Training Time

Training centers offer an alternative for horses and handlers alikeTraining centers must be doing something right. These private facilities charge owners and trainers a fee for the same services that racetracks give away for free-namely, a stall and a place to train.
Despite the obvious disadvantage, training centers are competing well, even if they are not prospering because their expenses are high and their per-stall charges are relatively low.
For more than a few trainers, the cost of the stall rent is more than balanced by facilities, services, and freedom. For some, freedom from the demands of racing secretaries is a major consideration, immediately after the welfare of their horses.
"People say that the racetrack is free and a training center costs money, which, of course, it does," said Dr. John R. S. Fisher, a trainer and a leader in establishing the Fair Hill Training Center in Northern Maryland a decade ago. "But a racetrack really isn't free because you're required to do what management wants, which is not to leave, and to run in their races. If you have horses that don't belong in there, you're stuck."
Moreover, training centers-privately owned facilities where owners or trainers rent barns or stalls and use the center's track or tracks to get ready for races-may well be the wave of the future. In addition to the benefits that they provide to both horses and horsemen (see accompanying articles), training centers may attract more tenants as racetracks seek to limit their costs.
With the popularity of private training centers in the Standardbred sport, the Meadowlands racetrack has floated the idea of shutting down all long-term stabling at the East Rutherford, New Jersey, track and instituting year-round Thoroughbred stabling at Monmouth Park.
Training facilities for harness horses have grown up over the last decade in central New Jersey, and their popularity has reduced the population of the Meadowlands's stable area during the New Jersey track's eight-month Standardbred season.
Well before any track moves to shut down its stable area, though, training centers have developed a strong middle market among Thoroughbred horsemen and owners. They are no longer the exclusive preserve of owners who could afford to have their horses trained anywhere-and in some cases to build the training center. Those days are, in general, long gone. Nor are the training centers a refuge of trainers with such low-quality runners that they could not get a stall at a racetrack.
In many cases, training centers fill a gap in the year for horsemen. Florida's training centers operate in the winter, and they attract top snowbird trainers who would never consider sending their developing young horses onto tracks in Canada or the Northeast.
Kentucky and South Carolina facilities are full during the winter and have smaller horse populations in the summer months, when more racetracks are operating. Lexington's Kentucky Horse Center will have almost all of its 1,086 stalls filled during the winter
months, but the horse count drops to between 700 and 800 in the summer, when the two-year-olds go to the track and when two regional racetracks, Ellis Park and River Downs, are operating.
By contrast, Maryland's Fair Hill Training Center operates near capacity during the summer and has a lower census in the winter, when some of its tenants have their horses in Florida. The summer is prime racing season in the mid-Atlantic region, and 11 racetracks are within a three-hour van trip from the Fair Hill facility.
Year-round operations generally are the rule, however, and that drives up the costs for the training centers. Fair Hill, for instance, has two training tracks, a mile dirt track and a seven-furlong wood-chip track. Both tracks are steeply banked, with the main track having a 10% grade on the turns.
"It requires a lot of maintenance," said Arthur C. Kretz, Fair Hill's general manager. "We grade this track every afternoon. We're only concerned with keeping it right for training." Fair Hill employs eight people on its maintenance staff and keeps them busy round the clock.
In winter, they very well may be harrowing the track all afternoon and all night to keep frozen clods from forming. In the summer, the tracks need water-lots of water. A sprinkler system takes care of watering the wood-chip track, which thrives on moisture, and two water trucks put 75,000 gallons of water a night on the main track.
In time, the tracks need to be replaced, and that, too, adds to the cost of running a training center. Dr. Fisher, a veterinarian, noted that the wood-chip track deteriorates over approximately seven years, and Fair Hill resurfaced the inside track in recent years.
Barns also must be maintained, and that is not cheap, either. When the Racing Corporation of America bought the Kentucky Horse Center in 1989, doors in the two 300-stall main barns operated only with assistance from a tractor. The doors were replaced four years ago, and now "trainers can control how much air they get through the barns," said Jim Pendergest, the Kentucky Horse Center's general manager.
The company, which also owns Ellis Park, added large ventilation fans in the hulking barns and installed washing areas. "People who haven't been here for a few years will find quite a few improvements," said Pendergest, who is experimenting with low-maintenance vinyl siding on one of the facility's smaller barns.
To offset the higher expenses, training centers have devised some ingenious ways to increase their income without boosting the stall rent. Kentucky Horse Center, for instance, acquired a lightly used sales pavilion when it bought the facility, which formerly housed the headquarters of Spendthrift Farm, Inc. Three years ago, the new owner began staging professional children's theater in the pavilion, and last year 14,000 youngsters attended the shows.
Kentucky Horse Center also rents out the former sales pavilion to large groups and a spacious lounge area for smaller meetings. In addition, the company operates bus tours of Bluegrass horse farms.
Within a short distance of Pennsylvania's mushroom farms, Fair Hill sells its manure to local growers. Like other training facilities, the Middleburg Training Center, Inc., charges trainers of outside horses for use of its training track. Last year, the outside use generated $30,000. "Every little bit helps," said Paul Fout, a trainer and Middleburg's secretary-treasurer.
Most revenue comes from stall rent, though, and the key to keeping the barns filled is a safe training surface. "The racetrack is the main draw," said Mike Rivers, general manager of Payson Park Training Center in Florida. "It's deep, it's slow, it's safe."
Kentucky Horse Center lengthened its grass gallop and added new grass paddocks at the request of its tenants. Fair Hill offers the two tracks, miles of hacking trails, and access to the turf course at state-owned Fair Hill racecourse. "The trainers have a variety of racing surfaces," Kretz said. "It's all about trying to accommodate people and giving them value for their dollars."


