Fair Hill Training Center, the 350-acre state-of-the-art Thoroughbred training facility in northeastern Maryland’s Cecil County, has hired veteran horseman Robert Croteau as general manager effective Feb. 1. Founded in 1983, FHTC includes 18 privately owned barns and at its peak capacity is home to approximately 700 Thoroughbred racehorses. Horses based at Fair Hill have won dozens of important races in North America including the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and multiple Breeders’ Cup races.

Croteau succeeds Sally Goswell, who retires after being in the position for almost 30 years. To ease the transition, she will stay on as a consultant.  “We thank Sally for her service to FHTC as General Manager, and going back further, as a barn owner with her husband Mike,” said Bruce Jackson, president of the Fair Hill Condominium Association which leases the property from the state of Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources. “Sally’s fingerprints are on everything at FHTC and has been a key to our success for many years. We’re thrilled to have her involved and look forward to Robert growing into the role with Sally’s valuable input.”

Croteau brings a varied background to the new job. He grew up in the Boston area, the son of a Thoroughbred trainer, and had a trainer’s license as a teenager. In 1986, he moved to the Mid-Atlantic for a job with Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard and stayed in the area through different positions spanning several facets of the equine industry.

“I always thought Fair Hill Training Center was a great concept and to actually be involved with something like that is exciting,” said Croteau. “Racing is going through changes, and I think there’s opportunity for places like Fair Hill. I want to help it be all it can be, but I’m very aware I’m standing on the shoulders of giants. They’ve done all the hard work.”

With Sheppard, Croteau’s main job was caring for mares and young horses on the Pennsylvania farm. He also oversaw the construction of a still-in-use training track and training barn for Sheppard. After stints with trainer Gene Weymouth, at Fair Hill, and at the new Willowdale Steeplechase meet, Croteau took a job with the Iron Spring Farm sport-horse operation where he worked with stallions, young horses and competition horses in addition to tackling various operational responsibilities. After 15 years there, Croteau was hired by the Cool Systems Game Ready equine therapy company and became the international sales director. Since 2011, he has stayed closer to his home in Christiana, PA, while working in equine nutrition as an account manager for the Pennsylvania-based Stoltzfus Feed and Supply. Croteau and his wife Mary are the parents of 25-year-old daughter Isabelle, an environmental scientist who recently moved to Oregon for work.

“I’ve spent the past decade or more going to racetracks in the region, so I’m used to dealing with horse people,” he said. “There are some experiences I bring to the table that will help in this job. Fair Hill gives you a lot of arrows in the quiver to train a horse the way they want to be trained.”

Fair Hill Training Center’s common areas include a 1-mile dirt track, a 7-furlong Tapeta track, access to fields in the surrounding 5,600-acre state natural resources management area and a starting gate crew. Other features include an on-site veterinary practice, an independent equine therapy center and more. The individual barns operate as condominium units where owners are charged a per-stall/per-day fee for maintenance of the common areas. Trainers at Fair Hill include Arnaud Delacour, Cal Lynch, Michael Matz, Shug McGaughey, Graham Motion, Brittany Russell, Phil Schoenthal, Mike Trombetta and others.