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.

+show more

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.

Atlantic Western Realty

Horse stalls.

Atlantic Western Realty

The turf track.

The manager's house

7 of 14

Atlantic Western Realty

The office.

Atlantic Western Realty

Atlantic Western Realty

Atlantic Western Realty

Atlantic Western Realty

Atlantic Western Realty