A stable stable
For some trainers, basing operations at a training center offers more stability

While horses appear to gain several benefits from being based at training centers, their trainers also reap some advantages. Perhaps no advantage is greater than having a stable home life, a marked departure from the nomadic existence of most horse people.
"A lot of people are here year-round," said Jim Pendergest, general manager of Lexington's Kentucky Horse Center. "It's good for them, because they can have a family life."
He also noted that the moderately priced stall rent at the Paris Pike facility might in some cases be cheaper for a trainer than maintaining an apartment near each Kentucky racetrack-and paying for employees to have adequate housing. "It's a lot cheaper than moving from spot to spot," Pendergest said.
A single, stable location also helps to attract stable workers from the area around the training center. While some training centers, such as Florida's Payson Park, have dormitories for stable workers, and the Kentucky Horse Center has living areas within its smaller barns, Maryland's Fair Hill Training Center has no on-site housing-by design. "The local people here have proved to be more reliable than racetrack help," said Arthur C. Kretz, Fair Hill's general manager. Both Pendergest and Kretz said they believed their training centers attracted better exercise riders than are found on racetracks.
Trainers also have more time to train their strings. "The environment is much more laid back. It isn't that you have to be on the track at the crack of dawn and off by 10 a.m. The very tempo of the training center is much slower than you would have at the racetrack-for people and horses," said Dr. John R. S. Fisher, a trainer who helped to develop the design of Fair Hill.
Pendergest said he had noted at least one instance where the training center allowed a newcomer to get started as a trainer. An IBM Corporation employee rented a stall at the Kentucky Horse Center, caring for the horse before going to work each morning. When IBM offered a retirement package, the new horseman accepted the buyout and began training full time. "It gives some people an opportunity to train that wouldn't otherwise have that opportunity," Pendergest said.
Fair Hill's Kretz said the training center offered another incentive to horsemen: purse money. Over the last three years, he said, the facility's win percentage has climbed steadily to 17% in 1994, and the average earnings per start rose to $2,500. For June, the win percentage was above 20%. For the trainers' $6-a-day stall rent, "We try to give them $10 of value," Kretz said.-Don Clippinger


