Meet the Californians whose cunning plan has them in league with William Jarvis

There has been American investment in British bloodstock ever since Colonel John Hoomes and John Tayloe III decided to acquire the first Derby winner Diomed, and a renewed interest from across the Atlantic in recent times has helped to insulate sales trade as other buyers have dropped away.

While the likes of Peter Brant and Sol Kumin have speculated on yearlings, another set of owners took a novel direction by visiting last week's Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale, where three members of the catalogue joined the Cohen family's Red Baron's Barn and Rancho Temescal.

It is a father-and-son set-up with Jed Cohen, a financier and the Red Baron part, racing horses in an alliance with his son Tim, who runs a farming business centred on avocados and lemons at his Rancho Temescal, an hour outside Los Angeles.