Cohen, Miller Ownership Venture “Fun, Immediate Action”

Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen believed the strongest man in the world is one who stands alone.

“My father never wanted to complicate things, so he never really wanted another partner,” explained Tim Cohen of his beloved father Jed, the much-missed scion of the Cohen clan, whose paprika-dusted silks have been carried with rare aplomb in recent years under the family's Red Baron's Barn and Rancho Temescal banner.

“I'd have clients at the farm or friends, and they'd go, 'Gosh man, you're doing great. Can we buy into a horse with you?' And I'm like, 'Love to, but I can't,'” he added, highlighting the stable's winning formula, honed to an audacious point, of purloining horses with latent talent from across the pond.

But as Cohen sees it, the industry's economics are putting the monolithic ownership experience on an unrealistic trajectory, making the collaborative one its increasingly inevitable alternative.

That, and Ibsen with his tufty-white mutton chops was never exactly known as the life of the party.

“The intent is to really get people into a marketplace that they would otherwise find very hard to enter or duplicate,” said Cohen, about why he is sunsetting the family's nom de course and replacing it with Rancho Temescal Thoroughbred Partners (RTTP), a bespoke ownership venture, formally unveiled last week, in tandem with his long-time associate, Kentucky-based bloodstock agent Joe Miller.

When it comes to launching new ventures, Cohen's muscle memory should stand him in good stead.

More than 20 years ago, his family purchased a 6,000-acre plot of land in California's Ventura County, transforming a cattle ranch and oil field into a sprawling tangle of fruit groves, emerald pastures and a horse farm.

A former luxury hotel manager, Cohen was plunged into an agrarian crash-course of soil management, growing cycles, climate and water conservation.

Cohen's new partnership shouldn't require the same degree of autodidacticism–yes, that is a word–nor the same amount of dirt beneath the fingernails. But it hardly follows the typical syndicate blueprint.

At $100,000 a pop, Cohen is selling a maximum 30 shares in a Limited Liability Company (LLC), an upfront payment that covers all purchase costs and training fees. Roughly three years later, the LLC will be dissolved with proceeds distributed accordingly. A new LLC will launch every year.

Joe Miller | Tattersalls 

“You're not buying into a horse, you're buying into a company,” said Cohen. “That company is going to acquire the horses.” No more than ten horses per LLC in fact.

Twenty shares have already been snapped up. With the bulk of the investors so far West Coast-centric, Cohen said to expect continued patronage of the stable's current pool of Californian training talent, the likes of Jeff Mullins, Mark Glatt, Bob Hess, Leonard Powell. But the venture has its eyes on nationwide horizons.

“It's not a dictatorship, it's collaborative,” he said. “Right now, nobody's excluded. I think if one trainer had a bunch of clients jump in, then obviously some of those horses would be going their way.”

Cohen stressed the residual benefits to an up-front payment model. No excessive mark-ups, for one. The team can also wield financial elasticity when scouting for talent, a useful shield against the hot flames of a bidding war.

“When a horse becomes available, you need to be able to purchase it right away,” said Cohen. “You can't wait to purchase it then raise the money and hope the horse is still available.”

Miller agrees. “A lot of times we've made offers on horses minutes after they run,” he said.

One that comes to mind, said Miller, is Quattroelle (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}), who cut a Moses-like swath through the field to claim the GIII Megahertz S. at Santa Anita earlier this month.

“Tim and I made an offer on her within 10 minutes of her crossing the finish line when she ran third,” said Miller, of the horse's debut at Leopardstown in August of 2020.

Cohen and Miller's forays into European sales rings have historically yielded results. The stable's Grade I winner River Boyne (Ire) (Dandy Man {Ire}), for example, was purchased for five figures at Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training sale in 2017. Looking ahead though, private sales, it seems, will likely constitute the team's phalanx of attack.

Miller lauds “a very good network of trainers that I speak with very frequently” as a backbone of this strategy, supplemented by a network of busy bees.

“We really do our due diligence, a lot of research, spending time with the horses before buying them privately, watching them train,” said Miller, championing the working relationships he's forged with Euro-based bloodstock agents Alastair Donald and Charlie Dee.

That said, “if an outside agent finds a horse that they think would suit us, they're welcome to present us with that horse,” he said. “There are a lot of great agents out there with a great eye.”

