Whether it's turf journalism, racehorse syndication, crusades against drug abuse and cheating, or the breeding of a GI Kentucky Derby champion, Barry Irwin has no problem going against the grain of the establishment to achieve his goals.
So now that he's decided to write a memoir based on his sometimes-abrasive involvement in the Thoroughbred industry, it comes as no surprise that Irwin has chosen an unconventional path to publishing his book.
Derby Innovator: The Making of Animal Kingdom will be released Apr. 7 in hardcover, paperback, and e-book formats by Xlibris, an emerging print-on-demand publishing platform whose abiding principle is to give authors complete control over their works.
“I actually had the book accepted by a traditional publishing house,” Irwin said in a Wednesday phone interview. “I'm not going to say who it is. But after talking with them a couple of times and speaking with people in the [publishing] business, I realized that Xlibris is definitely a better fit for me because they weren't going to [mess] with what I had written.”
If you're familiar with Irwin's blunt, straightforward manner, you're aware that “mess” is the more sanitized version of the verb he used in the above sentence. If you don't know the founder and chief executive officer of Team Valor International, get tied on for a wild ride.
In the 1960s, Irwin left college without a degree to pursue a career as a fiction writer after a professor suggested he “go out and experience life.” The magazine that bought his first few pieces folded on the eve of publishing his first story, so Irwin took it as a sign and moved to Kentucky, where he would instead write about his budding passion, the racing and breeding of horses. He freelanced and later took a job at Daily Racing Form.
In 1978, Irwin parted ways with the Form around the same time a mobster named “Fat Tony” Ciulla entered a federal plea bargain that rocked the nation with startling confessions of widespread race-fixing. A mindset-changer for Irwin was how Sports Illustrated and the general press reported on the scandal with a candor and objectivity that old-school turf writers chose not to pursue.
“I thought if we had a vigilant press, instead of guys who just came up to the press box for the free food and booze, if these guys had done their job, a guy like Ciulla would have had a lot tougher time pulling off his tricks,” Irwin recalled.
Soon after, Irwin penned a general-readership piece for New West magazine that detailed corruption as he perceived it on the California racing circuit.
“I wrote about some of the biggest guys in the business, and I point-blank just said they were stiffing horses, and it caused quite a controversy,” Irwin said. “I think that was the first time that the racing public knew where I stood.”
Unfazed by threats of being blackballed from the industry, Irwin decided to expand his roles in bloodstock agenting and racehorse ownership.
“The biggest shocker for me was that when I worked for the Form, everybody was my friend,” Irwin said. “And then when I started owning a couple of horses–not good ones, just a couple of average horses–and won a few races right off the bat, I became a 'bad guy.' All of a sudden, I'm competing with these same people [who thought] I'm taking bread off their tables.”
In his book, Irwin details how he helped pioneer the concept of ownership syndication in 1987, starting with partnership that later became Team Valor. He also explains how losing the Derby by a head with Captain Bodgit in 1997 inspired a shift in business philosophy. A new emphasis on breeding led to his eventual acquisition of the sire and dam whose mating would produce Animal Kingdom (Leroidesanimaux {Brz}), the victor of the 2011 Derby.
Irwin said Derby Innovator began with a few sample chapters about four years ago that he at first only shared with friends. He got good feedback, but was told some of the subject matter involving major players in the industry was “too volatile.”
Irwin put the project aside for awhile, then retooled his industry stories so they dovetailed better with the career arc of Animal Kingdom.
“It's not an exposé or anything like that,” Irwin said. “But there are some stories about famous racing people, that if you know these people, you are just going to be shaking your head saying, 'There's no way that happened.' And I think that is what will make the book interesting.”
Irwin was asked if he believed the conventional wisdom that “insider” books about racing generally fall into two categories: Those that cause such a stir that industry participants vehemently deny what has been written, or those that cause fellow insiders to acknowledge what has been written as truth, while wishing the author never disclosed it.
“I've heard that [garbage] from day one, and I don't happen to subscribe to that theory,” Irwin said. “I like my wife's definition of journalism, which is that a journalist is supposed to shine a light on things so that they're better understandable. Hiding things in the closet has never worked in the history of anything.”
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