Florida Horse Park (Ocala, FL): Cross Country Course Guide

Most people who search for the Florida Horse Park are headed there for one of two things: a horse show or a cross country meet. This guide covers both, with the most detail on the running side: the course, the fastest times ever run on it, how it compares with other Florida courses, and what to know before meet day.

Where Is the Florida Horse Park?

The Florida Horse Park is at 11008 S Hwy 475, Ocala, FL 34480, on State Road 475 on the south side of Ocala in Marion County. Put "Florida Horse Park" or the street address in your maps app and follow the signs into the grounds. The park's office number is (352) 307-6699.

The park sits on the southern edge of the Cross Florida Greenway, so a shakeout on the Greenway trails is a short drive from the start line. If you are making a weekend of it, our Ocala race-day guide covers where to eat and what to do after the race, and every race in Ocala is listed on our city page.

About the Park

The official name is the Florida Agriculture Center and Horse Park. It is run by the Florida Agriculture Center and Horse Park Authority, a 501(c)(3) charity that operates as a direct support organization of the Florida Department of Agriculture, on 500 acres owned by the state of Florida.

It is built for horses first. The grounds include 350 acres of mown grass fields, a 212-by-375-foot covered arena, fiber-footing and grass arenas, five FEI-size dressage arenas, 320 permanent stalls, 40 RV hookups with showers, and an equestrian cross country course with more than 100 jumps from Entry Level (2 feet) to Intermediate (3 feet 9 inches). Those open grass fields are why runners race here too.

The Cross Country Running Course

The running course is laid out across the park's grass fields and uses the equestrian cross country field. The meet host describes it as fast, with long straights, small rolling hills and packed grass. The course map for each race is posted with the meet information from the host, B3R Sports, and on the MileSplit venue page (links in the sources below).

• High school: 5K, varsity and JV races.
• Middle school: 3K, separate boys' and girls' races.
• Elementary: 2K, separate boys' and girls' races.
• Spectating: the mile and two-mile marks are within walking distance of the start and finish, so parents can see a race at several points without much walking.

How Fast Is the Horse Park Course?

Fair and slightly quick. Our Florida XC database rates every course against the state meet using the runners who raced both. On the 2026 ratings, from 144 high school boys and 132 high school girls who ran the Horse Park and the 2025 state championships, the Horse Park 5K grades about 5 seconds faster than Cecil Field, the season's reference course (boys 5.2 seconds, girls 4.6 seconds). That is close enough to neutral that a Horse Park time is a good read on where a runner stands. See the full 2026 Horse Park results with course-graded times.

Fastest Times at the Florida Horse Park

These are the fastest times on record at the Florida Horse Park Invitational: the host's event records through 2023, updated with the 2024, 2025 and 2026 results on TFRRS. Every older record on the host's list was slower than the marks below.

Race	Time	Athlete	Year
High school boys 5K	15:06.6	Marcelo Mantecon, Belen Jesuit	2024
High school girls 5K	17:33.3	Annabella Tomasic, Bishop Moore	2025
Middle school boys 3K	9:34.7	Douglas Seth, Imagine School Town Center	2024
Middle school girls 3K	10:17.8	Colette Heffernan, unattached	2026

The host's 2024 flyer listed the older 5K records as 15:29.7 (Adam Magoulas, Belen Jesuit, 2021) and 18:34.40 (Lily Henne, Montverde Academy, 2018). MileSplit keeps its own unofficial venue lists; ours are drawn from the meet results linked below.

Recent Invitational Winners

Year	Boys 5K winner	Girls 5K winner	Boys team	Girls team
2026	Marcelo Mantecon, Belen Jesuit, 15:22.1	Natalia Gaona-Zelaya, Wiregrass Ranch, 18:03.8	Belen Jesuit (63)	Bishop Moore (141)
2025	Marcelo Mantecon, Belen Jesuit, 15:10.8	Annabella Tomasic, Bishop Moore, 17:33.3	Belen Jesuit (39)	Episcopal (132)
2024	Marcelo Mantecon, Belen Jesuit, 15:06.6	Daisy Ross, Ponte Vedra, 18:27.1	Belen Jesuit (22)	Bolles (117)

For the full story of the 2026 meet, read our Horse Park recap, the meet preview and the race simulator run of the entry list.

Cross Country Meets at the Horse Park

The big one is the Florida Horse Park Invitational, held every year since 2014, in early September in every year but 2017 (when it ran in October), which makes it one of the first big meets of the Florida season. The 13th edition on September 5, 2026 drew more than 2,200 finishers across eight races, from elementary 2K to high school varsity 5K. B3R Sports organizes it, spectator parking tickets are sold through Vanguard High School's GoFan page, and Half Mile Timing does the timing.

The park has hosted other meets too. MileSplit's venue history lists the FHSAA 2A and 3A Region 2 meets (October 31, 2015), the AAU Florida District Qualifier (2016) and the first two Florida Youth XC Championships (2017 and 2018).

Is the FHSAA state meet at the Florida Horse Park? No. The Florida high school state cross country championships are held at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee; the 2026 meet is there on November 20. MileSplit's venue history shows no state meet at the Horse Park.

Meet Day: Parking, Tents and Spectator Tips

Parking and spectator rules come from the meet, not the park, so check the current year's meet flyer. At the Florida Horse Park Invitational in 2024:

• Parking: $10 per spectator vehicle, cash or a GoFan parking ticket bought ahead of time. Team buses and team vans park free; a parent car with an athlete in it still pays.
• Gates: open 5:30 a.m. on race day. The first race, the high school boys' varsity 5K, went off at 7:20 a.m.
• Course preview and packet pickup: Friday afternoon, 3 to 6 p.m.
• No pets. Dogs have to stay in the car; service animals are welcome.
• Varsity cutoff: 30 minutes. Runners who cannot break 30 minutes are moved to the JV race.
• Food: a breakfast concession menu is posted the week of the meet.
• Restrooms: teams could rent their own portable toilet for $150; book it before the flyer's deadline if you have a big squad.
• RV camping: $100 for the night during the meet, reserved in advance with the host.

The course runs across open grass fields, so shade is scarce once the sun is up. Bring a team tent, water and sunscreen, and plan on a hot, humid morning: the invitational is held in early September, and the schedule starts at dawn for that reason.

Horse Shows and Riding at the Park

Outside of meet days the Florida Horse Park is a horse venue, hosting shows for all breeds and disciplines, from eventing to dressage and driving. The park says most of its horse shows are free to watch; some events are ticketed. Riders can trail ride from the park on weekdays after signing in at the office, signing a waiver and showing a negative Coggins. Arena riding costs $50 per horse and has to be booked ahead by phone, and the park's public access page listed arena riding as closed when we checked in September 2026, so call (352) 307-6699 before you trailer in.