He has yet to run this year, which has turned GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Corniche (Quality Road) into the forgotten horse in the 3-year-old male division. That, however, may be about to change. Corniche has had two recent works at WinStar Farm and, according to Marette Farrel, an advisor to owners K.C. Weiner and Peter Fluor, the colt will return to the racetrack within a couple of weeks.
“His last work at WinStar [four furlongs in :48.94 last Saturday], they said that it was an 'A' work,” Farrel said. “He couldn't have been more impressive.”
Corniche, a $1.5-million purchase at the 2021 OBS Spring Sale, debuted Sept. 4 for trainer Bob Baffert, breaking his maiden by 4 1/4 lengths. Up next was a 3 1/4-length win in the GI American Pharoah and then a 1 3/4-length victory in the Breeders' Cup. Named 2-year-old male champion, Corniche was the early favorite for the GI Kentucky Derby and his connections began to plot a course to get him to Churchill Downs. But there was a problem. Corniche was not flourishing.
“He really only got 30 days off,” Farrel said. “He didn't come to WinStar until the beginning of December. The first week of January, he started jogging and then he started galloping. It was then that he didn't bloom like he should have.”
Farrel said there were rumors that Corniche had suffered some kind of physical setback, but says that was never the case. But he wasn't showing the connections what they wanted to see. With the calendar entering mid-March and with Corniche still not having had a workout, a decision had to be made. Press on for the Derby or come up with an alternate plan?
“He was a little slow to come around physically and he was still holding on to his winter coat,” Farrel said. “Peter and K.C. had a choice to make in March. Do you push the horse and rush him to the Derby or do you let the horse come back naturally in his own time and in his own way? They are very successful businessmen and they understand big picture things. They said, 'We want to do right by the horse.' Let him tell us what he wants to do and when he wants to do it. I applaud Peter and K.C. for taking what is, in my opinion, the right road.”
But that meant giving up on any chance to win the Kentucky Derby.
“There hasn't been any frustration,” Farrel said. “They took the horsemen's path and did the right thing by the horse. They weren't shortsighted and said, 'Let's go for it, let's take a chance.' If they did that they might not have had any horse left after running him in the Derby.”
Corniche's first published workout of the year came on Apr. 15 when he breezed three furlongs in :36.80 at WinStar. It was exactly what his team had been looking for, a sign that he was finally coming around. After one or two more works at WinStar, the next step for Corniche will be to return to the track and continue to work toward his first start of the year. The problem with that is that his return will come while Baffert is serving a 90-day suspension for the betamethasone positive he was hit with in last year's Kentucky Derby. That opens up the possibility that Corniche will be turned over to a new trainer. Farrel said the owners have yet to reach a decision concerning who will get the horse.
Farrel said the main goals will be the GI Haskell S. and the GI Travers S. and she is confident Corniche will be ready by then and will return to top form. The Derby and the entire Triple Crown may be out, but Corniche may still make something out of what so far has been a lost year.
Last month, James Keogh announced that Chance Timm would be joining him at his Grovendale Sales in a new partnership designed to expand their footprint in the sales consignment arena. Most industry people have dealt professionally with Timm at one time or another over his 15 years in the business, but while he has had some high-profile jobs, by and large, he has kept his head down and flown pretty much under the radar. He has preferred, as he says, to deflect the attention to the people he worked for and the success they had built.
As a principle at Grovendale, he now `is' the people he works for, and he sat down for a long-overdue talk to discuss the four horses they will offer at the Keeneland April Sale on Friday and provide some background about his life and history in the sport.
It's fairly certain that Timm himself will be the only Utah native consigning horses at the sale. He hails from the town of Murray, a suburb of Salt Lake City, and Utah's fourteenth-largest town. Timm's grandfather bred and raised Quarter Horses and trained racehorses, and his father and uncle rode races for their father. “My first experience in the horse world was those guys riding on the weekends in bush tracks,” he said. “There was no parimutuel wagering out there, so it was fairly limited. It was more a hobby than a real profession.”
Timm with clients Here We Go Stable | Alyssa Cumming photo
When his father died when Timm was just 11, he said he drifted away from the sport, before finding his way back a half-dozen years later.
“A big thing in the inter-mountain West in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, is chariot racing,” he said. “They hook Quarter Horse racehorses to a chariot, kind of Ben-Hur style, and they race them for 440 yards in the wintertime. It's a big family event down there, and while it's dying now, it was really popular when I was in high school. And so my family always had chariot horses, too.”
Timm started helping out an uncle with his horses, driving them, getting them fit, and accompanying him to the races on weekends. “It was a great time for me, because I needed a really positive male influence in my life at that time, after my father had passed away, and he was it and the horses became a pathway to that.”
