Bill Gates buys thoroughbred training centre in California.

It seems that the passion for equestrianism is also rife amongst VIPs and billionaires with none other than Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and one of the richest men on the planet, the latest person to be swept up in the tide of enthusiasm for the sport.
Influenced by his daughter Jennifer and her passion for equestrian sports, the first major purchase by Gates was a stables with each horse said to be valued between 50 and 75 thousand dollars. Last year this was followed by a sumptuous 4 acre structure near the Wellington Equestrian Centre worth 8.7 million dollars fitted out with 20 horse boxes, paddock and training camp.
Jennifer Gates dreams of a career in the sport and her father is doing all that is possible to help her achieve this goal. As a businessman, Gates is also more than aware that it’s necessary to invest to create opportunities and after previous purchases he’s now bought a horse training centre from Jenny Craig (over 229 acres of land) for a whopping 18 million dollars.
The site is a thoroughbred training centre and Gates intends to turn it into a grand-prix circuit for show-jumping. The location is in California and in Rancho Santa Fe. The centre was previously closed in May 2013 for financial reasons, but it includes a fenced off race track, four 30 stall barns and is complete with rehab equipment for injured horses. It was put on the market in 2010 for 30 million dollars which was then brought down to 25 in 2012.
Jenny Craig received various proposals with some of those aimed at turning the training centre into a golfing green and even a hotel, but the idea was to maintain the original equestrian purpose of the training centre. Thanks to Bill Gates, that is now exactly what will happen.
source: http://www.utsandiego.com/Equestrian World/2014/oct/08/jenny-craig-bill-gates-equestrian-horse-microsoft/