Southern Oaks is owned and operated by the Pinske family of Plato, MN. The farm is conveniently located within 45 minutes of both the Orlando airport and Daytona Beach. In the year 2000, Brian Pinske, purchased Southern Oaks from the Simpson family. The Simpsons built the farm as their main winter training center. They put in a mile track with a clay surface and had three barns built. When Brian purchased the farm, he added four more barns to the property. This addition created space for 208 stalls. This allowed him to train his 100+ head stable while also renting stalls out to the public. In 2002, Brian unexpectedly passed and the farm was taken over by his parents Marlys and Tim, along with his brother Karl. The size of the Pinske Stable was greatly reduced, leaving an opportunity for top trainers to house and train more horses on the farm.
Today, Pinske Stables has approximately 30-40 horses in training each year. While Marlys remains heavily involved with managing the training center, her husband recently passed away. Karl owns and operates the farm along with his son, Carter. The father/son pair makes up the 4th and 5th generation of Pinske Stables in the harness racing industry.
Currently the, approximately, 154 acre farm has 7 barns with 242 stalls, 26 spacious turnout paddocks, each with automatic waterers and a shelter, a mile training track, a half mile training track, and a 0.6 mile sawdust/sand jog track. During the 2022 season the Pinske’s started to implement a 3/4 mile straight track that is currently being developed into, yet another, useful training surface as a way to keep up with our ever evolving breed and different training styles. Dormitory rooms are available on sight for rent, along with 18 camper/RV hookups in “Brian Park”. Each barn has an office and a feed room attached. At the end of the season, generally in April, SOTC hosts three days of qualifiers for horses as they get ready to ship north for the season. Southern Oaks has been the winter home of many great horses competing in several different stakes programs. It has been a long time home to leading trainers such as Erv Miller, John Butenschoen, Eddie Lohmeyer, and Ian Moore.
“The Pinske Family would like to thank you for your interest in our training center. Each season we strive to create a world-class training experience for both our clientele and our own horses. We are constantly trying to improve our amenities to match the customers we have. We believe that Florida is certainly the best place to train horses in the winter. We hope that you consider Southern Oaks as your winter home and look forward to hearing from you”
–The Pinske’s