Morgan Brennan, Forbes Staff BUSINESS
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2/12/2013 @ 7:03PM
Meet Payson Park: The $9 Million Racing Bootcamp For Billionaires' Horses
South Florida's Billionaire Racehorse Facility 1 of 14
Atlantic Western Realty
Listed for $8.95 million, Payson Park spans 405 acres in Indiantown, Fla. It has operated as a wintertime
thoroughbred training facility since the current owner acquired it in 1980, turning out some of the most
successful racehorses on the international circuit.
When Virginia Kraft Payson and her late husband Charles Shipman Payson first arrived at
the St. Lucie training farm in Indiantown, Fla., it was in shambles. Built in the 1950s by
racing mavens Michel Phipps, Bull Hancock, Townsend Martin and C.T. Chenery, the farm
had fallen into disrepair upon their deaths and landed in the real estate portfolio of an
attorney looking to eventually profit from the value of the land itself.
“There were cattle and alligators on the race track,” remembers Kraft Payson, a Sports
Illustrated journalist-turned-thoroughbred breeder. The self-proclaimed ‘outdoor
adventuress’ and her husband Charlie, a wealthy industrialist who graced the Forbes 400
list in the early 1980s with a $100-million-plus fortune, had set their sights on horse
racing, having acquired several thoroughbreds for competition. “To use the track, someone
would have to ride out first to clear the wildlife that had come in the night before.”
Still, the Paysons leased the dilapidated farm for the winter season of 1979-1980 to train
their horses: it was close enough to their snowbird residence on Jupiter Island that they
could visit regularly to stay apprised of their investments’ progress during the winter
months when Lexington, Ky. wouldn’t provide an optimal training climate.
After racing specialists surmised that it would take relatively little capital to restore the
tracks to top condition, the couple, which also owned the New York Mets baseball team at
the time, put in an offer to buy it. By August, after five months of haggling, the farm was
theirs and Payson Park Thoroughbred Training Center was born.
To announce the new venture – and the new name – the new owners took out a single full-
page ad in the racing forum. Posed in front of paddock fences, the Paysons promised to
have their newly christened thoroughbred training facility open for business by October 1,
in less than two short months.
Thanks to more than 100 people working daily, Payson Park did open. “We filled every
stall by opening day,” recalls Payson. “We almost couldn’t handle it; we even had to turn
some people away.” And until the economic downturn in 2008, the stalls stayed
completely booked, with a wait list.
The result: a 405-acre training facility equipped with 21 barns touting a total of 499 stalls,
a one-mile championship dirt track, a 7/8th mile irrigated turf track, and an electronic six-
horse starting gate. The work also yielded two dormitories totaling 62 rooms, an
observation lounge, 76 paddocks, a café with a commercial grade kitchen, a veterinarian
facility, a lighted soccer field, and miles of riding trails. As Kraft Payson proudly points
out, the dirt training track is the farm’s crown jewel, lauded the “most consistent of all race
tracks measured in the country,” according to an independent study from M.I.T.
Payson Park’s success has been due in part to its prime location. As one of only two
thoroughbred training facilities in South Fla. (the other is Palm Meadows), the commercial
farm is less than an hour from billionaire-centric Palm Beach, providing a lauded
wintertime training option that’s easily accessible.
Billionaires and multimillionaires with a penchant for racing have steadfastly filled the
stalls for 30 years, the vast majority of seasonal licensees boarding horses coming through
word-of-mouth recommendations. Among them: the Aga Khan; telecom billionaire Kenny
Troutt and wife Lisa; Arab diplomat brothers Mahmoud and Moustapha Foustok; late
Irish airline mogul Tony Ryan; diamond prospector Charles Fipke (whose horse Tale of
Ekati is named for his Canadian diamond mine); and Madeleine Pickens, the soon-to-be-
ex-wife of energy billionaire T. Boone Pickens.
Then there are the horses. Pickens is the owner of Cigar, which, with 16 consecutive wins,
is reportedly the top money earner in thoroughbred racing history. Other decorated
champions include Drosselmeyer, Perfect Shirl, Royal Delta, Gio Ponti, St. Jovite, Easy
Goer, In Summation, Voodoo Dancer, Perfect Soul, Ajina, Arravale, Go Between, Callwood
Dancer, Pine Island, Lure, and Payson’s own race-winner, Rutherienne. The facility has
been used by several Hall of Fame trainers too, including Roger Attfield, Christophe
Clement, Shug McGaughey and Bill Mott.
“The Queen of England has had horses trained at Payson Park,” Kraft Payson informs me.
“The first question she always asks when I see her at horse races in England is, ‘How is
Payson Park?’”
But perhaps Queen Elizabeth II won’t be asking that question much longer. The outdoor
adventuress – who has piloted hot air balloons, hunted wild game in Africa and dog
sledded 75 miles across Alaska in her 80-plus years — put her beloved farm on the market
for $12 million last May. With no buyer yet materialized, it has recently been slashed to
$8.95 million.
“I have four children, my sole heirs, who have no interest in thoroughbred racing,” sighs
Kraft Payson, who will continue to own and inhabit a residence located on a property
adjoining the facility’s vast acreage. “It’s an estate planning move because I think they
would sell it for 10 cents on the dollar to get rid of it and I don’t want that to happen to
Payson Park.”
The cash-positive property is being offered as a commercial venture throughAtlantic
Western Realty Corp. Since the downturn, owners have cut back on their equine holdings,
so the wait list has disappeared. But the farm continues to hover near full occupancy: for
the 2012 fiscal year, 88% of stalls are full and the facility will earn just under $320,000
after operating costs and before taxes.
Brad Scherer, the real estate broker for the property, says he suspects a major racehorse
owner – perhaps even someone boarding horses there now – will ultimately snap up the
property. But the eponymous matriach doesn’t care who — as long as it continues to
provide training for thoroughbreds. “We have a reputation for being the very best in the
country…so it must continue as a training facility,” Kraft Payson insists. “I do hope that
after it is sold, to be able to come down and visit.” And of course, to have a place to board
her horses in the winter.
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The commercial property is equipped with 21 barns touting a total of 499 stalls, a one-mile championship dirt track, a
7/8th mile irrigated turf track, and an electronic six-horse starting gate. There are also two dormitories totaling 62
rooms, an observation lounge, 76 paddocks, a café with a commercial grade kitchen, a veterinarian facility, a lighted
soccer field, and miles of riding trails.
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Horse stalls.
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The turf track.
The manager's house
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The office.
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