They say money cannot buy success, but in the increasingly sophisticated world of equine sports, you will not get far without it. However, a shrewd investment in a property with all the esse-ntial tools of the trade can at least guarantee a head start on the road to winning ways, as well as some real security when the galloping has to stop.
Having trained some 500 winners in a colourful career spanning more than 20 years, Yorkshire-based trainer Lynda Ramsden and her husband, Jack, plan to retire at the end of the current flat-racing season.
In the meantime, the immaculate country house and training complex which they have created since 1987 from ?a farmhouse and a few old dairy buildings? at Breckenbrough House, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, is for sale through Knight Frank (020?7629 8171) and Blenkin & Co (01904 671672) at a guide price of £2.5 million.
?Breckenbrough House is a real trophy yard, which has everything an aspiring young trainer could wish for,? says selling agent Robert Fanshawe of Knight Frank, listing an impressive array of facilities, which, he says, make it equally suited to a variety of other equestrian uses.
They include 51 loose boxes, an equine pool and Jacuzzi, an indoor school, two horse-walkers, and an 11-furlong all-weather gallop, laid out amid 90 acres of paddocks, pasture and woodland.
Breckenbrough House itself is a charming brick-and-pantile family house with four reception rooms, a snooker room, a games room, five bedrooms, four bathrooms and a two-bedroom flat, set in about 10 acres of pristine gardens and grounds.
The yard has ample staff accommodation and there is planning permission for a four-bedroom house, so the property is being offered either as a whole or as two separate lots.
This article was originally published in Country Life magazine, August 11, 2005. To subscribe click here.
