Red Baron’s Barn rollin’ out the score

DEL MAR, Calif. – Six decades after he bought his first racehorse, Jed Cohen, 85, is in the midst of an unprecedented period of success. In the last 18 months, the stable he operates with his family has won 16 stakes in California and Kentucky.

“It’s hard for me to believe,” Cohen said over the weekend. “I’ve been at it a long time and I’ve never had this experience.”

There may be more trips to the winner’s circle for Cohen in the next three weeks. Cohen and his family are expected to have runners in five stakes at Del Mar, including three in the upcoming weekend.

Jed and his wife, Bobbie, own Red Baron’s Barn. Their son Tim operates the family’s Rancho Temescal, a 600-acre farm in Ventura County, Calif.

Red Baron’s Barn and Rancho Temescal own the recently purchased So Hi Society, who runs in Saturday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks; Sharp Samurai, who runs in Sunday’s Grade 2 Del Mar Mile; Tatters to Riches, a candidate for the $100,000 Shared Belief Stakes on Aug. 25; and River Boyne, the likely favorite in the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby on Sept. 2. Red Baron’s Barn is the sole owner of Itsinthepost, who starts Saturday in the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap.

The stable has often had a few stakes horses over the last 20 years, but the current group gives it unprecedented depth.

“You couldn’t imagine having a deeper team,” Tim Cohen said. “Never.”

The success comes two years after the stable underwent significant changes.

For decades, the Red Baron’s Barn runners were trained by Darrell Vienna, who retired in spring 2016. In the last two years, the stable has sent horses to trainers Jack Carava, Ed Freeman, Mark Glatt, John Martin, and Jeff Mullins.

Glatt trains and co-owns Sharp Samurai. Mullins trains Itsinthepost, River Boyne, So Hi Society, and Tatters to Riches.

Those runners have given Red Baron’s Barn success not seen since it had earnings in excess of $1 million for three consecutive years, from 2000 to 2002. This year, Red Baron’s Barn alone and in partnership with Rancho Temescal has earnings of $1,255,040. As recently as 2015, Red Baron’s Barn earned only $64,519 and had three wins.

Cohen, who has an investment advisory business in Beverly Hills, recalls having a conversation back then with Vienna, who said change was needed. Cohen was not attending the races as often, and the horses weren’t winning.

“I didn’t give a damn,” Jed Cohen recalled last weekend.

“To Darrell’s credit, we had a good personal relationship. He said, ‘Look, I’m not doing any good for you and it’s killing me. You don’t come to the races anymore. We have to make a change.’ ”

Cohen urged Vienna to continue for a while, but the results did not substantially improve. Before Vienna retired, Cohen asked for recommendations on which trainers to employ.

“He knows me well and how I feel about racing,” Cohen said. “He gave me three or four people.”

Carava, Glatt and Mullins were on the list.

At the same time, Tim Cohen became more involved managing the Red Baron’s Barn horses as well as operating Rancho Temescal, a working farm that has avocado and lemon crops and serves as a site for film shoots.

“Darrell retired and I started putting more business attention to the horses,” Tim Cohen said. “I think we were in a funk.”

Tim Cohen has focused on the buying and selling of prospects for the 30-horse stable. Last month, Factorofwon, who won the Black Pearl Stakes at Santa Anita in May for Red Baron’s and Rancho Temescal, was sold at the Fasig-Tipton horses of racing age sale for $400,000. At the same auction, Cohen spotted So Hi Society, who had finished third in two minor stakes at Monmouth Park in May and June.

“She happened to come along,” Tim Cohen said. “She was Chad Brown’s second string at New Jersey, and I thought we could move her forward. I liked her races, and she vetted fine.”

Cohen bought So Hi Society for $165,000, and the filly joined Mullins in mid-July.

Through the last 18 months, Itsinthepost has been the stable’s stalwart runner, winning seven Grade 2 stakes since March 2017. Sharp Samurai has won four stakes, while River Boyne has won three. Factorofwon and Force each has won a stakes.

Itsinthepost was an uncharacteristic ninth in the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes on July 21 at Del Mar, the first time he has finished outside the first three since a seventh-place finish against some of the world’s toughest runners in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar last November.

“For the first time, he ran a bad race,” Tim Cohen said of the Eddie Read.

The way the stable has been going, Itsinthepost has a good chance to rebound Saturday in the Del Mar Handicap.