Siegel sells Team Valor share

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Barry Irwin has bought out his longtime partner Jeff Siegel in Team Valor, the Lexington-based company that sells partnerships in racehorses, the company announced on Monday.

Siegel, who co-founded Team Valor with Irwin in 1992, said that he wanted to focus on his broadcasting career and that Irwin was "kind enough to acquire my interest." Siegel has worked as an on-air handicapper and analyst at HorseRacing TV since 2002. HRTV is co-owned by Churchill Downs and Magna Entertainment Corp.

"At this stage of my life, I'd prefer to have one full-time job, not two," Siegel said in a prepared statement.

Prior to founding Team Valor, Siegel was a partner with Irwin in Clover Racing Stable, which also sold partnerships in horses. According to Team Valor, the two companies' horses have won 170 stakes since Clover was founded in 1987.

Among the horses campaigned by Team Valor have been multiple Group 1 or Grade 1 winners Irridescence, Prized, Star of Cozzene, Political Ambition, and Ipi Tombe, along with 1997 Florida Derby winner Captain Bodgit and 2000 Santa Anita Derby winner The Deputy. All of the horses were either purchased privately or at auction by Team Valor.

Irwin also said that the company will now be known as Team Valor International and will now focus on acquiring horses that have already won in Europe, while purchasing yearlings at auction sales in

the U.S.