He started his college career at the University of Utah where he was offered a Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship, but decided to pursue horse racing at the University of Arizona on a Race for Education scholarship instead. But upon his graduation, he found that horse racing opportunities out West were few and far between. He worked as an assistant starter, galloped horses, and took a the job as the assistant racing secretary and clerk of scales at Arapahoe Park, which he described as “a miserable time.”
“I remember one day, late in the summer of the meet, they were racing Arabians and I was in the paddock watching them give a leg up on these Arabians, and I thought to myself, `I've got to get the heck out of here.'”
Two former U of A classmates had a suggestion that proved to be the answer when Jordyn Egan and Ian Tapp suggested he apply for the Darley (now Godolphin) Flying Start program. The experience was life-changing.
“It was huge for me,” he recalled. “I had never been out of the country when I applied to Flying Start. I didn't even have a passport.”
Timm is a soft-spoken, reflective person with a quick laugh who loves nothing more than a good intellectual debate. He is also someone who has put a lot of thought into what sort of job would make for a fulfilling life for him, his wife and two children.
Timm lives in Lexington, and is married to the former AbiGail Spalding, the daughter of Summer Wind farm manager Bobby Spalding, whom Timm credits with an important role in shaping his life and career. They have two young daughters.
“When I was on the course, I always thought I wanted to get involved in bloodstock,” said Timm. “When I was getting going, it wasn't uncommon at all for yearlings to bring $6, $7, $8 million. And funny enough, what I knew I didn't want to do was get into stallions, and I ended up loving it. When I was at WinStar doing seasons with Gerry Duffy and syndicating all those horses, that's when I really understood how it all worked, the syndication process and scouting the horses and trying to figure out what they're worth and what you can buy them for. And then I got to do even more of it at Lane's End. It's a great part of the industry, where you put a big bet on the line and then you go on and sell it. There's a lot of excitement behind it. It's great calling people up and saying, `Hey, we got the breeding rights to this horse and this is what we're going to stand him for, and we'd like you to partner with us.'”
In the end, what he learned was that he wanted to be in the relationships business.
“Luckily, during my time at Lane's End, I was pretty involved with the sales consignment. And apart from my responsibility to the stallion roster and all that came with that, they were gracious enough to let me be actively involved in recruiting and placement of horses in the sales consignment, and I really enjoyed that. One of the things I enjoy the most in this industry is meeting new people and talking to these people, finding out their story and where they're from, and then helping them along and watching their program succeed.”
At Grovendale, he'll get to build on that resume.
“I've come to realize that the sales process is something that I really, really enjoy, for all those same reasons. I like working closely with people and playing the long game and advising them on making sound decisions that pay off long-term, instead of taking shortcuts, or maybe just trying to get a nice horse for them, sell and move on. That's not really what I'm about or what James Keogh is about. We want to develop long-lasting relationships with people that trust us, and we have strong ties with them and watch their programs do well. I've come to realize how much I enjoy that part of it, placing horses in the sale, figuring out what's the best spot to sell them. Who's on the horse? How much is it going to bring? And going through that whole process.”
Timm at Keeneland with daughters Hallie and Vivian | courtesy Chance Timm
Grovendale will continue to feature its traditional services, including sales consignments, matings, investments and consultation. They will also continue to trade their own horses. Timm said having that kind of personal stake in the game is something that is critical to understanding your clients' business.
“James told me early on when I first got to know him that tuition in this game is not cheap, and the only way to learn it is to put your money up. And he's right. You learn all the time what works and what doesn't work. And I think if you've never lost money on a horse, it's hard to tell people-to look them in the face-and say that they are going to have to take a loss.”
Their expansion plans will focus on yearlings and horses of racing age.
“We'll be at all the major Kentucky sales,” he said. “We'll go to Saratoga with the right horse, but we'll stick mainly to Central Kentucky. The plan is to build the yearling and horses-of-racing-age areas of the consignment year-round. The breeding stock segment is always something that James has had a strong presence in, and obviously we'll continue to be involved there. But the primary focus is to further emphasize the quality of the breeding stock sales and build our presence in the yearling sales.”
The growing presence of digital and pop-up sales should further fuel business.
“Like most of the people in Central Kentucky, we trade horses. The market has become so concentrated at this point that there are very few of us that don't actively invest and trade horses. So for all of us that are advisors or industry professionals, digital sales provide a great opportunity to trade. But even beyond industry professionals, for participants that are looking to capitalize on something at the right time, it's an opportunity. And the reality is that this kind of stuff happens all the time. Horses trade privately at peak opportunities all the time. But the public marketplace gives buyers a lot of confidence, obviously. It gives people confidence and transparency. Boyd Browning has always said that the best place for sellers to maximize the value of a horse is at public auction, and he's right. There's no better way to value a horse than the open market.”
