Cicero Farms: Catching Up All the Time

There are certain basic principles that are as universal to business as the nighttime stars are to sailors on the high seas. Throughout their decades navigating the energy sector, owners Ron and Barbara Perry have proven shrewd captains of these principles, steering their company Commercial Energy towards what it is today: a mainstay of the western energy markets, its oars dipped into the supply and delivery of electricity and natural gas to thousands of businesses.

And now, against the backdrop of lightbulbs glowing and air conditioners whirring, the Perrys are applying some of these same business tenets to Cicero Farms, the umbrella name for their racing and bloodstock ventures.

“Our goal is to build a lasting business, not just a single stallion or a single great racehorse, and we think it must be done all the way across the value chain rather than do it through breeding only or through buying yearlings and 2-year-olds only,” said Ron Perry, a slick, quick talker who can marry into a dizzying stream of consciousness the seemingly unmarried jargons of the bloodstock and corporate worlds. “We're vertically integrated in both businesses. That is a key.”

The stallion in question is He Be Fire N Ice (Unusual Heat–Deputy Tombe, by Deputy Commander), the now frosting-white blizzard known for his 2013 victory in the California Dreamin' H. at Del Mar, and a couple of subsequent agonizing near-misses in the GII Del Mar Mile H. and GII City of Hope Mile S.

It's fast approaching crunch time for He Be Fire N Ice, who stands at Ridgeley Farm in Hemet, Southern California. His first 2-year-olds–four of which the Perrys bred themselves from mares purchased with the fledgling stallion's future in mind–are poised to make the racecourse debuts.

“We spoke with a few owners who have tried to develop stallions, and they've all said the same thing: it's really hard to get other people to give you good mares when you're getting started,” said Perry. “And generally, the [mares] that are offered don't produce racehorses on the track.”

Success, the Perrys noted, often came when breeders first supported their own stallions. Which is why, over the past two years, they've purchased eight more broodmares, each fitting, more or less, a broad set of requirements.

Nearly all are racemares who made over $100,000. They won or were placed in stakes races, preferably graded. Ideally, they ran and won at two, or else, the dam has thrown precocious siblings. And all are handily sized–not too big. Comparable in stature to the stallion himself, all 16 hands of him. None, however, came with pocket-burning price-tags.

And yet, “We went out and bought really nice mares,” said Barbara Perry, about the reasons behind their buying criteria: to emphasize quality in the offspring, to instill precocity into them, and to accentuate He Be Fire N Ice's physical traits. “The math is pretty good on the homebreds, especially Cal-breds”

Where Ron is the loquacious front of their marriage and business partnership, Barbara takes a more observational role, owlishly studying events as they unfold–a trait she picked up from her father, Red Ranck, a taciturn Montana oil-man whom W. H. Auden could have had in mind when he wrote, “If we care to listen, we can always hear them.”

It was from her father, who owned a string of racehorses, that Barbara got a taste for racing. She used to exercise his horses, and not without incident. A nasty fall involving a dropped shoulder and the corner of a water trough left her with a fractured tailbone–an agonizing injury she kept from her parents, for fear they wouldn't let her ride again.

Soon, however, college and then business monopolized her time, and it wasn't until about 13 years ago, when Ron and Barbara bred and raced Atticus Pomponius, that she was officially back in the game.

The original Atticus Pomponius was a wealthy Roman banker who befriended the famous statesman, Cicero. The equine Atticus Pomponius was a moderately talented gelding with a snotty nose, whose career zenith was a breezy Wednesday afternoon maiden victory up at Golden Gate Fields.

The original Atticus funded Cicero's political endeavors. The four-legged Atticus could have funded Cicero Farms, or so the Perrys hoped…

Nowadays, Atticus Pomponius, his sinuses successfully operated upon, lives a leisurely life at the Perry's home in Rancho Santa Fe, breathing easy, eating hearty, sleeping tons, while doing a bit of show jumping on the side. Not so much funding Cicero Farms as basking in its warm afterglow.

As for his owners?

“We've made a few mistakes along the way,” admitted Ron, taking aim at those early years in the industry. But they've sure been making up for it since.

