The History of Payson Park

April 15, 2011Posted by Payson

 

Payson Park Training Center was originally built as the St. Lucie Training Center in the 1950's by a partnership that included racing luminaries Michael Phipps, Bull Hancock and C.T. Chenery. Once the most prominent training center in Florida, the facility went into decline in the 1970's after the death of Michael Phipps and remained moribund until it was resurrected, refurbished, and renamed by Virginia Payson in 1980. In an independent study by Dr. George Pratt of M.I.T., the dirt track was rated among the "top three in the country" and cited as "the most consistent of ALL race tracks measured."

Offerings

  • one-mile championship dirt track
  • irrigated one-mile turf track
  • electronic six-horse starting gate
  • european-style galloping trails
  • numerous turnout paddocks
  • feeding, bedding, vanning services
  • 21 barns - 22 & 30 stalls each
  • bunkhouse & recreation facilities
  • Daily Racing Form sanctioned
  • 24 hour veterinarian and security
  • 90 minutes from Tampa & Miami tracks
  • licensed & accredited by State of FL

About Payson Park

April 6, 1999Posted by Greg Melikov

 

Payson Park, for most fans, is a footnote below the past performances in the Daily Racing Form, track programs and other thoroughbred information. But once you see the South Florida training center on a luxuriant, landscaped 400 acres near Indiantown, with a huge cattle ranch and orange groves for neighbors, you realize why so many horses are stabled here every winter season.
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