Ashwood Training Center in Lexington, Ky., is scheduled to reopen in the coming weeks under new management and a new name, according to Michelle Dalton, who will manage the property she is leasing in partnership with trainer Matt Frazier and owner Barry Fowler.
The new name will be Three Diamonds Training Center LLC and it could reopen as soon as Dec. 15, Dalton said.
Ashwood was closed July 1 when owner Anderson Communities sought permission from the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government to have 12 soccer fields and 750 parking spaces developed on the property in association with the Lexington Sporting Club. After pushback from the horse industry and community members, Lexington Sporting Club withdrew their plans and found alternative property along I-75 near Athens-Boonesboro Road south of Lexington.
The training center property, whose entrance is on Russell Cave Road, is adjacent to Fasig-Tipton and Kenny McPeek's Magdalena Farm. It had previously been leased from Anderson Communities by Marc Ricker.
Dalton, a licensed trainer, said the partners signed a multi-year lease on the property, effective Dec. 1, and are beginning renovations and repairs.
“It needs a lot of work,” she said. “The first thing is to peel back the racetrack to see what needs to be done. The starting gate has to be refurbished, and there is electrical, plumbing, and carpentry work that is needed.
“We are in the beginning phases and are putting enough money into the facility to have the upgrades last 15 to 20 years,” she added.
Dalton said property owner Dennis Anderson “wanted it run correctly, to be a nice place for good people to go to train racehorses.”
The facility has approximately 275 stalls, a three-quarter mile dirt track and a turf oval inside the dirt track.
Three Diamonds will charge $300 per month per stall, Dalton said, and there is a “huge demand” already. “When people found out I was trying to reopen it,” she said, “I started getting calls and we have a long list of people waiting for stalls.”
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