WINCHESTER FARM - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Client & Public Relations and Office Manager
- Head of Client and Public Relations
Kara McDermott, head of client and public relations, maintains the highly individualized, personal attention to each client that is the trademark of Winchester Farm, keeping the clients informed about their horses and helping to expand the operation's presence in the domestic Thoroughbred industry.
Originally from Louisville, Kara grew up with a deep love of horses. She attended the University of Kentucky, graduating with a BS in Animal Science with a concentration in Equine Studies and pre-veterinary requirements. She worked on Thoroughbred horse farms in the Lexington area before moving to Massachusetts to work as a veterinary technician. While in Massachusetts, Kara rode for a leading hunter jumper trainer and began dressage training. In 2005, Kara met Naoya and Marie during a Keeneland meet and was thrilled to have the opportunity to come back to Kentucky and the Thoroughbred industry.
Born in France, Marie Yoshida-Debeusscher spent her childhood at her parents' horse farm in Flanders. She earned an MBA in International Trade and Human Resources from Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Lille and went on to work for the French Thoroughbred Breeders' Association as head of the International Relations Department and as General Secretary of the European Federation of the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association from 1992 to 1996.
Marie moved to Hong Kong in 1996 to start her own bloodstock agency, purchasing and managing Thoroughbred yearlings and two-year-olds on behalf of her clients. She married Naoya in 1999 and together they manage horses for clients in Hong Kong, Japan, Europe and the United States.
A fourth-generation horseman, Naoya Yoshida grew up on his family's Yoshida Stud Farm in Hokkaido, Japan, which he later managed. In 1993 he earned a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Rakuno Gakuen University, specializing in veterinary gynecology. After studying stud management under Dr. Michael Osborne, general manager of Darley's Kildangan Stud, for three years, Naoya interned with William Fishback, Jr., DVM, at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington, Kentucky.
After Naoya and Marie married in 1999, the couple sought to combine their unique international backgrounds to create a boutique management operation specializing in quality service with personal attention to clients. They chose to operate mainly in central Kentucky due to its proximity to the world's leading stallions, sales companies, veterinarians and other Thoroughbred specialists. Naoya served as a board member of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers' Club from 2005 to 2006 and as a board member of the University of Kentucky Gluck Equine Research Center from 2007 to 2011.