Our Story

Built in 1956 by late-Upperville philanthropist Paul Mellon, the Middleburg Training Center is a 149-acre horse training venue, complete with 11 barns, 220 stalls, 22 paddocks, and a 7/8-mile race track.

The founder of Rokeby Stables in Fauquier County, Mellon owned the 1993 Kentucky Derby winner Sea Hero, the 1969 American Horse of the Year Arts and Letters and the 1970 American Horse of the Year Fort Marcy. In 1971 and 1986, Mellon won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Breeder.

Mellon is one of only five people ever designated an “Exemplar of Racing” by the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

In 1975, Mellon sold the Middleburg Training Center to a group of 11 local trainers and owners, led by the late trainer Paul Fout and local horseman Lewis Wiley.

During the group’s ownership, Spectaular Bid — the 1979 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner — got his start at the Middleburg Training Center under trainer Barbara Graham.

In 2006, Randolph D. “Randy” Rouse, a business impresario and sportsman widely known throughout Northern Virginia and Loudoun County’s horse country, purchased the Middleburg Training Center.

A decade later, Rouse donated the training center to the non-profit Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, the day before his 100th birthday.

In 2017, TRF sold the Middleburg Training Center to Purcellville businessman Charles “Chuck” Kuhn. Kuhn — the founder of North America’s largest independently owned and operated moving and storage company, JK Moving Services — plans to renovate the training center race track, barns, and stables, revitalizing it to its once elite status.

The training center will be placed in conservation easement, limiting the use of the land to preserve the site for current and future generations of Loudoun County’s equine community.