Because I don\'t have much to do today and the Mets are in a rain delay, I\'m going to post a recent comment from the Ragozin site by Barry Irwin(Team Valor)about Guppie\'s Secret, and my reply(I\'ve actually condensed two of my posts into one). The string was deleted a couple of hours later.
:This horse serves as an indication that it is one thing to pick out horses for a client and quite another thing to pick them out and manage them for one\'s own account.
Well, well. Is this the same Mr. Irwin who\'s post about me the day after 9/11 was in such exquisite taste that even the Ragozin office felt compelled to delete it? Only a cynic would think you are posting this here because you know my response will be deleted. Me, I just think you posted here because you don\'t know we have a website of our own, which is of course where this belongs, and where my response will stay up.
For starters, I buy and manage horses for clients, not for myself-- the only difference is that Rising Graph is a partnership we put together. I could list some of the 65 horses we have bought for clients that have gone on to win stakes for them(66 if First Again wins at Sportsman\'s tomorrow), but I\'ve got a better idea. On our website we have posted a study of all horses bought on our advice for a 5 year period, showing purchase price, time period owned, earnings, and disposition(syndications, resale, etc.). Why not show me up by posting an equivalent study for Team Valor? You can put it up on my website, and I won\'t take it down.
When we first started to put together the partnership, we put a questionaire up on the site to gauge interest. We included a section where respondees could give comments of any kind. Several, unsolicited, decided to use this as a forum to vent about their negative experiences with Team Valor. If you would like I could post them.
Incidentally, Barry, Guppie came out of the race with very sore shins and won\'t be running for about 3 months.
But maybe you have a recent purchase for about what we paid($100k)that we could go head to head with, comparing results? Let me know.
By the way, I liked your article in Blood Horse.
JB,
I am not Barry Irwin, but I would love for you to post comments by \'satisfied\' Team Valor clients. From what I\'ve heard by people in the industry, Barry doesn\'t need his horses to win to make a profit. He makes his by skinning his clients alive on the purchase of the horses. I\'d love to hear your comments on this topic.
Frank
I\'ll have to take a passince I don\'t have firsthand knowledge. But this is an open forum. TGJB
It\'s not an open forum - my posts continue to be censored. Why leave this thread up? It\'s a lie.
As I said before, I will allow you posts that are substantive. That includes any pre-race analysis discussing Ragozin vs. TG, or any discussion of figure making methods. It does not include calling me names, characterizing my behavior, or posting the same rants 50 times- 49 was enough to make my points about Raggies, and I don\'t want to alienate the sane ones who come here.
It\'s worth noting that in the 5 years we\'ve had this board you are maybe the second or third individual I have had to censor- less than 10 posts in all. Your heroes have deleted thousands of posts. Do you call them Hitler too? But of course, you have no agenda- that\'s why you post here, not there.
I have no comments on CensoredJim, whoever that is, other than that his comments are good at times, comical at times, and annoying at times (probably like all of ours).
As far as Barry Irwin is concerned, he seems like a total jackass. Does anyone remember when Captain Bodgit was one of the favorites for the Derby? ESPN did a great 1-hour Outside The Lines that aired a few days after the big race in which they showed behind-the-scenes footage of a Derby jockey, trainer, and owner the week of the Derby (don\'t recall the rider, Zito was the trainer, and Barry Irwin was the owner).
Anyway, they showed Barry Irwin at a huge party the night before the Derby that also included all the Team Valor ownership partners and their families of Captain Bodgit. Irwin actually had the gall to tell certain minority owners that they WOULD NOT be allowed to get into the winners\' circle after the Derby, because there simply wasn\'t enough room for everyone. Pretty nice, huh? Put up good money to own a horse, travel across the country and don\'t even get to fully-enjoy the moment!
Not only that....it was a bit strange to hear him making these executive decisions considering Capt. Bodgit hadn\'t actually WON yet. Perhaps he could have saved an awkward moment or two if he would have waited for the Derby to actually conclude.
I didn\'t bet Capt. Bodgit that year (I think I lost my money on Free House), but after seeing this ESPN show I was even happier that Capt. Bodgit lost, and the more narrow the defeat, the better. I have rooted against Team Valor horses ever since then.
Never revel in someone elses misery. Its bad karma.
I would rather see an account of how Rising Graph stable has done this year. Can you please post those figures? I think that would be very constructive, substantive, and could help attract new investors.
At some point we will update the 5 year study to include the horses bought since then- the Rising Graph horses, Pompeii, License Fee, etc. See? We don\'t censor everything you post.