Last week, Tim and Shannon Cohen were standing at the Royal Ascot formally decked out in the requisite wardrobe, watching their filly cross the finish line two lengths clear of 29 other runners in the Sandringham Stakes. The Cohens are the owners of Rancho Temescal, a 5,620±-acre farm and ranch in Ventura County, California, and Tim Cohen admitted afterward that he and his connections would have been a little overdressed if they had been in Del Mar. Royal Ascot is definitely not Del Mar.
The horse, Green Carerra, was trained by Joseph O’Brien and ridden by Mickael Barzalona, who found the stands’ rail late and asked her to pick up. She did, going away. Cohens and their co-owners had only recently acquired her. The Sandringham was their first significant test of the purchase.
Cohens have been buying horses in Europe for thirty years, sending most back to race in America. What made this trip notable is that Rancho Temescal is already one of Southern California’s better-known thoroughbred facilities. Known in equine circles as the “Hidden Jewel of Ventura County,” the ranch supports full-service programs for stallion boarding, mare care and foaling, lay-up and rehabilitation, and young horse development. The win at Ascot put the ranch’s name in the result chart of one of the most prestigious race meetings in the world.
There is quite a bit more going on at the ranch beyond horses. The property includes 130 acres of lemon orchards, 180 acres of avocado orchards, row crops, oil and gas production, an event venue, and a long history as a film location within the TMZ — the Thirty Mile Zone that defines standard Hollywood labor jurisdiction. Piru Creek flows through the property for more than four miles, and the ranch boundary surrounds roughly two-thirds of Lake Piru’s shoreline.
Rancho Temescal is listed with Hall and Hall. For more information, visit hallhall.com.