In the end, says Timm, he's just happy to work with someone for whom he has so much respect.
“There are very few people that have done more for me in the horse business than James Keogh,” he said. “I'm obviously biased and I've built this relationship with him over a long time, but James is one of the most generous people I've ever been around. He's a very kind, trustworthy person that gives his time and opportunities and just a hand to anybody and everybody that needs it–whether they're facing some kind of health ailment or they need help with fixing a fence or whatever it is.”
The important thing, he said, is that he and Keogh are on the same page when it comes to their goals for their clients.
“I think this is all based on relationships and building a relationship with somebody that you can trust and you have confidence in. That's really what I want to stand behind. I want the people that I work with and on whose behalf I work to have the trust and confidence that I'm looking out for their best interest. And that's always going to be the preemptive motivation for what we're trying to do.”
Less than 24 hours after 'TDN Rising Star' Shirl's Speight became the newest top-level scorer for WinStar Farm's outstanding Speightstown in Friday's Maker's Mark Mile, the nursery's homebred son Under Oath followed suit with an eye-catching Keeneland maiden victory to become the 22nd 'Rising Star' for the son of Gone West, still going strong at age 24.
Third to big-figure graduate Unikee (Unified) in a sloppy six-furlong maiden at Gulfstream Mar. 12 and with no fewer than three next-out winners in his wake, Under Oath jumped as the 6-5 chalk, but whereas he showed enough speed to lead in his debut, the blaze-faced chestnut settled off the pace slightly better than midfield and raced in the three and four path to the turn. Forced to cover ground on the bend, Under Oath shifted out five deep as they hit the quarter pole, descended on the leading trio to wrest command inside the final furlong and proved 1 1/2 lengths superior. Juddmonte's debuting Artorius, whose dam Paulassilverlining (Ghostzapper) was purchased privately with the express intent of being among the first book of mares to be bred to the late Arrogate and won this track's GI Madison S. in her first start for the global breeding giant in 2017, raced in the latter half of the field early on. He charted a similarly wide course into the lane and closed off powerfully before blowing past the winner not far past the wire.
Under Oath's Grade II-winning dam Jojo Warrior was one of four 'TDN Rising Stars' produced by Carson Jen, who also supplied GISW A Z Warrior (Bernardini), the dam of SW Key To My Heart (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), MSP Cole Porter (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and track record-setter Conch Pearl (American Pharoah); four-times stakes winner and Grade III-placed J Z Warrior (Harlan's Holiday); and GSW/GISP E Z Warrior (Exploit). Under Oath has a 2-year-old sister named Legendary (Justify), a $310,000 KEESEP buyback, and a yearling half-brother by Constitution. Jojo Warrior is due to Speightstown again for 2022.
4th-Keeneland, $100,000, Msw, 4-16, 3yo, 6f, 1:10.73, ft, 1 1/2 lengths. UNDER OATH, c, 3, by Speightstown 1st Dam: Jojo Warrior (MGSW & GISP, $396,231), by Pioneerof the Nile 2nd Dam: Carson Jen, by Carson City 3rd Dam: Calamitous Jen, by Deputy Minister
Sales history: $170,000 RNA Ylg '20 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: 2-1-0-1, $62,120. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.Click for the free Equineline.com catalog-style pedigree.
O/B-WinStar Farm LLC (KY); T-Todd A Pletcher.
SULPHUR SPRINGS, Texas — The head trainer is the guy who prepared 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra to be a racehorse. He and his two assistant trainers combine for more than 100 years of experience and the development of more than 300 stakes horses.
Yearlings and weanlings romp in undulating pastures. Two-year-olds learning the fundamentals and older horses coming off layoffs gallop and work over a traditional training track as well as lope up a 1 3/8-mile turf gallop.
The spacious barns have vaulted ceilings featuring skylights that can open and close via remote control but are programmed to automatically shut when rain starts. The 12′ X 12′ stalls with springy flooring underneath the bedding provide horses maximum comfort. Think of it as box springs for equines.
A therapy center opened a year ago in the facility owner's quest to make long racing careers the norm and to keep small problems from becoming big problems. Depending on horses' needs, they could head to the above-ground cold saltwater spa where 35 degree water churns around their legs, in-ground and above-ground aqua treadmills or two stalls with full vibration-plate floors. They might be treated with a regenerative laser or wear an electro-magnetic blanket. Or any combination of the above.
