Callan Strouss, manager of William S. Farish’s Lane’s End Oak Tree Division Farm, was chosen as the 2010 Kentucky farm manager of the year. The annual award will be presented at a Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Manager Club event at The Red Mile Oct. 8.
The criteria for the award are excellence in farm management, and service to the KTFMC and the community. Strouss was hired by Lane’s End in 1981 and quickly was promoted to broodmare manager and in 1993 promoted to farm manager of the Oak Tree Division in northern Lexington.
A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Strouss grew up playing polo with his father and furthered his passion for Thoroughbreds after moving to Lexington in 1978 when hired by Dr. Smiser West’s Waterford Farm. During his 30-plus year career Callan has help raise several top racehorses, broodmares, and stallions, including A.P. Indy, Summer Squall, Kingmambo, Miesque, De La Rose, Spinning World, and Divine Proportions.
Strouss and his wife Darcia Fantucchio also own and operate Caldara Farm, a 60-acre property adjacent to Oak Tree. There they have raised and sold many stakes winners, including Break Water Edison and C P West.
Strouss is a past treasurer and board member of the KTFMC, as well a past president of the Lexington Polo Club. He currently holds positions of vice president of the Kentucky Equine Management Internship, secretary of the Lexington Polo Club, and a board member of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Fund, as well as memberships with the Kentucky Equine Education Project, Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders’ Association, Consignors and Commercial Breeders’ Association, and the Thoroughbred Club of America.