Walden joins Adena Springs management

Noted breeder and farm owner Ben Walden, whose involvement in the Thoroughbred industry has shifted recently, has taken a key role with Adena Springs, also undergoing changes.

Walden will serve as director of marketing and bloodstock consultant for Frank Stronach’s nationwide operation. Stronach announced last October that he will sell Adena’s flagship farm in Kentucky and will expand his programs in California and Maryland to bolster the industry in those states, where he owns racetracks.

Walden assumes his new role after announcing last summer that he was dispersing his own Thoroughbred holdings. Both Walden and his wife, Elaine, are involved in Christian ministry and associated pursuits, and Walden said at the time that he planned to devote more time to that area of his life. He had previously put his Pauls Mill Farm in Versailles, Ky., on the market.

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During his career in Thoroughbred racing, Walden has bred more than 100 stakes winners, highlighted by Eclipse Award champion Artax.

A major component of Walden’s business approach has been to buy and develop horse farms. He founded Vinery in 1985, and over the next 12 years built it into a successful commercial farm with more than 30 stallions and a major sales presence. Among Vinery’s top sires was Red Ransom, whom Walden purchased from Paul Mellon’s Rokeby Stable. Walden also formerly owned Gracefield – now Spy Coast Farm – and purchased and managed Hurricane Hall on behalf of Brad Kelley.

After the partnership at Hurricane Hall was dissolved in 2008, Walden acquired Pauls Mill, where he had dabbled in standing stallions over the last decade.