An Equestrian Estate Selling For $57.5 Million Was Home To Kentucky Derby Winners—And Ryanair Founder
A legacy equestrian estate owned by the family of late Ryanair co-founder and almost-billionaire Tony Ryan will be part of this year’s invitation-only Keeneland Championship Sale at a listing price of $57.5 million.
Known as Castleton Farm, the estate spans more than 950 acres and is anchored by a Greek Revival mansion dating to 1840.Castleton, listed by Bluegrass Sotheby’s International Realty this week, includes 10 residential homes and 16 barns with 268 total horse stalls.
The property boasts a collection of architectural landmarks including famous stone round tower, ornate ironwork gates, tree-lined drives, historic barns, covered bridge and a rare equine cemetery as a monument to the racing champions raised on the property.
The farm is famous in the racing world for breeding and raising some of the most celebrated horses in the sport, and is widely regarded as the most-photographed estate in Kentucky, per Sotheby's.
The estate will be offered for sale in October through the invitation-only Keeneland Championship Sale, an auction held annually during the week of the Breeders' Cup in Lexington and traditionally offering items like interests in Breeders' Cup contenders, stallion shares and breeding rights.
Castleton was featured in the 2005 Disney film "Dreamer," about a horse trainer (Kurt Russell) and his precocious daughter, played by Dakota Fanning.
Castleton was established in the late 1790s after John Breckinridge, a future U.S. senator, bought 2,467 acres near Lexington, Kentucky. The property passed to his daughter, whose husband David Castleman built the still-standing Greek Revival mansion and named the estate after his family. Wall Street financier James Keene bought the property in the 1890s and turned it into the Thoroughbred racing powerhouse it’s known as today. The property produced or raced 113 stakes winners between 1893 and 1911 including Hall of Fame horses such as Domino, Ben Brush and Peter Pan. Frances Dodge Johnson, daughter of automobile pioneer John Dodge, bought Castleton in 1945 and expanded its operation to include Standardbred and American Saddlebred horses. Ryanair co-founder Tony Ryan bought the property for $14 million, renamed it Castleton Lyons after his Irish estate Lyons Demesne and began an extensive restoration that included renovating barns, planting more than 2,000 trees and restoring the mansion. Ryan's son, Shane Ryan, has run it as a Thoroughbred breeding operation ever since and is now looking to sell.
Forbes estimated Ryan to be worth $730 million in 2003, four years before his death. He was posthumously described by The Sunday Times as a billionaire worth roughly $1.1 billion and was ranked seventh on the publication's list of Ireland's richest people. He died a major Ryanair stockholder and minority owner of Singapore-based Tiger Airways.