Castleton Lyons near

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by popul ...

, is an American horse-racing

stable A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...

and

breeding Breeding is sexual reproduction that produces offspring, usually animals or plants. It can only occur between a male and a female animal or plant. Breeding may refer to: * Animal husbandry, through selected specimens such as dogs, horses, and rab ...

business best known by the name Castleton Farm.

History

The farm was established in 1793 when

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

n John Breckinridge, a future U.S.

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

and

attorney general In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

, purchased 2,467 acres (10 km²) of land and on a portion of it established a

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are c ...

horse-breeding operation. On his death, the property transferred to his daughter, Mary Ann, the then Mrs. David Castleman, who eventually built a mansion on the horse-farm site and gave it the family name. Under the Castlemans, Castleton Farm continued as a Thoroughbred operation, but added the breeding of

American Saddlebred The American Saddlebred is a horse breed from the United States. This breed is referred to as the "Horse America Made". Descended from riding-type horses bred at the time of the American Revolution, the American Saddlebred includes the Nar ...

s and Standardbreds for

harness racing Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait (a trot or a pace). They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, or spider, or chariot occupied by a driver. In Europe, and less frequently in Australi ...

. Development by James R. Keene The original property changed hands several times, occasionally small parts being divvied up and sold to multiple different parties. In the early 1890s,

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...

tycoon

James R. Keene James Robert Keene (February 8, 1838 - January 3, 1913) was a Wall Street stockbroker and a major thoroughbred race horse owner and breeder. Biography He was born in London, England in 1838. He was fourteen years of age when his family immigr ...

acquired the farm and purchased additional land to bring the operation to almost 1,000 acres (4 km²). Keene usually referred to the farm as "Castleton Stud", and under his direction, it became one of the greatest Thoroughbred operations of its day. The farm bred and/or raced future U.S. racing Hall of Fame horses

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the five most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

, Domino,

Ben Brush Ben Brush (1893–1918) was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 1896 Kentucky Derby. Walter Vosburgh, for whom the Vosburgh Stakes is named, said Bramble was "a breed as tough as pine nuts." On May 6, 1896, Bramble and Ros ...

Colin Colin may refer to: * Colin (given name) * Colin (surname) * ''Colin'' (film), a 2008 Cannes film festival zombie movie * Colin (horse) (1905–1932), thoroughbred racehorse * Colin (humpback whale), a humpback whale calf abandoned north of Sydney, ...

Sysonby Sysonby (1902–1906) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse. He won every start easily, except one, at distances from one mile to two and a quarter miles. His superiority as a two and three-year-old was unchallenged during his short career of ...

Maskette Maskette (1906–1930) was an American Thoroughbred Hall of Fame racehorse who never lost a race against other fillies. Background Bred by James R. Keene at his Castleton Farm near Lexington, Kentucky, Maskette was trained by future Hall of ...

, and Peter Pan. As part of a program honoring important horse racing tracks and racing stables, the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

named its baggage car #5865 the "Castleton Farm". Upon the death of James R. Keene in 1913, the farm was taken over by his son

Foxhall P. Keene Foxhall Parker Keene (December 18, 1867 – September 25, 1941) was an American thoroughbred race horse owner and Horse breeding, breeder, a world and Olympic Games, Olympic gold medallist in polo and an amateur tennis player. He was rated ...

. He continued the operation on a slightly reduced basis, but sold it in the 1920s to fellow New Yorker, David Look. Look had considerable success in harness racing, but was forced to sell the farm after experiencing personal financial setbacks during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. Mid- to late 20th century In the early 1940s, heiress

Frances Dodge Frances Dodge (November 27, 1914 – January 24, 1971) was an internationally known horsewoman. She was the eldest of the three children of John Francis Dodge (co-founder of Dodge Motor Company) and his third wife Matilda Rausch Dodge (Wilso ...

founded the Dodge Stable. She was the daughter of

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

pioneer

John F. Dodge John Francis Dodge (October 25, 1864 – January 14, 1920) was an American automobile manufacturing pioneer and co-founder of Dodge Brothers Company. Biography Dodge was born in Niles, Michigan, where his father ran a foundry and machine s ...

and a half-sister of Isabel Dodge, owner of the highly successful

Brookmeade Stable Brookmeade Stable was a successful thoroughbred horse racing stable owned by Dodge automobile heiress and socialite Isabel Dodge Sloane. Sloane first won using the name Brookmeade Stable at the Manly Memorial Steeplechase at Pimlico in 1924. I ...

. In 1945, Frances Dodge, with her husband (polo player and hunter/jumper rider) James B. "Jimmy" Johnson, purchased Castleton Farm and relocated her Dodge stables there. Their Standardbred breeding operation included two Hambletonian winners and a Little Brown Jug winner. After she married Pennsylvania native Frederick Van Lennep in 1949, the farm underwent major renovations to breed and raise Standardbreds. The Van Lenneps made Castleton Farm one of the pre-eminent operations in both disciplines. Under Mrs. Johnson, Dodge Stables' show horse Wing Commander became a six-time world grand champion, and with her husband, she enjoyed enormous success in harness racing that included a number of Hambletonian and Little Brown Jug victories from horses such as United States Harness Horse of the Year and Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame inductee Victory Song (1947), Hambletonian Stakes winners, Hoot Mon (1947), Emily's Pride (1958), and Speedy Scot (1963). Among the other noteworthy harness horses bred by Castleton Stud were Ensign Hanover, winner of the 1946 inaugural Little Brown Jug, and 1972 Jug winner

Strike Out In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is denot ...

, which won in world-record time. Strike Out went on to sire 1979 winner

Hot Hitter Hot Hitter (foaled 1976), a bay Standardbred Champion racehorse, won two of the Pacing Triple Crown races in 1979 while on his way to setting a single-season earnings record of $826,542 for a harness horse. Purchased as a yearling by trainer L ...

, bred by Castleton in conjunction with Anthony Tavolacci. 2000s In 2001, Irish businessman and racing enthusiast Tony Ryan acquired Castleton Farm from the Van Lennep Family Trust. Ryan renamed it Castleton Lyons and undertook renovations to the property while returning to its original roots as a Thoroughbred operation.

Gravesite

The Castleton Farm Cemetery lies at an "intersection of two of the tree-lined farm roads, and is an open green space flanked on one end by a 12-ft-high, horseshoe-shaped hedge." It is not only the final resting spot of a number of Standardbred and Saddlebred mares and stallions, including Wing Commander, but also, in unmarked graves, of the Thoroughbred stallions Commando (''circa'' 1898–1905) and

(''circa'' 1884–1912).

References

External links

Castleton Lyons website

{{coord, 38.1278, -84.4737, type:landmark, display=title American racehorse owners and breeders Horse farms in Kentucky Horse monuments Breckinridge family Companies based in Lexington, Kentucky Buildings and structures in Lexington, Kentucky American Saddlebred breeders and trainers 1793 establishments in Kentucky