Melnyk buys Ripplewood Farm in Lexington

Eugene Melnyk, currently ranked sixth among North America's owners by purse earnings, has purchased the 117-acre Ripplewood Farm on Muir Station Road near Lexington, Ky., as a second farm.

The purchase price was not disclosed.

Melnyk will rename the Ripplewood property Winding Oaks Farm, which is also the name of Melnyk's farm in Ocala, Fla. The Kentucky farm will serve as a boarding facility for Melnyk's mares that are being bred to local stallions.

"We are still retaining Winding Oaks Farm, Ocala, as our principal operating base both for raising and pre-training our horses, but with the number of high-class mares we are sending to Kentucky every breeding season, it makes sense for us to have our own facility and thereby retain oversight of each stage of the program," Melnyk said in a release announcing the Kentucky purchase.

Henry Alexander of Midway Land & Auction Co. brokered the private deal for Ripplewood.

As of Tuesday, Melnyk's racing stable this year had earned $3,801,145 and had scored 64 wins from 336 starts.