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Aiken Training Track - a center of excellence for training racehorses

By Ben Baugh
First Published: 05 February 2010 - Issue Number: 15

It’s nestled quietly in the beauty and charm of the Deep South, and for nearly seven decades, some of Thoroughbred racing’s most successful horses have trained over the hallowed ground of the Aiken Training Track. A total of 39 champions have been conditioned over the facility’s surface adding to the mystique of the track in the small southern city as the training facility continues to make a resounding statement in one of the industry’s most idyllic settings: Aiken, South Carolina’s historic horse district.
But it’s not just the track’s rich history that has caught people’s attention, it’s the consistently high level of quality horses that are broken and trained at the Aiken Training Track, and their ability to compete against the nation’s best and on the world’s biggest stages. The 2009 Breeders’ Cup featured five entries who had trained over the facility’s surface: Spring Hill Farm’s Nite Light and Quality Road; Dogwood Stable’s Aikenite; Godolphin’s Midshipman; and Robert and Janice McNair’s Cowboy Cal.
The Aiken Training Track was established in 1941 by father-and-son horsemen Fred and William Post. The facility features a  one-mile track with a red clay base and sandy loam cushion, and a 5/8-mile sand track. Those who train there have access to a turf course, and are within hacking distance of Aiken’s renowned Hitchcock Woods, a 2,100-acre urban forest. The city’s horse district offers ample dirt roads to provide trainers with a variety of ways to condition and keep horses fit. The Aiken Training Track also features a six-stall United Puett starting gate and published works.
Such historic owners as Greentree, Rokeby, Charles Engelhard’s Cragwoood, Brookmeade, Phipps, Claiborne, Buckland, Bwamazon, Bostwick, du Pont, William Haggin Perry, Firestone, and Vanderbilt; and t...

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