Team Valor buys Summer Soiree

Summer Soiree will now run in the colors of Team Valor International (Pat Lang Photography)

SUMMER SOIREE (War Front), who romped by 10 3/4 lengths in last
Saturday’s Bourbonette Oaks (G3) at Turfway Park, has been bought by
Team Valor International and will be pointed to the May 6 Kentucky Oaks
(G1), it was announced Thursday.

Brereton C. Jones, his son Bret Jones and the Wahoo Partners LLC sold
the filly for an undisclosed sum.

Graham Motion, who trains all of Team Valor’s North American stock,
will receive the bay lass on Monday afternoon, after she is flown from
Hot Springs, Arkansas, to Lexington, Kentucky. He’ll begin preparing her
for the Oaks at Churchill Downs.

“We saw her race in person on Saturday and we were ultra impressed
with her,” said Barry Irwin, CEO of Team Valor International. “She
appeared to be just galloping. Larry Jones has done a remarkable job
with her.”

Irwin said that when he first began syndicating horses under the
Clover Racing Stable banner in 1987, the first horse he bought was from
former Kentucky gubernatorial candidate Jones and it was named Political
Ambition. That runner became the stable’s first Grade 1 winner when he
captured the 1987 Hollywood Derby.