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- Former Dodger Jayson Werth has adopted horse racing as his new favorite sport.
- His horse Dornoch won the Belmont Stakes at 18-to-1 odds, validating Werth’s thoroughbred investment.
- Werth says he loves that his family and friends can stand alongside him during horse races, unlike baseball games.
Former major league baseball player Jayson Werth clearly was thinking about his current place in the sports landscape last week when he called a reporter to talk about the sport he loves. The conversation opened with Shohei Ohtani’s mind-bending Game 4 in the National League Championship Series.
“There are good games and great games and then there is what he did, absolutely incredible. We’ll never see something like that again,” Werth said.
Given that the Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays, both teams he played for, were about ready to start the World Series, you would have thought that it was in the front, center and back of his mind. But, no, he has a new favorite sport.
His love of baseball has been supplanted by the Sport of Kings.
Shohei Ohtani, are you for real? Dodger fans, do you realize what you’re watching here? Los Angeles, can you understand the singular greatness that plays here?
“Wait, I’ve got to go bid on a horse, I’ll be back in two minutes,” Werth said from a yearling sale at Keeneland, Ky.
After a couple minutes he came back, apologetic at abruptly leaving the conversation.
“We got him, he’s a Good Magic colt,” Werth said. “Good breeding on both sides [the colt and mare], $110,000. He’ll go in the fund for Icon.”
Icon Racing is the name of the new horse racing syndicate that Werth has formed. It has put together 25 to 30 investors willing to put up $100,000 to take a chance on young horses with the dream of playing on the biggest stage — the Triple Crown. It’s a partnership where, currently, the investors don’t have to pay any more money for things such as training or veterinary bills. Other founding members of Icon include media/tech exec Ian Ritchie, longtime baseball agent Jeff Berry and former MLB pitcher Shawn Kelley.
Werth thinks the experience of being a horse owner beats being a player.
“I tell people if you play professional sports you do it on the field with teammates and you wave to your family and friends,” he said. “In horse racing, you do it with your family and friends. Whether you win or lose, you get to do it with people you want to do it with. That’s what makes the sport so amazing.”
Werth will be at Del Mar this weekend attending what could be called the World Series of racing — the Breeders’ Cup. He has a horse with his first stable Two Eight Racing, of which he is the principal owner. His playing number was 28 and his horse is appropriately named Outfielder. He’s scheduled to run Friday in the Juvenile Turf.
Werth didn’t set out to enter the world of horse racing. It was an outgrowth of playing golf with some friends who happened to own thoroughbreds. He didn’t think it would be his passion, just a way to have fun with some friends.
“I went to a race and I didn’t really know much about the sport,” Werth said. “I had heard about the Triple Crown and Kentucky Derby, just like everybody. But I went to a race and thought this is cool. And then I went to a race owning a horse and I went ‘I get it. This is it. This is what it’s all about.’
“You’re back on the team. You go in the paddock and the trainer and jockey come and you listen to the plans for the race. It’s like a huddle. Go team. The horses are there. The jockey gets on the horse and, bam, you think this horse is mine. I own part of this horse. It’s like your teammate.”
There’s an old saying that the three things you never want to buy are an airplane, a restaurant or a race horse. Werth said he never got that memo.
Werth was primarily investing in fillies until he met trainer Danny Gargan at the Keeneland sales.
“He told me I should try and get in on a colt and get in on the Derby dream,” Werth said. “And that’s where I got 10% of Dornoch. Over the course of those two years, it really transformed and changed my life.”
Dornoch was able to make the Kentucky Derby field courtesy of winning the Remsen at Aqueduct and the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream.
Werth says he never got nervous playing sports, referring to his temperament as stoic.
“In horse racing I’m the exact opposite,” he said. “It’s like I’m having a mental breakdown. I’m a nervous wreck. I’m sweating. When Dornoch was going into the gate at the Kentucky Derby, I literally couldn’t breathe. I was hyperventilating and I almost passed out. I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life.”
Dornoch finished 10th in the 20-horse field, going off at odds of 23-1. He never contended for the lead and ran mostly midpack or near the back.
Five weeks later, Dornoch was entered in the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown. The betting public didn’t think much of him sending him off at 18-1 in the 10-horse field. He broke alertly taking the lead on the far turn but then giving it up before the stretch only to rally back and win the race.
“He was the second longest shot in the field, so it felt like a kick in the gut because I felt like we had a horse that could win the Derby,” Werth said. “Next thing we’re not even in the conversation for the Belmont. Anytime you’re an extreme underdog like that and you win, you feel vindicated and excited. You feel like you did something that nobody thought you could do.”
Werth called upon his own experiences in baseball and tried to apply them to racing. When he was with the Phillies in 2007, general manager Pat Gillick called Werth to his office as the team was out of options and it looked as if Werth had to step up big. He had been plagued by injuries and an anemic bat. Gillick said plain and simple this was his last chance in professional baseball.
“So, I went out there and hit like .420 for August and didn’t come off the field for 10 years.”
Werth had the same talk with Dornoch, and based on the outcome it was as if the 3-year-old colt understood.
“Two days before the Belmont, I went into Dornoch’s stall and said, ‘This is it, this is your last chance in horse racing,’” Werth recalled. “‘If you don’t do it now, your opportunity is gone.’ He’s a big mean dude. He’s tough, he’ll bite you. So, I grabbed him by his halter and gave that talk and patted him on the nose. ... And he went out there and got it done. It’s such an amazing story.”
As for the future, Werth is still trying to figure things out.
“This is something we wanted to do just for fun and it has been awesome,” Werth said. “I still don’t know anything about this sport and I don’t claim to know anything about this sport. I’m just having a great time competing at the highest level. I love competition. I love every second of being in this sport.
“As far as goals, we’re still trying to figure out what direction we are going with everything. People who are partners love being in it and it’s an opportunity to own horses. I tell people with Dornoch, I owned 10% of the horse but had 100% of the fun. That’s what we’re offering at Icon Racing.”
As for the Dodgers, who he played for in 2004-2005, in the World Series?
“The Dodgers released me, it’s hard to root for the Dodgers.”
