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 and legend-provoking tales, and one that enables 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 All-Star outfielder. “You’ve received iconic individuals, the horses are probably the most iconic — they’re like mythological creatures. You’ve received the jockeys, the trainers, the individuals, the tracks. All over the place 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 conventional syndicate that’s uniting his pals, household, and colleagues — a few of which can be icons themselves — in a sport that Werth has fallen in love with.
“It’s a conventional partnership, conventional syndicate, however with iconic individuals and iconic animals in an iconic sport making an attempt to create lasting reminiscences and iconic experiences,” Werth stated.
As Two Eight Racing, Werth has skilled among the largest highs in racing this season as a part-owner of Belmont Stakes and NYRA Bets Haskell 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 didn’t have the success he had, no person would actually care. We’re driving the coattails of Dornoch on this entire factor,” Werth stated.
The barrier of entry that plagues the game in attracting new homeowners is a mission Werth decided as an vital subsequent step in his racing profession. In any case, he didn’t observe horse racing till he discovered that a couple of golf buddies owned racehorses. He took an curiosity and, because of homeowners like Wealthy Averill serving to introduce him to the game’s intricacies, has fallen in love with racing.
“No matter what you’ve executed in your life — whether or not you’re a businessman, athlete, superstar, 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 choosing up horses on the Keeneland September yearling sale.
“You bought to place your self in the most effective place you’ll be able to, and I feel 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 Introduced by Woodford Reserve path this yr as they campaigned Honor Marie for Ribble Farms, Michael Eiserman, Earl Silver, and Kenneth and Dave Fishbein.
“I’ll be the primary to inform you, I’m not the one you need making selections in horse racing,” Werth stated. “I’m simply right here for the nice instances with good individuals. I’m placing some individuals in management and administration positions [of Icon Racing] that I belief and I feel that we are able to 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 slightly bit and construct on the success that they’ve had.”
“He’s the dream consumer,” Zorn stated. “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’s Jayson’s as properly. We’re fortunate and blessed to be a part of his group, his imaginative and prescient, and what he’s 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 instances 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’s received [Werth] Derby dreaming,” Zorn stated of the colt. “He’s a specimen. He’s 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.”
Icon additionally had an iconic purchase Sept. 17 with the session topper on the ultimate day of E book 4, going to $375,000 for a daughter of Nyquist from the profitable household of Corridor of Famer Private Ensign.
“Kristian referred to 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 have been going to must stretch slightly bit to get her, however Jayson and his companions actually needed her. I’m glad we did as a result of she was our gold star.”
“We’ve received a few good horses to date,” Werth stated of the sale. “Once you get into one thing like this, you need to watch out to not overstretch your self. It’s straightforward to do right here, particularly if you’re chasing pedigrees. You need to have an actual tight imaginative and prescient and tight margin into what you’re in search of and keep on with your numbers.”
Werth expressed that one of many issues he has present in partnerships and syndicates is that you just don’t at all times know the opposite companions. With Icon, Werth is focusing on like-minded individuals with related experiences in life.
“You need to actually benefit from the individuals you’re with,” Werth stated. “It’s as a lot in regards to the individuals that you just’re partnered with and the individuals that you just encompass your self with as it’s the horses you get.”
That’s the reason certainly one 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 offers you the chance to compete once more, to get the thrills of victory and agony of defeat,” Werth stated. “For retired athletes, it’s robust 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.”
Werth shouldn’t be the one athlete to seek out pleasure in horse racing. Different main leaguers like Walker Buehler (who owned a bit of 2020 Kentucky Derby winner Genuine by way of MyRacehorse), Alex Bregman, and Edwin Diaz are all concerned in possession. Not too long ago, 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 as if the game is rising quickly. Unexpectedly, right here all of us are doing it,” Werth stated. “When you get a style, it’s onerous to not acknowledge how a lot enjoyable the game is.”
One thing racing gives Werth that baseball by no means did is with 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’s nice, you get to rejoice that second,” Werth stated. “You wave to your mates and your loved ones within the stands, however there’s a time side that goes on that, by the point you get to see your individuals, that second has deteriorated.
“It’s nonetheless nice and it’s nonetheless cool, however you don’t get the in-the-moment feelings, you don’t get to do it with them essentially. Horse racing offers you the chance to expertise these moments along with — whether or not it’s your loved ones or pals — the individuals you select to be round.”
That shared expertise is one thing Werth hopes extra athletes will come to understand, but additionally one thing he can now expertise straight together with his son, Jackson, who has accompanied him for yearling inspections all through the week.
“I really feel like he’s surpassed my information already,” Werth stated. “He does have a knack for it and he’s falling in love with the game as properly. He spent lots of time with me on the big-league clubhouses and he at all times adopted me round. To maneuver into the following chapter of life and have him round and be keen about it has been actually cool.”