LEADING Training Centers
Fair Hill's John Fisher offers observations on the advantages of training centers
Fisher's Way
John R. S. Fisher was born a horseman in Maryland's steeplechase country, trained as a veterinarian, and chose to be a horse trainer. He was a principal architect of the concepts behind the Fair Hill Training Center in Northern Maryland, and he has observed many of the benefits that horses derive from surfaces specifically intended for training and not racing.
"I thought there should be a place where the horse's well-being was paramount," Fisher said, and a major component was a seven-furlong wood-chip track installed at the training center, which is located within a few miles of Pennsylvania, to the north, and Delaware, to the east.
Although requiring more maintenance than had been expected and having a prodigious thirst for water, the wood-chip track has fulfilled many of Fisher's expectations. "In terms of keeping a horse sound and getting them fit, I don't think there's a track in the country that can duplicate the results-and that includes turf," said Fisher, who for many years rode timber-steeplechase horses.
"We originally put in the wood-chip track thinking that would be the one that's good for turf horses. We now find that trainers who are almost exclusive dirt use the wood-chip track to train their horses, because the horses don't get as sore."
Fisher has observed that horses with ankle problems respond most readily to training over the wood chips. "A lot of times, you have horses come in with puffiness in their ankles. In fact, they have early degenerative changes occurring in their ankles, and they have some small chips," he said. "These horses do not go back on the dirt. They go on the wood-chip track, and the changes are quite dramatic."
Fair Hill's dirt training track is steeply banked to reduce strain on horse's ankle joints. Other training tracks depend upon sand surfaces to provide a forgiving cushion.
Fisher said he also has noticed a difference in horse's attitudes when trained at a private center. Because training hours are extended at the center-most close their tracks at noon, as compared to 10:00 a.m. for many racetracks-the pace is more relaxed for both horses and workers. Moreover, trainers can vary their horses' regimens to give them a variety of experiences. "They don't always go to the track," Fisher said. "We have 5,000 acres here at Fair Hill, and every one of my horses will go cross-country once a week, or sometimes twice a week."-Don Clippinger


Aiken Training Track
Aiken Training Track occupies a legendary position in the history of Thoroughbred racing. From its generous training track have emerged no fewer than 39 champions, including Tom Fool, Kelso, and Conquistador Cielo. For years, the many top runners of John Hay Whitney's Greentree Stable received their early lessons over Aiken's track.
In recent decades, the peaceful facility near the Georgia border has yielded Kentucky Derby (G1) winners Pleasant Colony and Sea Hero, champion and Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Summer Squall, juvenile filly champion Heavenly Cause, and multiple stakes winner Lakeway.
Aiken's barns are owned by individuals, by the corporation that oversees the track, and by the Whitney Trust. In the winter months, Aiken is alive with activity as such trainers as Hall of Fame member Mack Miller and veteran horsemen Mike Freeman and Buddy Raines send their horses to the track, which has a 3.5-inch cushion of sand and loam. Other Aiken regulars include Bruce Duchossois's H and D Stable, Adele Paxson, Buckland Farm, Walmac International, and Steven Penrod. Claiborne Farm also owns a barn.
For the first time, the main track has remained open through the summer. Ron Stevens, president of the corporation, has 30 horses in training there, including prospects for Manchester Farm and Springhill Farm.

• Location: Aiken, South Carolina
  
• Owner: Aiken Training Track, Inc.
  
• Acreage: 60
  
• Barns: 16
  
• Capacity: 350-to-400
  
• Cost: $700 per season
  
• Training facilities: Mile training track and five-eighths-mile sand track. The training center has a six-horse starting gate, and it also has access to 2,000 acres of woodlands, in which a mile track is located.
  

Celestial Acres Training Center

Dr. Glenn Orr and his family ended up in the training center business almost by accident. A veterinarian who became involved in the horse and cattle insurance business in Oklahoma, Orr bought some horses in the 1970s and became actively engaged in the Oklahoma industry as a private breeder.
The family moved to Celestial Acres in 1977, and in a short time the operation grew to 400 racehorses, owned by the family or by partnerships established by Orr. In the mid-1980s, the partnerships and the Orrs' horse holdings were dispersed, and Celestial Acres became a training center in 1984.
Currently, Celestial Acres has approximately 20 trainers using its facilities, which are located a short distance from Remington Park. "They would rather be here than at the track," said Thomas G. Orr, the center's manager. The five-eighths-mile training track is suitable for both Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses. The center also has a veterinary center with surgical facilities and a full-time veterinarian.
The indoor arena, which was added in recent years, has proved useful for periods of inclement weather and for working with young horses. Tom Orr said the center also has a stud barn, and his family currently is looking for a suitable stallion for the Oklahoma breeding program.

• Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
  
• Owner: Family of Dr. Glenn Orr
  
• Acreage: 280
  
• Barns: 7
  
• Capacity: 342
  
• Cost per day: $2.67 ($80 per month)
  
• Training facilities: Five-eighths-mile dirt track with a 550-yard straightaway. Track is 60 feet wide. Celestial Acres also has a four-horse starting gate and an 85-by-200-foot indoor arena.
  

