Vessels Stallion Farm sold to Delaware corporation

Vessels Stallion Farm in Bonsall, Calif., a leading Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred breeding farm on the West Coast since the 1980s, was sold earlier this week to a private entity incorporated in Delaware, a person familiar with the transaction said on Thursday.

The farm was sold by the family of Frank “Scoop” Vessels, who died in a private plane crash in 2010. The facility will be renamed Ocean Breeze Ranch. A limited liability corporation called Ocean Breeze LLC acquired the property, according to a source.

Kevin Dickson, the existing farm manager, will remain with the property, which will not be a commercial enterprise in the short-term future. The Thoroughbred stallion Square Eddie, currently ranked fourth among California’s stallions by progeny earnings, will remain at the farm. Square Eddie is the sire of Breeders’ Cup Juvenile contender Ralis, the winner of the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga on Sept. 7.

The Vessels family, led by Scoop Vessels’s late mother, Mildred, built the Vessels Stallion Farm in the ranching community in northern San Diego County in the mid-1980s. The Vessels family founded Los Alamitos Racecourse, and had a breeding ranch adjacent to the racetrack in Cypress, Calif., until the operation was transferred to Bonsall.

In the past, the Bonsall farm has stood the leading California Thoroughbred stallion In Excess, and the all-time leading Quarter Horse stallion, the late First Down Dash.

The new structure is not expected to include Quarter Horses. Vessels is selling the remainder of its Quarter Horse holdings at the Heritage Place fall mixed sale in Oklahoma City on Oct. 29.