For World Series champion Jayson Werth, horse racing gave him the “juice” he had been lacking since he retired from baseball.
Werth, 46, retired from baseball after 15 seasons following the 2017 season. Horse racing gave Werth the feeling of nervous energy that he had lacked since his playing days.
“It’s kind of my first real race that I’m an owner. Here comes the horses walking around the paddock. Here comes the jockeys, the trainer, you know, the other owner. … I’m listening to the jockeys of the trainer talking about the plan.” Werth told FOX Business in a recent interview. “I’m, like, nervous.
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“The horses go on the track, and it’s like the buildup to the big game. You’re like, ‘Come on, I’ve been retired for a few years,’ so it’s been a while since I’ve had those emotions going.”
Werth said seeing the horses on the track gets him fired up like it’s game day all over again, a feeling that is hard to replicate for a former big leaguer.
“For a retired athlete, it’s really tough to get the juices going. It’s really tough to move the needle after, you know, playing in the big leagues for 15 years, playing the World Series and playoffs,” Werth said.
“That was when I was like, ‘Man, this sport is for me.’”
Werth was part owner of Dornoch, who won the 2024 Belmont Stakes.
Werth’s love for the sport inspired him to create a new thoroughbred ownership syndicate called Icon Racing. Werth strives to make it easier for people to dip their toe into owning a horse.
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“I wanted to create something that made it easy for people (to get into horse racing),” Werth said. “We kind of take care of everything for all our partners. We take care of all the bills, the race management. There’s a lot of stuff that goes into this.”
Werth also prides Icon Racing on its transparency.
“We tell everybody what’s going on. That was what kind of sucked about my old partnership. I didn’t really, I didn’t hear any of the stuff from the trainer. You never really hear what’s going on,” Werth said.
“You’re kind of in the dark and, you know, that kind of takes the fun out of it, whereas if you create (the) experience for everybody, like an interactive experience, and you get everybody all the knowledge and you talk about all the ins and outs and the, the training and immerse yourself, and it becomes a way of life.”
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Partners can buy their membership, but they don’t fully own the horse.
“Own 10% of the horse, 10% of the expenses, 10% of the bills, 10% of the risk, but have 100% of the fun. That’s kinda what Icon Racing’s all about. You get a little piece of a basket of horses, and you get to experience it.”
“My dream is that people come in and they do Icon Racing for a few years, and then they either say, you know, ‘Yes, I wanna do this every year,’ or, ‘You know what, I wanna go out on my own and get my own stable and become an owner and do this on my own.’ Which would be great,” Werth said.
“That means we did our job. I think the way to build the sport from the ground up is through ownership. Horse racing is the No. 1 sport in Australia, and it’s because they have a ton of owners. They make it easy for people to own horses. So, that’s what we’re trying to do with Icon Racing and just grow the sport and have a lot of fun.”
Werth played for 15 seasons in Major League Baseball. He spent his first two with the Toronto Blue Jays, the next two with the Los Angeles Dodgers, then four with the Philadelphia Phillies and the last seven of his career with the Washington Nationals.
Werth won the World Series with the Phillies in 2008 and made the National League All-Star team in 2009.
He had a career batting average of .267 with 229 home runs, 799 RBIs and 132 stolen bases.
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