Training facility prepares horses for The Downs

MONROE TWP. — Two partners have invested about $5 million reviving a harness racing training facility in Wyoming County for horses that race at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono in Plains Twp. and other tracks.

Ron Walsh of Nuangola Borough and Ken Churchill, who has homes at Harveys Lake and in California, recently opened Silver Springs Ranch on 76 acres of land near Harveys Lake.

The site was formerly called 5R Ranch and was previously used as a training facility for horses who raced at Pocono Downs.

The Rosentel family originally owned the farm from the 1960s until 2013.

A half-mile track surrounds a nine-acre pond at the revived ranch.

It was built in the 1960s at the same time Pocono Downs was constructed as a harness racing rack on Route 315, decades before Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority opened a casino there in 2006.

In recent years, the Wyoming County property sat idle until Walsh and Churchill transformed the site into a 64-stall training facility for horses. Dolittle Construction of Watsontown built the barn.

Walsh said the track was idle and overgrown and it took “an immense amount of money to get everything back in shape.”

The pond includes fountains and at night — one shoots water about 35 feet in the air.

“More people have been coming out here from The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono and it’s starting to spark interest because it’s close, it’s a brand new place and it’s really nice,” Walsh said. “Some of these horses are very expensive and they don’t want to put them in a barn where the roof is leaking or it is falling apart. They want a nice place.”

Walsh, who formerly worked for the Rosentel family’s spring water business, said the property also includes a maintenance shed and a “wheelhouse” which is used for training horses when they can’t get out on the track.

Eighteen security cameras were installed in the barn that horse owners could check from their phones.

Walsh’s interest in horses came from his father “who was always into horses,” he said.

He thought the project was worthwhile because the training facility is close to The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.

“When it was Pocono Downs before the casino came in, the purses weren’t real high,” Walsh said. “When the casino came in, the purses started getting real high and you started seeing out-of-town license plates coming in. There are other training facilities out there but we are the closest training facility to Mohegan Sun.”

Horses also are trained at Mohegan Sun Pocono and White Haven.

In addition to Mohegan Sun Pocono, horses at Silver Springs Ranch also race at other tracks such as Harrah’s Chester Casino & Racetrack in Chester, Pennsylvania.

Walsh said they have been talking about possibly building another barn on the site.

“We are talking with a company now and they’re drawing up a plan,” he said.

Rory Coolbaugh, who owns a horse named Sheer Desire, said he loves Silver Springs Ranch.

“I loved it before,” Coolbaugh said. “I love the area in general but when they put this place up, it’s just absolutely beautiful. They did a great job.”

Pat Dellavecchia races at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono in Chester and in New York and enjoys training horses Sam McSmith, Clyde the Glide and Common Tariat at the revived ranch.

The horses were formerly in stables at the Meadows Racetrack in Washington, Pennsylvania are now in stables at Silver Springs Ranch.

“It’s beautiful,” Dellavecchia said. “The track is awesome.”