Mark Corser, a casual horse owner on the West Coast, found himself with some extra time on his hands after a business conference in Louisville three years ago when an impromptu side trip to Lexington changed the course of his life. Within the span of months, Corser had bought a farm and relocated both his family and his company to the Bluegrass. The first crop of yearlings bred by Corser and his wife Corrina hit the marketplace next week at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale where the couple's manager Eduardo Terrazas will consign a pair of colts in the second session of the auction's Book 1 section Tuesday.
“I had followed racing in England before I moved to the U.S.,” Corser said. “I bought my first horse in 2013 with trainer Adam Kitchingman in California. We really enjoyed it.”
Delineating the precise moment his life altered course, Corser continued, “But the spring of 2018 was when I met Eduardo. I had three days where I was sitting around the hotel with nothing to do. My trainer called me and I told him I was in Louisville and he asked if I wanted to see some of the stallions over in Lexington. So I went over to Coolmore and I saw American Pharoah and Uncle Mo. The trainer called again and he said, 'I have a couple of babies with a guy called Eduardo. Do you want to go look at them?' I thought, 'Well, I've got nothing better to do.' I got there about noon and I think I left at 6 p.m. I just really hit it off with Eduardo. We spent four hours standing in a 30-acre field just watching the babies.”
For his part, Terrazas was expecting a quick visit before getting back to work.
“I got a call from Adam Kitchingman and he told me that he had a friend who was out here in Louisville at some conference and he didn't have anything to do the following day,” Terrazas recalled. “He asked if it was ok if he could come over to the farm and just show him some horses. I figured it would be one of those 20 or 30-minute deals where you let him pet some babies and he goes on his way and you keep on doing your work. Next thing I know, six or seven hours later, he is still here. And I can't get rid of him. By the time he got done, he told me, 'Will you help me if I want to get involved in this?'”
Terrazas did his best to discourage his English guest.
“Basically I told him, if you think this is an easy game, you are wasting your money,” Terrazas recalled. “This is a game for people who have disposable income. Because 90% of the time, it doesn't happen. Sometimes the horse you think is the best one, when it comes to sales time, he doesn't X-ray or he doesn't scope or something happens to him. Sometimes it just doesn't pan out. There are so many variables that we don't have any control over it. The highs in this business are beautiful. It's the greatest thing in the world if you are in the winner's circle with one of your homebreds or if you sell a high-price horse. But the lows can be brutal.”
Terrazas came up with a plan that he thought would satisfy Corser.
“I told him, 'If I can't talk you out of it, let's just dip your toes in the water before you jump in,'” Terrazas said. “He said, 'That's fair.' And then he just kept sending me real estate stuff. He kept asking, 'Do you know this farm? Do you know this farm?'”
Some four months after his initial visit to Lexington, Corser traveled back to Kentucky with his wife to scope out both farms and schools for their two young daughters. Corser knew just how to sell his wife on the move.
“It was really easy,” Corser said. “We flew in on Thursday and landed at Blue Grass Airport. We threw all the suitcases in the car and the first thing I did before going to the hotel was take her to Eduardo's. It was a beautiful summer's night. She saw all the foals following her and she just fell in love with the place. We went to look at schools and she really loved the schools. We looked at four or five farms and it was the last farm that we looked at and she fell in love with it. We ended up doing a deal. And Eduardo just shook his head. We moved out here a year later and now we've got 13 mares on the property and we have our first real babies that we've bred ourselves.”
It wasn't just his wife and kids who needed to make the move East. Corser is founder and CEO of CM Process Solutions, a food processing equipment company. The origin of the company is almost as serendipitous as his purchase of the family's new Kentucky home.
“I came over here in 2008 to do business for the employer that I had been working for in the UK for 10,” Corser said. “After three months, the economy took a hit in the UK following the crash and he wanted me to come home. He fired me over the phone and left me in America. The only way I could stay was looking at setting up a business of my own. That's what we did. We had a couple thousand dollars in our pockets and we made it work. When people talk about the American dream, I believe it. I'm fully vested in it. I've seen it happen for myself.”
CM Process Solutions will complete its transition in the next few weeks.
“We relocated from California and we brought some employees over,” Corser said. “We just finished building a 25,000 square foot home for the existing business in Winchester. It's been a three-year process. We are probably going to move in in about two weeks.”
Corser Thoroughbreds, which started out with 160 acres on Bryan Station Road, will expand to over 300 acres with the recent acquisition of neighboring property.
