What could be the one phrase that describes Thoroughbred racing? It’s a sport with a storied historical past that stretches again centuries, that includes majestic creatures, legend-provoking tales, and permits individuals from all walks of life to unite in a single loud roar that echoes all through sacred grandstands as a backdrop to the thundering of hooves.
For Jayson Werth, that one phrase is: iconic.
“The game is iconic,” stated the retired Main League Baseball outfielder. “You have acquired iconic individuals, the horses are probably the most iconic—they’re like mythological creatures. You have acquired the jockeys, the trainers, the individuals, the tracks. In all places you look—Keeneland, Churchill, Saratoga, Del Mar, Gulfstream—they’re iconic locations.”
That’s the reason Werth decided that Icon Racing could be the right identify for his new racing enterprise, a standard syndicate that’s uniting his buddies, household, and colleagues—a few of which can be icons themselves—in a sport that Werth has fallen in love with.
“It is a conventional partnership, conventional syndicate, however with iconic individuals and iconic animals in an iconic sport making an attempt to create lasting recollections and iconic experiences,” Werth stated.
As Two Eight Racing, Werth has skilled among the greatest highs in racing this season as a part-owner of Belmont (G1) and Haskell (G1) stakes winner Dornoch . These moments of “actual and uncooked feelings” have been properly documented by America’s Greatest Racing, and Werth’s colleagues have observed and contacted the previous MLB all-star about getting concerned.
“If Dornoch did not have the success he had, no person would actually care. We’re driving the coattails of Dornoch on this entire factor,” Werth stated.
Jayson Werth hoists the Belmont Stakes trophy following Dornoch’s victory at Saratoga Race Course
The barrier of entry that plagues the game in attracting new homeowners is a mission Werth decided as an essential subsequent step in his racing profession. In spite of everything, he didn’t observe horse racing till he realized that a couple of golf buddies owned racehorses. He took an curiosity and, due to homeowners like Wealthy Averill serving to introduce him to the game’s intricacies, has fallen in love with racing.
“No matter what you have accomplished in your life—whether or not you are a businessman, athlete, celeb, or no matter—everyone seems to be confronted with the identical problem of entry into the game,” Werth stated. “The thought (for Icon) was to assist that alongside.”
Now, Werth hopes to be that useful hand for his new companions concerned with Icon as the brand new syndicate is difficult at work selecting up horses on the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
“You acquired to place your self in the very best place you possibly can and I believe that begins proper right here at Keeneland,” Werth stated.
Icon has teamed with Legion Bloodstock on the sale. Legion’s Travis Durr, Kristian Villante, and Kyle Zorn met Werth on the Kentucky Derby (G1) path this yr as they campaigned Honor Marie for Ribble Farms, Michael Eiserman, Earl Silver and Kenneth and Dave Fishbein.
COLLINS: Zorn, Legion Searching for Extra Success at Saratoga Sale
“I will be the primary to let you know, I am not the one you need making selections in horse racing,” Werth stated. “I am simply right here for the great occasions with good individuals. I am placing some individuals in management and administration positions (of Icon Racing) that I belief and I believe that we will win with.
“(Legion) are younger guys, they’re hungry, they’ve had success early on. We’re giving them a chance to stretch their legs a bit bit and construct on the success that they’ve had.”
“He is the dream consumer,” stated Zorn. “His pleasure is the same as what we’re making an attempt to do. Our ardour behind this entire factor is the racing aspect of it, and that is Jayson’s as properly. We’re fortunate and blessed to be a part of his staff, his imaginative and prescient, and what he is making an attempt to develop this into.”
Via the primary 4 books of the sale, the auctioneer has dropped the hammer in favor of Icon six occasions totaling $1.41 million. Two of their purchases have been in partnership with Hoolie Racing together with Hip 1856, a $350,000 son of Charlatan .
“He is acquired (Werth) Derby dreaming,” Zorn stated of the colt. “He is a specimen. He is one of many ones that caught your eye the minute you went again there. He was one which we felt like we needed to try to get for his group.”
Jayson Werth and his son Jackson with Hip 1856, a son of Charlatan consigned by Paramount Gross sales that they bought as Icon Racing in partnership with Hoolie Racing for $350,000 on the Keeneland September Yearling Sale
Icon additionally had an iconic purchase Sept. 17 with the session topper on the ultimate day of Guide 4, going to $375,000 for a daughter of Nyquist from the profitable household of Private Ensign.
“Kristian known as her the queen of that e book,” Zorn stated of the filly. “(Werth and his son, Jackson) immediately fell in love. We knew we had been going to must stretch a bit bit to get her, however Jayson and his companions actually needed her. I am glad we did as a result of she was our gold star.”
“We have got a few good horses thus far,” Werth stated of the sale. “Once you get into one thing like this, it’s a must to watch out to not overstretch your self. It is easy to do right here, particularly while you’re chasing pedigrees. You must have an actual tight imaginative and prescient and tight margin into what you are in search of and follow your numbers.”
Werth expressed that one of many issues he has present in partnerships and syndicates is that you do not at all times know the opposite companions. With Icon, Werth is concentrating on like-minded individuals with related experiences in life.
“You must actually benefit from the individuals you are with,” Werth stated. “It is as a lot concerning the individuals that you simply’re partnered with and the individuals that you simply encompass your self with as it’s the horses you get.”
That’s the reason one in every of Werth’s focused audiences is retired athletes. As a former World Sequence champion with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008, Werth is aware of that void left within the soul of a competitor upon hanging up the cleats.
“Horse racing provides you the chance to compete once more, to get the thrills of victory and agony of defeat,” Werth stated. “For retired athletes, it is powerful to duplicate these emotions you had all through your profession.”
“All of us share the identical ideas that this is among the issues that horse racing wants proper now,” Zorn stated. “His new enterprise might be a catalyst for kick-starting a model new group of individuals coming into the sport.”
The Icon Racing staff with Hip 2469, a son of Raging Bull they bought on the Keeneland September Yearling Sale
Werth just isn’t the one athlete to seek out pleasure in horse racing. Different main leaguers like Walker Buehler (who owned a chunk of 2020 Kentucky Derby winner Genuine by way of MyRacehorse), Alex Bregman, and Edwin Diaz are all concerned in possession. Lately, the Nationwide Soccer League’s Travis Kelce purchased a share in a 3-year-old gelding named Swift Supply . Werth sees this involvement as a booming a part of racing’s future.
“It looks like the game is rising quickly. Hastily, right here all of us are doing it,” Werth stated. “When you get a style, it is arduous to not acknowledge how a lot enjoyable the game is.”
One thing racing offers Werth that baseball by no means did is having the ability to share these preliminary moments of triumph and defeat with the individuals you care about most.
“You win together with your teammates and your coaches. That is nice, you get to have fun that second,” Werth stated. “You wave to your folks and your loved ones within the stands, however there is a time side that goes on that, by the point you get to see your individuals, that second has deteriorated.
“It is nonetheless nice and it is nonetheless cool, however you do not get the in-the-moment feelings, you do not get to do it with them essentially. Horse racing provides you the chance to expertise these moments along with—whether or not it is your loved ones or buddies—the individuals you select to be round.”
That shared expertise is one thing Werth hopes extra athletes will come to understand, but in addition one thing he can now expertise immediately together with his son, Jackson, who has accompanied him for yearling inspections all through the week.
“I really feel like he is surpassed my data already,” Werth stated. “He does have a knack for it and he is falling in love with the game as properly. He spent plenty of time with me on the huge league clubhouses and he at all times adopted me round. To maneuver into the subsequent chapter of life and have him round and be captivated with it has been actually cool.”