Fair Hill Training Center

Although only slightly more than a decade old, the Fair Hill Training Center has been carved from historic ground, the former hunting field of the late William duPont Jr. The 5,600-acre preserve is now owned by the state of Maryland, which leased land for the training center in the early 1980s.
With Fasig-Tipton as a partner, Fair Hill originally was built as a condominium operation, with individuals owning their own barns. The 24-stall masonry barns were in time supplemented with five 40-stall pole barns. Today, approximately half of Fair Hill's stalls are leased to outside trainers, while barn owners control use of the other stalls. The barn's owners pay a $5.15 daily stall condo fee, and renters pay $6.
Dr. John R. S. Fisher, whose veterinary background and training experience shaped many of Fair Hill's features, said the concept was to provide a facility where the horse came first. "The racetrack's paramount interest is in the betting," he said. "I thought there should be some place where the horse was paramount."
Particular attention has been paid to the design of the mile dirt track, which has a 10% bank on its turns and 4.5% on the straightaways to reduce strain on ankles. The wood-chip track has turns banked at approximately 7%.

• Location: Fair Hill, Maryland
  
• Owner: Association of barn owners
  
• Acreage: 350
  
• Barns: 14
  
• Capacity: 436
  
• Cost per day: $6
  
• Training facilities: Mile dirt training track; seven-eighths-mile wood-chip track. Fair Hill also has four miles of bridle paths, and its trainers have access to the turf course of the Fair Hill racecourse when weather and ground conditions permit.
  

Kentucky Horse Center

Kentucky Horse Center opened in 1970 as a training center and horse-sales facility, and it subsequently served as the corporate headquarters for Spendthrift, Inc. The ill-fated, publicly owned company added the mile track to the existing five-furlong covered track, and it built eight new barns during its tenure. Three barns on a hilltop overlooking the training tracks were part of the former Log Cabin Farm.
The facility on Paris Pike has been undergoing improvements since it was purchased by Racing Corporation of America in 1989. Among the most significant changes have occurred in the large, 300-stall barns, where the huge outside doors have been replaced and large ventilation fans have been added. "People who haven't been here for a few years will find quite a few improvements," said Jim Pendergest, Kentucky Horse Center's general manager.
Stalls in the large barns are rented individually, based on how many stalls the trainer needs for his stable. The smaller barns, with 18-to-20 stalls, are rented either in their entirety or split equally between two trainers.
The grass gallop was expanded to a mile from five furlongs at the request of trainers. The surface is rolled regularly, and grass on the outside is cut like a racetrack turf course. The training center also is adding grass paddocks adjacent to the smaller barns. The paddocks are rented to trainers for $90 a month. "We have a lot of land here, and we have a lot of flexibility. We had demand to add more land in the grass gallops and more grass paddocks," Pendergest said.

• Location: Lexington
  
• Owner: Racing Corporation of America
  
• Acreage: 268
  
• Barns: 26
  
• Capacity: 1,087
  
• Cost per day: $4 in two large, 300-stall barns; $5 in larger barns
  
• Training facilities: Mile dirt track; covered five-eighths-mile training track; mile grass gallop. The center has two starting gates.
  

Ocala Breeders' Sales Company

Ocala has for many years occupied a preeminent position in Florida's breeding industry, but the training facilities of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company have not been nearly as well known. The facility has 29 cinder-block barns, containing 32 or 48 stalls, and the barns located farthest from the sales pavilion have been used for training. This year, the company was able to conduct its large sales without disrupting any trainers.
The training barns have hot-walking machines, but there is no space for turning out horses. In addition to the trainers based on the track, outside horsemen can ship in and work over the track for a $15 charge. Ocala's training track has a starting gate, and the starting crews from the Miami-area tracks visit about once a month for schooling.
Ocala's mile track was resurfaced a few years ago and is now faster than in previous seasons. "It's always been a safe track, but this made it faster," said Tom Ventura, the company's director of sales. As a part of its sales season, OBSC holds a day of racing, and the two six-furlong sprint races for three-year-olds were run in less than 1:11. The five-furlong galloping track is somewhat deeper than the main track. "It's good for legging up a horse," Ventura said.
Intertrack wagering on Miami-area races are held much of the year at the OBSC complex, and the company will unveil a new facility in September that will accommodate ITW and provide grandstand facilities for race days and for mornings when sales prospects breeze over the track.