Quattroelle won Santa Anita's Megahertz Feb. 4 | Benoit

So, what type of horse gets the blood pumping? For one, “fillies with a little bit of pedigree, with a little bit of residual value,” said Miller. “If they're the right physicality, they can have a lot of value at the end of their career to go on to be a broodmare.”

Runners without the necessary on-track seasoning don't typically cut the mustard. “We like to see them run several times and show progression in the right direction.”

In terms of physicality, “we specifically like very good-looking horses that are going to go on firm ground, what we think are on the improve, and have a turn of foot,” he said.

They also need the constitution and fortitude to train “day in, day out” over America's deep dirt tracks, he said. Horses with a strong hind-end are desirable. “And you need a hip to it,” he said, “a bit of a shoulder.”

Smaller horses aren't necessarily looked over. “But they have to be very, very well balanced,” he said. “And they have to have some scope.”

If the horse couldn't cut it as a yearling, said Miller, “a lot of times we're not really going to want to buy it as a racehorse either, no matter what their record is.”

When it comes to RTTP's one-and-your-done payment method, Miller has had prior experience in other syndicates built around a similar model.

“It seems to work for people who don't want a monthly bill. You write one check and you get a check back at the end,” he said. “It wasn't for everybody, but it did seem to work for a lot of people.”

Goals are lofty–or rather, they remain so.

Front and center of last week's press release was an impressive set of numbers illustrating Red Baron's Barn and Rancho Temescal's recent big race clout: over the last three years, 27 of the stable's horses have either won or placed in stakes company.

“We want to keep winning stakes. We want to get people in the winner's circle at Santa Anita, Del Mar. Really, everywhere,” he said.

Another key aim of the partnership, said Miller, is to remove so many of the obstacles littering the way to the winner's circle.

“People always have setbacks. It's just not easy to get your horse to the races,” he said, calling the long road to the racecourse “the hardest part” for owner-breeders especially.

“Our horses have already made it to the races, and we have a very reasonable expectation that they are going to be running right off the plane for us. Most of the time they do so successfully,” said Miller.

“We just want people to have a lot of fun, some immediate action,” he added. Immediate action, and–in news welcome to any frugal investor with one eye on their checkbook–“we do want to be fiscally responsible about it.”

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Tara Stud’s Homecoming King

On part of its 70-mile journey across Ireland, the River Boyne flows not far from Tara Stud in County Meath, but the stallion named in its honour has taken a far more meandering course simply to return to source.

Approaching his sixth birthday, River Boyne (Ire) (Dandy Man {Ire}) is back home from America and about to embark on a stallion career five years after he was sold by his breeder Derek Iceton at the Goffs November Foal Sale. On Sunday, his full-brother will pass through the same sale ring, and potential buyers would do well to reflect on the career of his elder sibling, described by Iceton as a “hard-knocking horse”.

While River Boyne had the speed and precocity so beloved of the commercial market, he also had the durability which should be high on the list of pre-requisites for a new stallion. In this regard, his racing career was markedly similar to that of his perennially popular sire Dandy Man, who retired to Ballyhane Stud at the age of seven with 30 races under his belt. 

It is perhaps no surprise to see the name of Ballyhane’s Joe Foley in the sales returns as the pinhooker of River Boyne—a €20,000 foal who became a €65,000 Goffs Sportsman’s yearling and had his first three starts at two in Ireland for Gordon Elliott. But it was following his reappearance in the ring at the Tattersalls Horses-in-Training Sale that his career really started to flow. 

Bought by Red Baron’s Barn and Rancho Temescal, River Boyne moved to the Californian stable of Jeff Mullins and won his first two starts at Santa Anita, including the listed Pasadena S., followed later in his 3-year-old season by victory in the GIII La Jolla H. From that day on, he never finished out of the first four, winning two Grade II contests as a 4-year-old before earning his Grade 1 laurels with victory in the  Frank E Kilroe Mile in March this year.

“I followed him through all of his racing career,” recalls Iceton, who has recently welcomed River Boyne home to Tara Stud. “He is a really noble, proper, hard-knocking horse. Tough, sound and consistent throughout his whole career. So that’s the sort of horse I wanted for my customers here.”

He added, “What they’re looking for is a sprinter/miler type, who is correct. And I often say that the cheaper the horse is, the more correct the individual has to be. Dandy Man has served Irish breeders incredibly well over the last number of years. And this is the first son of Dandy Man to come to stud. So I’m delighted he’s back. Obviously, I’m delighted we bred him. I think he’s exactly what the market wants and we stood him at a very competitive price to try and keep my customers happy.”

