by Steve Wolf, for Stathis Enterprises

Lake Worth, FL — Stathis Enterprises Unicorn Trust of New York, N.Y., has announced that they have closed on the purchase of the South Florida Trotting Center late in May.

The purchase price was more than $10 million and includes the 102 acre facility with 14 barns. It is home to 300 harness racing horses located on Route 441/SR 7 in Lake Worth and features an equine swimming pool and numerous turnout paddocks.

The new CEO of the South Florida Trotting Center is Sam Stathis, who already has his Celebrity Farms Stable at the South Florida Trotting Center.

Lisa Delamer photo

Former owner Eric Cherry (left) shakes hands with Sam Stathis on the closing sale of the South Florida Trotting Center to Stathis Enterprises Unicorn Trust.

“I want to thank prior owner Eric Cherry for making this deal happen,” Stathis said. “First order of business will be fixing up the barn area, caretaker quarters and building a new training barn for my stable. Also we will be remaining open year-round henceforth.

“We also want to rename the facility,” Stathis said. “And we will hold a world-wide “Name the equine center contest” this summer.

“Our plans are to turn this facility into a real showplace with modern technology, eco-system friendly and also to expand the facility so that other breeds of horses will be able to train at the farm. While this facility has been predominately a premier trotting facility, we will now be attracting all equestrian disciplines including Hunter, Jumpers and even Polo.”

“We are both pleased with the closing and I am going to stay on the farm with my Let It Ride Stable,” former owner Eric Cherry said. “I look forward to working with Sam as he has great plans for the future of the farm and to turn it into a premier facility.”

Stathis also said plans call for the facility to become a research and development center with an incubator for equine related technologies including a teaching facility for caretakers, holistic equine healing and more.

Sam Stathis was born in Greece and immigrated to the USA with his family at age 7. He is a passionate entrepreneur, investor, developer, engineer, inventor and philanthropist with extensive experience in starting and operating multimillion dollar companies on a domestic and international basis.

Stathis began owning Standardbred horses in 2000. He has since gotten his trainers license and is a provisional licensed professional harness racing driver. He also owns Celebrity Farms in Goshen, N.Y., that is a breeding and training facility (www.celebrityfarms.com) and is the founder of the World Chariot Racing Federation (www.worldchariot.org).