• Location: Ocala, Florida
  
• Owner: Ocala Breeders' Sales Company
  
• Acreage: 220
  
• Barns: 29
  
• Capacity: 600 for training
  
• Cost per day: $6
  
• Training facilities: Mile main track and five-eighths-mile galloping track.
  

Middleburg Training Center

Paul Mellon, a Middleburg-area resident, developed the training center for his Rokeby Stable beginning in the mid-1950s, and it served as his private preserve for more than two decades. In 1975, he sold it to a group of ten local horsemen, including trainer Paul Fout, who serves as the corporation's secretary-treasurer. As part of the sale, Mellon stipulated that the facility be owned by several individuals, rather than one wealthy owner, and that the new owners would never sell it for any other use, Fout said.
Five partners now own the corporation, and each of them occupy one of the 20-stall barns. The remaining six barns are leased, in ten stall increments, to other trainers on an annual basis. Most of the tenant trainers rent entire barns at the center, located approximately 11Ú2 hours from Maryland racetracks.
The training track has a sand cushion to maintain a surface that can be used year-round. "We don't want a fast track," Fout said. Middleburg's training track has a new gooseneck inside rail, and sprinkler heads are mounted along the inside rail.
Among the champions who have trained over the Middleburg track are Hoist the Flag, 1970's leading juvenile male, and Life's Illusion, the 1975 steeplechase champion trained by Fout. In addition, Centennial Farms' 1993 Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Colonial Affair regularly galloped over the track.

• Location: Middleburg, Virginia
  
• Owner: Middleburg Training Center, Inc.
  
• Acreage: 146
  
• Barns: 11
  
• Capacity: 220
  
• Cost per day: $5
  
• Training facilities: Seven-eighths-mile track with one-mile chute. Middleburg Training Center has a four-stall starting gate, and horses can be galloped in adjacent fields. Each barn has a tack room, bunk room, and two turnout paddocks.
  

Payson Park

Located near Stuart, Florida, Payson Park has become a major training ground for horses racing at the South Florida tracks each winter or young horses preparing for a summer campaign in the north. Payson Park was built in 1956 by a partnership that included Michael Phipps, A. B. "Bull" Hancock Jr., and Christopher Chenery, and it was refurbished in 1980 by Charles and Virginia Kraft Payson.
In its earlier years, Payson Park was a winter training center for such outstanding horses as Buckpasser, Numbered Account, Foolish Pleasure, and Tom Rolfe. In recent years, it has been the home for a succession of Canadian champions, including Afleet, Benburb, Peteski, Play the King, Izvestia, and With Approval. In addition, Mrs. Payson's 1992 French and Irish champion, St. Jovite, trained over the mile track. Among Payson Park's winter tenants are Roger Attfield, Bill Mott, and Rusty Arnold.
Payson Park's season runs from October 1 to May 1, effectively covering the racing seasons of the Tropical Park at Calder meet, Gulfstream Park, and Hialeah Park. Many two-year-olds prepare for their racing careers at Payson, said Mike Rivers, the facility's general manager. "The two-year-olds get their foundation, and they have their gate work done," Rivers said. "It's busy enough here that when they get to the racetrack, they won't be surprised by all the activity." Payson Park also has two dormitories for housing stable employees.

• Location: Indiantown, Florida
  
• Owner: Payson Park Thoroughbred
  
• Training Center, Inc.
  
• Acreage: 700
  
• Barns: 21
  
• Capacity: 503
  
• Cost: $1,000 per season
  
• Training facilities: Mile training track and separate one-mile turf course. Payson Park also has a five-mile European-style gallop and a six-stall electronic starting gate.
  

