Colts Neck horse farm sold at auction to mystery buyer after 55 years in one family
Colts Neck horse farm sold at auction to mystery buyer after 55 years in one family
Asbury Park Press-December 5, 2024
Olivia Liu
COLTS NECK - Overbrook Farm, which was the birthplace of the Graded stakes-winning racehorse Irish War Cry, sold for $6.1 million at auction.
Max Spann, president and owner of Max Spann Real Estate & Auction Co., said he can’t disclose any information about the buyer, but that the 235-acre farm drew “over 15 qualified bidders with funds” and “over 100 preregistrations for the auction.”
The farm, which has been in the Bailey family for over 55 years, has served as a breeding and training farm with a half-mile racetrack on the property.
Richard E. Bailey, a sports television executive, bought Margate Farm in 1969, according to an Asbury Park Press article.
Overbrook found the spotlight in 2017 when one of its own, Irish War Cry, chalked up a win in the Wood Memorial and finished second in the Belmont Stakes. The colt was owned by Isabelle de Tomaso, the daughter of Monmouth Park founder Amory Haskell.
While many farms have been turned into suburban neighborhoods, mixed-use apartment buildings or warehouse complexes, Overbrook Farm was chosen for preservation due to its proximity to Naval Weapons Station Earle.
Under the federal Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) program, the farm would be preserved for farmland use to “avoid land-use conflicts near military installations, address environmental restrictions that limit military activities and increase resilience to climate change,” according to the Department of Defense website.
The Navy, Monmouth County and Colts Neck paid over $7.3 million to place a conservation easement on the farm, allowing only farm and agricultural uses in the future.
Spann said, “We do sell a lot of preserved farms with this type of restriction. … There’s a strong market for preserved farms. It doesn’t completely mitigate the value of the farm by preserving it and there’s a lot of people that really appreciate a farm and the beauty that it has by itself.”
Spann said many farm owners choose to put their properties up for auction because “it gives them price discovery; they get to see the true market value of their farm.”
He said auctions also allow owners to control the timing and the terms and conditions of the sale.
In addition to the half-mile racetrack, the 235-acre farm has two main houses, labor houses, barns and paddocks.