“Eduardo will probably comment on that, too–'I told him to get 40 acres and now he has 300-odd acres,'” Corser said with a laugh. “The plan is to have 20 to 22 mares, but quality mares. I want to breed at a quality level. We will sell and keep the odd one that we fall in love with. This year we bred to Curlin twice and we bred to Justify and we bred to Quality Road and Candy Ride (Arg) and Gun Runner. I am pretty good friends with [bloodstock agent] David Ingordo and we bought our first stallion share, we bought a share in Gift Box. We have immersed ourselves in it and hopefully it will pay off.”
Corser Thoroughbreds will offer a pair of Book 1 yearlings at the Keeneland September sale.
“I am a little bit nervous because the one thing I've learned is you've got to have the goods and buyers can be a little finicky,” Corser admitted of the upcoming sale. “But that's Eduardo side of the business. I don't get involved in that. He selects the horses that we purchase and he selects the babies we purchase. And he selects the mares we will breed.”
Terrazas, who served as stallion manager at Overbrook Farm and at Taylor Made Stallions before starting his own operation in 2005, has plenty of confidence in his two Book 1 offerings.
First to go through the ring will be a colt by Speightstown (hip 210) out of multiple stakes winner Trini Brewnette (Milwaukee Brew). The Corsers purchased the mare with the now-yearling in utero for $195,000 at the 2019 Keeneland November sale. She is a daughter of Canadian champion Dancing Allstar (Millennium Allstar) and a half-sister to champion Summer Sunday (Silent Name {Jpn}).
“The Speightstown is a beautiful colt,” Terrazas said. “He is typical of the sire with a lot of body, a very strong and fast-looking horse. He is very well-put together. I have a soft spot in my heart for him because he was the first foal for Mark and Corrina as breeders.”
The chestnut colt will be making his second trip through the ring after RNA'ing for $200,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton November sale.
“We went out there to try and gauge a number on the horse,” Terrazas said. “I don't know about anybody else, but I didn't have a really good year last year in the sales. We got hit by the COVID and a lot of buyers didn't make it. So we are here trying again in what we hope will be a stronger market.”
Also selling Tuesday is hip 283, a colt by Uncle Mo out of Borealis Night (Astrology), who was purchased in utero for $285,000 at Keeneland November two years ago.
“The Uncle Mo colt to me is a dream horse,” Terrazas said. “He is a first foal out of an Astrology mare that I bought for Mark. I really always liked that family and this mare was such a beautiful mare. He is one of those horses–I try not to get Mark's head too big–but ever since last March when I went to look at him, I noticed how he was coming together and blooming and he has continued doing that for us. As far as a physical, he's everything I would buy.”
After their original mare purchases, the team has tinkered with its approach and is focusing on continually upgrading the quality of the broodmare band. At last year's Keeneland November sale, Corser purchased Peace Corps (Violence) (hip 89), in foal to Into Mischief, for $500,000 and Charge Back (Take Charge Indy) (hip 566), in foal to City of Light, for $330,000.
“After we bought our first three, we decided we didn't have to buy anything after that,” Terrazas said. “Going forward, we decided, 'Let's not buy anything that is not better than what we have at the farm already.' So we went out and acquired three or four last November. We went to $500,000 for a mare in foal to Into Mischief and I am very happy with what came out. Hopefully we have the firepower to go to the sales and leave open the option, if we can't sell one, that it is a horse that you'd want to race yourself. You always have to have that option, in my opinion.”
While Corser lets Terrazas worry about the sale, he and his family are relishing their new life in the Bluegrass.
“There is no better time that I enjoy than going out with my two girls and watching the babies,” Corser said. “I have a 6-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old daughter and both of them ride. My 6-year-old will go out before she goes to school and we have a horse that she'll go and see every single morning. They give them all names. So this year we have Sprinkles, Cupcake and we have a Gun Runner named Bob. He is out of my 11-year-old daughter's favorite mare and she calls him Bob. They all get named and then we have to go through the hassle of parting with them.”
The whole operation can be attributed to bad timing, according to Terrazas.
“He came here around Derby week or thereabouts and he came at the wrong time,” Terrazas said. “We are in this big field with all of the mommas and the babies and he's getting nibbled by all these little babies. I wish he would have come in February when it's 10 below zero and nobody wants to be out. But it was meant to be.”
Despite his protestations, Terrazas is clearly relishing the new partnership.
“We have a lot of fun,” he admitted. “I love him, he's family to me. And we have grown pretty close, his family and my family. We are always joking around and visiting each other.”
For his part, Corser is keeping modest ambitions. Asked what goals he had set for the operation, he said with a chuckle, “Just to break even.”
He continued, “Just to get in the winner's circle and have a photo is a great reward.”
The Keeneland September sale begins next Monday, with the first of two Book 1 sessions commencing at 1 p.m.
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