Glen Hill Farm boosts its East Coast presence with Fair Hill barn

Glen Hill Farm and trainer Tom Proctor soon will have a year-round presence on the East Coast while altering the scope of their sizable operation.

Glen Hill has agreed to lease the Fair Hill Training Center barn occupied in recent years by Team Valor International and will have horses in most of the 42 stalls at the northern Maryland training facility, with Proctor filling the remainder with horses for other clients. The new arrangement takes effect April 1.

“We’ll mostly have 2-year-olds there at Fair Hill,” Proctor said Wednesday by phone from California. “Most of them will come from Glen Hill in Ocala. We’ll also have an active string at Delaware Park.”

Proctor currently has strings at Santa Anita and Tampa Bay Downs. Besides his Fair Hill and Delaware horses, he will have about 24 at Churchill Downs and 30 at Santa Anita this spring. The stable no longer will have a presence in Chicago, the hometown of Glen Hill founder Leonard Lavin and his grandson, farm president Craig Bernick.

Glen Hill long has been a top owner in American racing, with Marketing Mix, Pontchatrain, Diversy Harbor, Global View, Enterprising, Old Time Hockey, and Wishing Gate being among their stakes winners in recent years. In 2014, Glen Hill won 32 races and more than $2.2 million.

The Fair Hill barn will continue to be owned by Team Valor, said its president, Barry Irwin, although Glen Hill has an option to buy. Team Valor purchased the barn in January 2011 and used it as its main stabling base before Irwin decided last summer to disperse all the horse to various trainers across the United States.