Adam Gordon; Laura Resen photo.
By Teresa Genaro
“I never thought I would sell the farm,” said Vivien Malloy recently. “My daughter Debby loved it, and we had a plan.”
Malloy recalled a 2006 email from her great friend Judy Richter.
“You have so much to look forward to,” read the message. “One of these days Deb will return and you two will have so much fun, you with your racehorses and Deb with her jumpers.”
An accomplished international equestrian, Debby Malloy Winkler lived in Germany, and in 2011 she died after fall from her horse.
Malloy and her late husband Henry had five children, but none inherited the love for horses that Debby had, and Malloy knew that none of them would be interested in taking over the farm. Aware, too, of all that is involved in the sale of a major piece of real estate, she decided to save her children the hassle and sell it herself.
The farm had several suitors, some of whom left Malloy feeling uneasy about its future; a valuable property in the Hudson Valley’s Dutchess County would be a lucrative prospect for development.
But one of them didn’t, despite a background in commercial real estate, and over the winter, Adam Gordon became the new owner of Edition Farm, one of New York’s storied breeding establishments.
“He wants to keep it the way it is,” said Malloy. “He’ll keep the boarding business going, my horses are going to stay here, and I have a house across the street. It’s pretty perfect.”
“Edition Farm is a continuation of my wife Kristina’s and my passion for preserving open space and connecting deeply with nature, while preserving ways of life,” said Gordon.
Gordon’s past projects include developing a “vertical village for film production” in New York City’s borough of Queens; co-founding Madison Development, which develops and operates urban infill self-storage facilities; building single-family town homes; and leasing a warehouse in the city for Amazon e-commerce and delivery.
About a decade, Gordon and his wife purchased a working cattle ranch in California’s Sonoma County on which cattle are humanely raised to produce Japanese Wagyu beef to high-end restaurants within a bicycle ride of the ranch.
Vivien Malloy; courtesy of Malloy.
“We’re raising animals in a humane way and paying attention to soil health and the environment,” he explained. “We’ll use all the same practices at Edition Farm. Forty years of Vivien’s dedication and standards brought the farm to where it is, and we’re keeping her team, including the fabulous farm manager Teri…. to focus on animal care, particularly foaling and boarding. We have no interest in dividing the property or converting it to hospitality or event spaces. We want to take what Vivien built and refine it.”
Which is not to say that he’s leaving the farm as-is. He’s added seven run-in sheds and fenced some pastures; almost all of the farm equipment has been upgraded, including a new truck that will enable foals to more comfortably enter a shipping van.
“We’re going to provide the farm staff with the tools they need to do their jobs at the highest level and empower them,” said Gordon. “Teri runs the farm, and Kristina and I check in, more as cheerleaders.
“We have a total focus on starting from the ground up, with soil health. Raising healthy animals means putting them out in the environment, letting them run around, and giving them healthy feed.
“That’s what we’re going to focus on. We’re not going to try to do too many things, because it’s easy to get distracted. We have a singular focus: boarding and foaling.”
A Michigan native, farm manager Teri Brown came to New York about 14 years ago, moving here from Santa Fe, NM. She worked first for Waldorf Farm, then for Sequel before landing at Edition Farm with her husband Buster three years ago.
“When I first heard that the farm was for sale, I was worried about what would happen to it,” she said. “The farm is absolutely beautiful, and Vivien did a great job by doing it right: the barns are beautiful, the fencing is high quality, and when you see that she made her dream come true, it’s hard to think that it’s possibly going to change.”
Her conversations with Gordon have eased those fears.
“It’s nice that he wants to preserve and carry on the legacy, that he won’t let the farm decline or get divided up. It’s a big relief, and it’s exciting that the farm will continue.”
Adam and Kristina Gordon; Laura Resen photo.
“Teri is attached by her emotional umbilical cord to these horses,” said Gordon. “I’m not going to second-guess her. Farming is not my business; real estate is, and I’m not trying to squeeze every dollar out of the farm. I’m trying to create the ultimate boarding and foaling facility on the East Coast. It’s the right size for total dedication to and focus on the animals.”
The Gordons have put together a multi-stage plan for the farm. They’ll work on some aesthetics, such as adding more stone walls to those that have been here for the last four decades, and they’re gut-renovating the main house and the guest house. They will continue to spend a good part of the year at their ranch in California, but they’re hoping to get to Saratoga this summer.
“I’ve never been to a horse race,” said Adam. “I’m excited about it. I met with some of the farm’s boarders, people who own and race horses, and their passion is really exciting. I’m thrilled to go with someone who is race-adjacent.”
Speaking of those clients…
“I want them to know that they’re not going to see a big change,” said Brown. “We’re just continuing what we’ve done at this great facility. Just because we have new owner doesn’t mean that we’re not going to continue to produce super babies out of super mares.”
And, she added, Malloy will continue to be a presence.
“She’ll be right across the street,” Brown said. “There’s a pasture right outside her window, and if I can, I put her horses there so she can look out and see them.”