“You'd think you just drove into Lexington, not Sulphur Springs, Texas,” said trainer Lon Wiggins. “It's a hidden gem right now, but it's not going to be for long.”
No, it's not Central Kentucky; rather, Highlander Training Center an hour east of Dallas. Sulphur Springs, population 16,000, is home to the Southwest Dairy Museum and Education Center, which chronicles the town's roots as Texas's one-time dairy capital. The region is populated with cattle farms interspersed with horses of various breeds.
“I know of only one other facility similar to this, which would be WinStar,” said Dr. Ali Broyles, the veterinarian and equine surgeon who oversees Highlander's equine medical care.
“For this kind of weanling-throughout-racing timeline, in addition to these therapy modalities, there are not very many facilities of this scope in the country,” said Broyles, whose post-vet school training was at Lexington's world-famous Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital. “It's a relatively new facility, but I know they have already seen a lot of growth and acceptance from the Thoroughbred community on a national level.”
For years, horse owner Larry Hirsch trusted his yearlings, 2-year-olds and layups to the father-son team of Ed and Scooter Dodwell at their Diamond D Ranch in Lone Oak, Texas. After Ed died and the ranch was put up for sale, Hirsch opted to establish his own training center rather than relocating to an existing facility. He told Scooter Dodwell, who headed Diamond D for 13 years after his dad's retirement, to “find us” a property.
After looking statewide, Dodwell, now Highlander's president in addition to head trainer, found the ideal property a mere 12 miles away from the location of the Diamond D. But it was hardly turn-key. The old Rafter L Ranch had been vacant for years, its main barn in disrepair, the training track overgrown. Trees had taken over the fields.
“But you could see it had 'good bones,'” Hirsch said of the land. “It's beautiful property, great topography–as opposed to flat ground in Texas. It had rolling grounds that came down, which means that water and rain–which we have a lot of in east Texas– would roll off the property. It was treed, which meant we have shade for our horses. It had a wonderful track that hadn't been used for 20 or 25 years. But the soils, everybody we showed them to said they're extraordinarily good for preserving the health and training of horses. It wasn't hard to come to the conclusion that this was the right place to be.”
Since he couldn't have his horses at Diamond D, Hirsch brought the ranch to the new venue, with much of the Diamond D crew relocating with Dodwell. That included Jon Newbold, the assistant trainer and general manager tasked with getting the Sulphur Springs land to where building could begin and be ready for horses to return.
Newbold estimates that he and his crew cleared out 300 trees. He personally trimmed up those remaining. Almost all of the fencing was replaced and an area where broken and rusty machinery had been stashed was cleared and cleaned up. The existing barn went through an extensive makeover and new barns were constructed.
“The front pasture by the main road, we took out 70 trees to make it usable. I mean, it was wilderness,” Newbold said. “It was really beautiful, but it was a challenge to get it fenced to where we could make it functional. To see all of the progress and the transformation, there has been so much done every single day to get it to where it is now.”
Trainer Bret Calhoun–whose main divisions are in Kentucky, Louisiana and Texas and whose clients include Hirsch–calls Highlander “just a great facility anywhere it would be in the country. But for the Midwest and South, the facility is badly needed: a complete facility, a breaking and training operation with a great rehab facility as well. They have spared no expenses and made it top notch.”
Hirsch named Highlander Training Center after his Dallas-based global private equity firm Highlander Partners.
It is clear that Hirsch has used the same principles that have worked so well with his firm at the training center. Highlander Partners invests only their own money, are big on flexibility and loathe to bureaucracy. Strategies emphasize having no limits, restrictions or artificial deadlines while playing the long game and investing in a broad range of industries and entrepreneurial endeavors. While an involved boss, Hirsch's management style is to get the right people in the right spots and let them do their job, giving them the tools they need for success.
When he bought the property in 2017, Texas racing and breeding industries had been pummeled, the heady days when Lone Star Park hosted the 2004 Breeders' Cup long gone. The reality was bleak.
Texas tracks could not compete with the slots-enriched purses offered in neighboring Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Texas purses in 2017 totaled $14.5 million–less than half the $32 million paid out to horse owners 15 years earlier. The foal crop of Texas-born horses plunged from more than 2,000 to 407 five years ago and was destined to shrink more.
Gee, what better time to invest in a training center?
But Hirsch saw the investment as sending a powerful message to the Texas legislature and the state's elected leadership. Highlander Training Center showed the promise of Texas racing, which produced legendary horses such as Triple Crown winner Assault, Kentucky Derby and Belmont winner Middleground and champion Stymie–all while pari-mutuel horse racing was banned in the state.