Aside from He Be Fire N Ice, the Perrys have campaigned the likes of Tiz a Kiss, whose highest profile finish was a runner-up spot in the 2016 GII Goldikova S. at Santa Anita. This year, Marley's Freedom (Blame) has them dreaming even bigger.

“I always thought she was a very good filly,” said Barbara.

Under her previous trainer Bob Hess, Marley's Freedom was three-for-nine, garnering a second in the GII Santa Monica S. Since moving to Bob Baffert, Marley's Freedom is two-for-two, picking up the GIII Desert Stormer S. and the GII Great Lady M S. Next up is the GI Ballerina S. at Saratoga, and then, if she proves up to snuff, there's the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint to aim at.

“[Baffert] told me he needs to get me a Bob Marley tie, because I can't wear my Bob Marley shirt to the Breeders' Cup,” said Ron, explaining how a t-shirt emblazoned with the singer's face–the product of a bar-room transaction two years ago involving his own expensive shirt and a total stranger–is fine for most of Marley's Freedom's races, just not a world stage like the Breeders' Cup.

As for the name, Marley's Freedom, just look to the breeding: by Blame (“You Can't Blame the Youth,” sang Marley), out of Relaxing Green (that one should be self-evident).

The day we spoke was the Monday after a weekend of celebrations–their filly, Sunday Prophet, having broken her maiden at Del Mar the Friday gone. The morning sun was already belting down over their sprawling ranch-house home, tossing diamonds over the backyard pool while giving the trees and plants decorating the property the droopy look of a Salvador Dali painting.

Their home is in the small community of Rancho Santa Fe, known for its antiquated protective covenants which regulate everything from home improvements to the sorts of signs permitted on each property. While the Perrys regard these covenants as a quaint example of insularity, they view the insularity of the racing industry as a whole as something that needs addressing, which is where their business acumen comes in.

“We should be building a bridge between racing and aftercare, whether it's showjumping or three-day-eventing,” said Ron, recognizing what he sees as a singularly large audience of horse lovers which, though currently disconnected, could be unified by race courses willing to introduce competitions for retired Thoroughbreds at their facilities in between each race.

“If we can integrate the two industries, now we're showing the racing fan and the racing public that there's a second career for the Thoroughbred,” said Ron, who alongside Barbara, it should be noted, take their long-term responsibilities as owners seriously indeed.

“Now you're showing them this aftercare, which isn't just aftercare, it's competitive and it completes the circle of life,” he added. “It allows a family to get a different experience at the racetrack–it's a beautiful thing to watch. And maybe, we attract some of the big owners of showjumpers, like the Cooks and Gates and Springsteens to get involved with racehorses.”

The Perrys also see the California breeding industry, though loaded with potential, as currently oversaturated and lacking in quality.

“You do the math on how many stallions are currently standing in California and how many breedings come from those stallions,” he said, making the argument that the ratio of breedings per stallion in somewhere like Kentucky is that much healthier. Nevertheless, “If we can be great here, that would be wonderful.”

Which brings us circling back to the first He Be Fire N Ice 2-year-olds poised for race course action. Months ago, the Perrys invited a handful of trainers to Mayberry Farm, in Ocala, where their youngsters were being prepared. Those who went were told to select their “draft picks,” said Ron, who explained that “when a trainer is part of the process of picking horses, they're invested in it.”

Interestingly, “Each trainer chose different horses,” Barbara said. Which rather compliments the Perry's approach anyway. Different horses flourish in different environments, Barbara added, as she believed that Marley's Freedom would thrive in Baffert's regime. “This was a chance to run at the absolute highest level. It's kind of like sending your child to Harvard or Yale.”

Given this thought process, it becomes less of a surprise to find out that when the Perrys made their first visit to Churchill Downs, Kentucky Derby day 2008, it wasn't necessarily to watch the race but for Ron to get accustomed to the layout when he'd return the following year with Atticus Pomponius.

“Okay, that may have been a little unrealistic,” admitted Ron. And while his immediate sights have since been lowered–“Yeah, you're not going to be the Bill Gates of the horse racing industry in a year”–that old hunger for the top still gnaws at them both.

“We're pretty slow learners,” he said. “But we're catching up all the time.”