win.”

Brendan Bakir's Tachycardia Stables & Tom Mansor

Tom Mansor, a semi-retired salesman in the health care business, and Brendan Bakir, a health care consultant, found a common interest after they became friends: a deep-rooted love of horses.

Bakir, a native of Chicago who now lives in Malibu, has ridden horses since he was seven and participated in dressage events. He explained his stable’s name: “Tachycardia is Latin for rapid heartbeat. That’s what you get at the racetrack.”

A lack of immediate success didn’t prevent Bakir from staying in the game. “My first horse was a disaster, about five years ago,” he said. “My second wasn’t much better.”

Then he and Mansor claimed Big Macher (Macher is Yiddish for someone who makes things happen.) for $20,000 as a maiden at Del Mar in 2013. One year and 10 days later, Big Macher won the Grade I Bing Crosby there. “We’ve paid $100,000 for some horses, and this one cost $20,000,” Bakir said. “It tells you a lot about the game.”

The 73-year-old Mansor, who has six children and 12 grandchildren, grew up on the racetrack. “My dad was a jockey in the ‘40s,” he said. “His name was also Tom. In the ‘50s, he got to be too big to ride so we moved to Pleasanton in Northern California. It’s the oldest track in America. It was a hotbed of racing.”

Mansor moved away from racing as he built his career and raised a family. “I got married and had kids,” he said. “But I always watched it (racing). About five, six years ago, I decided to get back into the game. He (Brendan) is also in the health care business. We became friends and realized we both had an interest in horses. We decided to put a couple dollars together and have some fun.”   

Big Macher’s Bing Crosby triumph came five days before Palace, who was also claimed as a maiden for $20,000 in New York, and won the first of two consecutive Grade I stakes at Saratoga.

“We got lucky,” Bakir said.

Baltas agrees: “They’ve claimed a lot of horses, but none like this one.” 

Repole Stable

Mike Repole, a 47-year-old native of Queens, N.Y., began betting races at Aqueduct and Belmont Park. “I’ve been coming to the track, mostly Aqueduct, since I was 13 years old,” he said. “I’d find the nearest old man, give him $2 to bet on a horse for me.”
Repole graduated from St. John’s University with a degree in sports management. His incredible business success has allowed him to become one of the leading Thoroughbred owners in the country. In 2009, St. John’s presented him with the President’s Medal, and two years later, Repole received an honorary Doctor of Commercial Science Degree.

Repole was the co-founder and president of Glaceau, the maker of Vitaminwater and Smartwater, which he sold to Coca-Cola for $4.1 billion in 2007. He returned to the beverage business when he teamed up with Lance Collins—the founder of Fuze Beverage and NOS Energy Drink—to start BodyArmor SuperDrink, and he is currently a majority shareholder in the healthy fast-food chain Energy Kitchen.

He bought his first Thoroughbred, Da Rodeo Man, for $22,000 in 2002. A life-long New York Mets fan, he used the team’s orange and blue colors to fashion his silks. In 2008, he purchased 27 horses at auctions as well as more than 70 claimers. “It’s no secret I want to be leading owner in New York,” he said. “To me, one win in New York is worth three anywhere else.”

In 2009, Digger gave him his first New York stakes winner that year when he captured the Gravesend. Uncle Mo, who capped an undefeated two-year-old season in 2010 with Grade I victories in the Champagne and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, became Repole’s first champion when he was named that year’s Champion Two-Year-Old.

Repole has especially enjoyed the success of horses he’s named for his family, including Stopshoppingmaria and Stopchargingmaria for his wife.

Braly Family Trust

The late Tom Braly gave Sir Winston Churchill’s famous quote – “There is something about the outside of a horse that’s good for the inside of a man” – documentation. Given days or weeks to live after doctors discovered leukemia had spread to his head and neck, Braly continued living through 2009 and got to see the debut of a filly he owned with his wife Marilyn, Evening Jewel, a horse he thought just might be his best ever. 

Braly died shortly after Evening Jewel finished a slow-starting sixth in her debut at Del Mar in 2009, at the age of 72.

Braly grew up in Long Beach, Calif., graduating from the University of Southern California. He worked as a reporter at the Los Angeles Mirror before opening his own mortgage insurance company, Mills Insurance. Marilyn was the company’s controller.

Braly’s family owned a box at Hollywood Park and he became an owner in partnerships in the mid-’70s. In 2005, two years after he was diagnosed with cancer, he decided to go on his own using Jim Cassidy as advisor and trainer. Cassidy trained Evening Jewel and continues to train Tom’s Tribute.