“We definitely had a vision for creating something special for the state of Texas,” Hirsch said last month. “While we didn't know for sure the legislation would be passed to help our industry, we knew that the industry, the people, the owners, the trainers, etc., would come back to Texas if we could create something unique, at least for our area of the country. That was the vision, the thesis behind the training center. I think if you look at it today, it's been fully realized, and we're not done yet.”
In 2019, Texas passed legislation directing half of the funds from the sales tax on horse feed, tack and other equine products into the money horsemen race for at the state's tracks. The returns were almost immediate, with dramatically enhanced purses totaling $26.5 million last year, a resurgence at the Texas Thoroughbred auctions and an atmosphere of optimism.
However, Hirsch doesn't see Highlander as serving only Texas and the Southwest.
“We think the quality of care, the quality of what we're doing, the therapy center we've created, the commitment to excellence is attracting owners already from Kentucky, from Minnesota, Louisiana,” he said. “So it is a national operation in Texas, as opposed to a Texas-only operation.”
Hirsch brought aboard Highlander CEO Jeff Hooper in 2019. Hooper is one of Texas's most respected executives, having worked on both the racetrack (Lone Star Park) and horsemen's (Texas Thoroughbred Association) side. Jose “Cuco” Mendez, assistant trainer and co-general manager, was hired to work alongside Dodwell and Newbold after 28 years working as an exercise rider, assistant and trainer. Office manager Dee O'Brien, from a horse-racing family and with extensive experience on the equine auction side, heads up administrative functions, including client relations and new project initiatives.
“We think horsemanship is the key and foundation of what we do here,” Hooper said. “We want to bring each horse to the best of their abilities, whatever that may be. We're fortunate to have experienced and highly professional people in all of our leadership roles here. But we always want to learn from others, too, and blend old-school horsemanship with the cutting edge technologies available. Racing can be a game of inches. So, anything we can do to help these horses achieve what they're capable of, we want to have those tools at our disposal.”
That included last year's opening of 11,000-square foot Highlander Fitness and Therapy Center, the on-sight operation overseen by former jockey, trainer and highly respected horsewoman Shannon Ritter, who held a similar position at WinStar Farm. Soft-tissue injuries that once would have forced a horse's retirement are treated with such tools as the ground-breaking RLT Vet Regenerative Laser Therapy. Diagnostic equipment on hand include a portable digital X-ray machine, ultrasound and dynamic endoscopy (examining the upper airway to detect abnormalities that may only be found during high-speed exercise).
“Everything is state of the art,” Ritter said. “It's a facility that could be in Lexington, with everything it has. But Larry Hirsch has built it here, a beautiful facility in Texas.”
The therapy center was a critical part of Hirsch's game plan.
“What is going to make you different from competition from Ocala, Kentucky, Louisiana etc.?” Hirsch said. “Those of us who believe we want to have horses that run at four and five years old, and retain them in a healthy manner throughout their lives, know the importance of having some place to lay up horses, some place to improve them, some place to get over injuries. That was the concept: Differentiation with quality, with creating something special here.
“High-level owners, premium owners, people who are creating the stakes-winners of the future know quality. They've bought quality, and they want quality to prepare, train and care for them.”
The Highlander crew, which includes six full-time riders and 14 full-time grooms, works as a team on all facets of training, handling yearlings, 2-year-olds and older horses alike. An integral part of the Highlander philosophy is to keep young horses outside as much as possible to romp and play.
“We raise them outside, so they build more bone,” Dodwell said. “We feel we can raise good, sound, horses here with high-quality feed, hay and management, while still letting the horses be horses.”
Many of Dodwell's Diamond D clients are also strong believers in this approach, and have followed him to Highlander.
“They do an outstanding job with the horses,” said owner Fred Walden. “The horses get everything they need. If I do it myself, I might say, 'Well, I'm going to skimp on worming' or something, or I might not get the farrier at home to trim them when I should. But at Highlander they don't miss a beat.
“After the babies come off the mares at six months, I just leave them right there (at Highlander) and let them grow up with their buddies. I was down there the other day, was going to pick up a colt–thought I'd save some money. My yearling was out there with his buddies, running around and they're just building themselves up, growing into maturity and doing really well. I said, 'Well, I might save some money if I take him home, but I might have to pay more in the long run if he's not out there with his buddies growing up like he is now.'
“Now you've got a place where you can take them when they're six months old and let them grow up and Highlander take care of them and put them on the track,” Walden said. “You can go and enjoy them at the track, or you can visit them any time at Highlander. I have two broodmares and 15 acres. I rely on them really heavy at Highlander to take care of what I do and don't know.”
