Horseman Mick Ruis, whose stable has raced primarily in Southern California, has purchased the 285-acre Blackwood Stables training center in Versailles, Ky.
Ruis, who owned and trained multiple Grade 1 winner Bolt d'Oro, the leading freshman sire of 2022, bought the property for $7,639,500 through Tom Biederman of Biederman Real Estate. Blackwood Stables, previously operated by Guinness McFadden, was listed with Ken Donworth of Bluegrass Sotheby's.
Biederman said the transaction closed Oct. 2.
“It made super sense to me since most of my horses are Kentucky-breds,” Ruis said. “With Kentucky running year-round and maiden special weight purses up to $120,000 or more, this fits my program. I couldn't get stalls and needed a place for my mares. And now I've got my own training facility.”
Ruis said he currently has 27 mares in Kentucky.
Blackwood Stables has 122 stalls in six barns – three barns for mares, weanlings and yearlings with 52 stalls and three more with 70 additional stalls for training. There is a six-furlong training track, one-mile grass course, and 1 1/8-mile wood-chip “European-style” gallop, Ruis said. Click here for photos and here for information on the farm from its previous owner.
The training facility is accredited with the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission for official workouts and gate cards.
“Jose Delima will be running all the training at Blackwood,” said Ruis, adding that his daughter Shelbe will oversee the California-breds. DeLima formerly trained in Southern California and has assisted Mick Ruis in California and Kentucky.
The purchase came shortly after Ruis sold the former Woodford Thoroughbreds farm, renamed Wen/Mick (for Ruis and his wife, Wendy), to Tom and Debi Stull of California-based Tommy Town Thoroughbreds. That property, also near Versailles, sold for $8 million, and Beiderman said it included 380 acres in total, a “nicely redone house, beautiful barns, and rolling land.”
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