San Luis Rey Downs Training Track

San Luis Rey Downs, which was built as a training center, describes itself as "the home of champions,"and it has a legitimate claim to that title. Trainer Charlie Whittingham had his two Horse of the Year champions-Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) victors Ferdinand and Sunday Silence-based at the San Diego County facility for a time during their racing careers, and the Hall of Fame trainer also had Ack Ack at San Luis Rey Downs. In addition, 1982 Derby winner Gato del Sol trained over the mile track. Currently, several of Allen Paulson's horses are based at the training center, and Paulson's Eliza, the 1992 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) winner and divisional champion, also trained over the track.
San Luis Rey Downs's manager Bob Gordon said the principal attractions are the weather and the training surface itself. San Luis Rey Downs is located approximately 25 miles north of Del Mar racetrack, well isolated from the region's major population centers. "We have great weather conditions because we're close to the ocean," Gordon said. "There's no smog."
The track is a mixture of sand and clay. "We've done a lot of work with the track. A lot of trainers feel it's the best track in the state," he said.

• Location: Bonsall, California
  
• Owner: Frank Vessels
  
• Acreage: Approximately 400
  
• Barns: 17
  
• Capacity: 650
  
• Cost per day: $8 (off-track betting revenues reduce the cost for trainers to approximately $2.50 per day)
  
• Training facilities: Mile training track with starting gate. San Luis Rey Downs also has a swimming pool for rehabilitating racehorses.
  

Sagamore Farm Training Center

For several decades, Sagamore Farm occupied an important place in the history of Thoroughbred racing. Developed and owned by Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, Sagamore was home to Native Dancer, the once-beaten champion whose bloodlines have helped shape Thoroughbred breeding in the last half of the century. Also based at Sagamore were such notable runners as Find, Discovery, and Restless Native. In late 1986, Vanderbilt sold the property to James Ward III, who stood several Maryland stallions there until 1991. In its later years, stallions such as Oh Say, Salutely, and Hay Halo occupied its stud barn.
Sagamore now has two principal tenants. One, Maryland trainer Carlos Garcia, has three barns and operates his section privately for his public stable. The other half is leased by John K. Adams and Kim Godwin, whose diversified operations include renting stall space to trainers. Adams and Godwin, who also do breaking and turnouts, have been operating their part of Sagamore for three years.
Adams, a former professional jockey on the Maryland circuit who still rides some of his own horses, said that five trainers now occupy the main barn, which has 90 stalls. The barns were built in the 1930s, and the indoor gallop can be used year-round. That facility proved particularly useful during the harsh winter of 1993-'94, when ice and snow prevented Maryland horsemen from training outdoors. "Until then, I didn't know how many friends I had," said Adams, who manages the training barn.

• Location: Glyndon, Maryland
  
• Owner: James Ward III
  
• Acreage: 400
  
• Barns: 5
  
• Capacity: 200
  
• Cost per day: $5
  
• Training facilities: Three-quarter-mile training track and quarter-mile inside gallop.
  

Sports Spectrum

In early 1992, Churchill Downs purchased the former Louisville Downs harness track with the intention of transforming it into one of the nation's premier intertrack wagering facilities. The company spent approximately $15-million on creating the Sports Spectrum, a 100,000-square-foot facility that has become a model for other off-track betting operations.
With the purchase, Churchill also acquired a five-eighths-mile harness track that was widely regarded as one of the Standardbred industry's best surfaces. While reshaping the grandstand, Churchill also extended the track to six furlongs and planned a rebuilding of the track's barn area, which had fallen into disrepair.
Sports Spectrum's training facilities were completed in September 1992 at a cost of approximately $5.4-million. The new training area served two purposes. It expanded Churchill's total stabling capacity to more than 1,900 horses and helped to alleviate the crush that occurs with the Kentucky Derby each spring, when two or more barns are largely devoted to Derby or Kentucky Oaks horses, and for years when the Breeders' Cup Championship is held in Louisville. The other use was to provide winter stabling, on a rental basis, and to take pressure off the main track and backstretch that had operated continually for many years. Over last winter, several Kentucky trainers based their operations at Churchill and shipped to Turfway Park or Keeneland racecourse. Raymond "Butch" Lehr Jr., Churchill's track superintendent, installed the same cushion on the Sports Spectrum track that he maintains at the main Churchill track.

• Location: Louisville, Kentucky
  
• Owner: Churchill Downs, Inc.
  
• Acreage: 88
  
• Barns: 13
  
• Capacity: 510
  
• Cost per day: $5.50
  
• Training facilities: Three-quarter-mile training track with stable office, track kitchen, and maintenance building.
  

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Don Clippinger, former editor of The Thoroughbred Record, is a free-lance writer based in Fort Thomas, Kentucky.