River Boyne enters stud at €5,000, standing alongside Tara’s two sons of Dark Angel (Ire), Alhebayeb (Ire) and Estidhkaar (Ire). Despite the obvious sentimental lure of standing a stallion he bred, Iceton insists River Boyne had to pass other tests first.

He says, “You know, the first question you ask yourself when you bring a colt to stud is, would I use that horse myself? And, if you have to think more than two nanoseconds about it, you shouldn’t be standing him. So, whether I bred him or not, he was always a horse I was going to go for. I was very fortunate, I had a lovely line of communication with his owners in California, who have been incredibly kind to us during his racing career. And then when he was being retired I got in very quickly  and got on board. So I’m going to stand the horse on his own merits. We breed plenty of good horses around here. He’s been an exceptional one in the last couple of years but he wouldn’t be here [other than for the fact that] he’s the right horse for the job.”

Iceton continues, “The people who are buying the foals and the yearlings are looking for those foals that have a walk and fill the eye. [River Boyne] has got the walk. There’s no reason why his progeny won’t have a walk. So, it’s important, again, if somebody comes to look at a stallion here, they can make up their mind within about three steps of him walking out the door. Is this horse for me or not? Does he fill your eye? Does he have that little bit of zing about him that you’d like to use? You know, if you have to look at him a couple of walks up and down, I think the answer then will be a ‘no’.”

As well as that “little bit of zing”, there’s no doubt that sire power counts for an awful lot when launching a new stallion and, in this regard, River Boyne can rely on some reflected glory from the exploits of Ballyhane Stud’s flagship horse.

“Dandy Man is a hell of a sire,” Iceton says. “And, I suppose one other thing about Dandy Mans, they’re very good looking, colts and fillies, but they’ve done particularly well in Hong Kong. So a lot of those good colts were getting bought to go to Hong Kong, and of course they have been gelded, so there is no coming back from that. It just goes to show how sound and tough they are. Because, unless they x-ray properly, unless they were sound enough through and through, they wouldn’t be there. Look at any decent card in Hong Kong and just look at the number of Dandy Man’s [offspring] that are running there at the highest level. So I was lucky this fellow went west rather than east.”

River Boyne’s brother goes through Goffs on Sunday as lot 602, one of three foals being brought to the sale by Tara Stud.

“He’s a grand foal. He really is a little carbon copy. When people see what the foal is like, and see what daddy is like, it’s probably a relatively unique marketing ploy,” says Iceton. 

Reflecting on River Boyne’s younger days, he adds, “As a foal, he always had that great walk. He always had a great attitude. And, to be quite honest, I hadn’t seen him from the time he went from Europe to America and came back here. And, with a certain degree of trepidation when the truck arrived in, I thought, God, I hope I’m going to like this horse. I hope he’s everything he was. So once he got off the truck, he was absolutely clean-limbed, he still has the walk, he still has a great attitude, which actually comes from his mother. His mother’s just a lovely, lovely mare.”

Their dam Clytha (GB) (Mark Of Esteem {Ire}) was bred at Usk Valley Stud by Kevin Mercer and, though she was winless in her five starts, she has proved to be far more adept in her second career. River Boyne is clearly the best of her five winners to date, but she has also produced the six-time winner Harome (Ire) (Bahamian Bounty {GB}), who earned a top rating of 93, as well as the 79-rated Brosnan (Ire) (Champs Elysees {GB}) and dual winners Incendiary (Ire) (Excellent Art {GB}) and Keukenhof (Ire) (Dutch Art {GB}). The mare’s yearling filly by Divine Prophet (Aus) has been retained by Iceton and is going into training with Eddie Lynam, while the 10-year-old Xerxes (Ire), by former Tara resident Key Of Luck, is alongside her mother back at the farm. Clytha is not in foal at present but will return to Dandy Man in 2021.

In the meantime, Iceton has the job of assembling the key first book for River Boyne, and he says that early signs are encouraging. 

“I’m just back from Newmarket and I was amazed in particular at the number of English farms, and very significant English farms, that spoke to me about him,” he states. “I actually was sorry that I hadn’t brought him over and put him on show in Newmarket. Anybody that’s come into the yard loves him. He’s certainly not going to be a difficult prospect to fill. I’m syndicating him to breeders, and breeders only, which I think is a very important thing to do. So I’m selling shares, not breeding rights because, again, I think it’s important that whoever buys into a stallion buys equity rather than a breeding right. I have a good customer base and I’m hoping I can attract plenty of those back again. Of the stallions that have stood here previously, I think everybody [who bought shares] has made money. Some of them have made very significant money out of the stallions I stood. On balance, if you sell equity to somebody and they’ve more than one mare, they are going to send the better mare to the horse that they have equity in, I presume.”

