Frank Stronach is shifting the focus of his breeding program away from Kentucky and toward California and Maryland, where his privately owned company The Stronach Group operates racetracks. As part of this change, Stronach announced Oct. 4 he will be putting his 1,800-acre Adena Springs property near Paris, Ky., up for sale.
"We have nothing against Kentucky and will continue to have presence there," Stronach said. "But we need to come up with a program to have more California-breds. I will be in touch with the breeding community and the head of the breeders association to see what we can do. Maybe better stallions are a part of that. The fields are small and it hurts the business. We need more California-breds."
Regarding the Kentucky stallion operation, Stronach said he is open to leasing all the stallions to whoever buys the farm. He said he intends to relocate his mares and his employees to his 550-acre farm near Midway, Ky.
Adena Springs currently stands nine stallions at its Paris facility, including Awesome Again , Fort Larned , Ghostzapper , Mucho Macho Man , and Macho Uno . Ghostzapper ranks fifth on the BloodHorse.com general leading sire list through Oct. 3.
"I could also move some of the stallions to Midway," he said. "I'm flexible."
While Stronach said he intends to set up breeding operations in both California and Maryland, finding a way to reverse what he sees as a desperate situtation in California is foremost on his mind.
"We are making improvements left and right, but we need to take a serious look at what we can do together, with the horsemen, with the racing commission, and with the breeders, to improve the racing in California," he said.
Regarding Maryland, Stronach said he sees an opportunity upgrade the quality of the breeding program.
"Horse have great standing in Maryland because it is one of the oldest racing communities," he said. "We need to improve the quality of the horses and the racing facilities."
Stronach added that no major changes are expected for his horse operations in Florida or Ontario.