Grateful that Tom survived his initial diagnosis of cancer in 2003, the Bralys donated $100,000 to Children’s Hospital of Orange County and $65,000 to its Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) programs in honor of Dr. Leonard Sender, who treated Tom.

Caroline Forgason

Standing in the winner’s circle at Saratoga July 19, trying to get her mind around what she had just witnessed, Somali Lemonade’s owner Caroline Forgason said, “I never dreamed of this.” Forgason had just won her first Grade I stakes, the Diana Handicap, at a track she’s been coming to since she was 18 years old with her only horse—one whom was almost retired at the end of last year. “We thought she lost the `want to,’” Forgason said. “And when you lose the `want to,’ that’s kind of it.”

It’s a fairy tale come true for Forgason, whose family has deep roots in racing going back to her grandfather’s grandfather, Richard King, the founder of legendary King Ranch in Texas. Known for raising cattle and Quarter Horses, the ranch began breeding Thoroughbreds in 1934 and in 1946 won the Triple Crown with its home-bred Assault. Four years later, their home-bred Middleground won the 1950 Kentucky Derby, finished second to Hill Prince in the Preakness, and then won the Belmont Stakes. Forgason’s grandfather, Robert Justus Kleberg, took over management of the ranch in 1885. Under Kleberg, the ranch grew from 600,000 acres to 1.3 million. “My grandfather was really the one who got us into it,” Forgason said. “It’s a family affair.”

In 1974 Forgason’s sister, Helen Alexander, began managing the ranch’s Thoroughbred operation. In 1989, King Ranch sold its bloodstock to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum and its Kentucky property to Robert Clay’s Three Chimneys Farm.

Forgason has been in and out of racing for more than a quarter century. “I had kind of gotten out of things, then Michael (brother-in-law Matz) trained Barbaro and it was so exciting—so amazing when he won the Derby,” she said.

“I had a ton of horses and most of them got sick or hurt,” Forgason said. “That makes the Diana very special.” 

Gary Aisquith, Michael Caruso's Bethlehem Stables LLC & Michael Dubb

Michael Dubb, a hero to backstretch workers at NYRA’s three tracks, is a 58-year-old Long Island real estate developer who built and donated the Belmont Child Care Association’s Anna House and its expansions—a day care center for backstretch workers at Belmont, which opened in 2003.

As if that wasn’t enough, Dubb, who is chairman of the Belmont Child Care Association and a member of the NYRA Board of Directors, has been instrumental in the development and construction of new dormitories for backstretch workers at Saratoga.

“I’m a homebuilder by trade,” he said. “I was so moved by the people in the backstretch and the hard work they do, and the responsible way they are trying to raise their children. They strongly deserve their children to get a firm foundation for when they go out in the real world. It’s just the right thing to do.”

In 1980, Dubb began Beechwood Organization, a small home-building company of which he is now chairman, and now one of the top 100 companies in the country. In the past two decades, Beechwood has developed more than 55 communities, including Meadowbrook Pointe on the former site of Roosevelt Raceway, once the most successful harness track in North America before its demise.

Dubb was NYRA’s leading owner in 2010 with 50 victories and 67 in 2013. He finished second in 2013. In 2014, he won his first Saratoga title with 14 wins in various partnerships, including Michael Caruso.

Caruso, CEO and Chairman of the Board of the Caruso Benefits Group, races in the name of Bethlehem Stables.

The 68-year-old native of Newark, N.J., was one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time in high school and college. He went 81-0 at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark and was a three-time state champion. At Lehigh University he was a three-time NCAA champion at the 123-pound weight class. In 2005, he was included as one of the NCAA’s greatest wrestlers of the past 75 years. He is a member of the U.S. Amateur Wrestling Hall of Fame, the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and a charter member of the Lehigh University Hall of Fame.

He used to accompany his dad on trips to Monmouth Park, and bought his first horse in 1980. His first winner was Mrs. Joe Who.

Caruso was partners with Dubb and Stuart Grant of The Elkstone Group on the outstanding filly Grace Hall, who delivered Caruso’s first Grade I stakes victory as a two-year-old in the 2011 Spinaway at Saratoga.      

Gary Aisquith owns Gary Aisquith Bus Lines Inc., in Riva, Md. He frequently partners with Dubb and Caruso on horses they claim.