For Flat breeders, there is one final sale to come in a year which has presented plenty of challenges for the world at large, and of course for the racing and breeding industry. The Goffs November Sale is traditionally the first to offer foals in Europe; this time it will be the last after its rescheduling to this week to coincide with the easing of restrictions in Ireland. Like most in the industry, Iceton expresses relief that the business of buying and selling horses has been able to proceed, albeit in a somewhat different style to usual.

“It’s been a very difficult year,” he says. “I am delighted that we’ve managed to get through the yearling sales as well as we have. So I’m very grateful to two lots of people here. First of all, the sales companies are to be thanked and congratulated for all they’ve done. All the changes in terms of sales dates, the expenses that they all had to go to to put the sales on for us in the first place.

“The other people that I really want to thank are my own staff. I have some guys here that have been to England four or five times at this stage. They only go and they come back, they get their Covid test, they do the 14 days and then they’re back in England again. And they’ve done that without a whimper.”

Iceton adds, “It just goes to show how resilient a business we are in, whereas most entertainment businesses are really struggling. The people who own horses and have them in training couldn’t go to see them run for the last year and yet, maybe at a slightly lower level, but not a significantly lower level, the business took place, horses got sold and, please God, we will have a better 2021.”

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River Boyne Joins The Tara Stud Roster

River Boyne (Ire), a Grade 1-winning son of Dandy Man (Ire), will join the roster at Tara Stud in Ireland for 2021. His fee is yet to be confirmed.

The 5-year-old started his racing career in Ireland with Gordon Elliott before being transferred to the Californian stable of Jeff Mullins. A winner in each of his racing seasons between the ages of two and five, River Boyne was victorious in nine of his 25 races, including the GI Frank E Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita, where he also won the GII Twilight Derby and GII Mathis Brothers Mile.

Commenting on his new arrival, who joins Alhebayeb (Ire) and Estidhkaar (Ire) on the stallion roster, Tara Stud’s Derek Iceton said, “River Boyne has arrived safely and we will be announcing details of his syndication and nomination fee shortly, but I’m thrilled to have secured him after closely following his career since his impressive victory at two years. He has all the qualities that you would wish to see in a stallion: ultra-sound, impressive physique and a great attitude.”

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Yearling Action Moves To Doncaster For Sportsman’s

Goffs’s two-day Sportsman’s Sale kicks off on Thursday at its temporary new home at the Goffs UK headquarters in Doncaster. With a significant number of vendors choosing to hold their yearlings back in Ireland and offer them instead at the later Goffs Autumn Yearling Sale in Kildare, Thursday’s start time has been pushed back one hour to 11 a.m. to allow buyers more time to inspect yearlings. Friday’s start time remains 10 a.m.

The Sportsman’s Sale is a consistent source of quality commercial yearlings with no better example than River Boyne (Ire) (Dandy Man {Ire}), who cost €65,000 in 2016 and has won four graded stakes over a mile in the U.S., including the GI Frank E. Kilroe Mile in March. His half-sister by Divine Prophet (Aus) (lot 560) will be offered on Friday from Tara Stud. Former shuttler Divine Prophet is also represented by a half-sister to this year’s Listed Tipperary S. winner Dickiedooda (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) (lot 804).

Another relation to a current top runner in the U.S. is Tally-Ho Stud’s lot 641, a Mehmas (Ire) half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner Beau Recall (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire}), who has provided an update since the release of the catalogue with a victory in the GII Churchill Distaff Turf Mile S. on Kentucky Derby day.

Other standouts on paper include a Kodiac (GB) colt who is the third foal out of French listed winner Andry Brusselles (GB) (Hurricane Run {Ire}) (lot 496); a Lope De Vega (Ire) half-brother to stakes winners Guilty Twelve (Giant’s Causeway) and Iltemas (Galileo {Ire}) (lot 504); a Bated Breath (GB) half-sister to this year’s G3 Naas Juvenile Sprint third Sussex Garden (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) (lot 712); and a Highland Reel (Ire) half-brother to this year’s Listed Prix Roland de Chambure scorer King’s Harlequin (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) (lot 828).

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