Ashbrook Farm

A concrete foundation is the bedrock of any structure. Building a successful Thoroughbred partnership needs that same footing. You need rock-hard determination, the right aggregate of experience and the liquidity to maintain elasticity. Without such a concrete foundation, the tallest of ambitions can crumble, but with one in place, you can find long-term success and come out smelling like a rose. For BBN Racing, the first scent of success came from the appropriately-named mare Concrete Rose (Twirling Candy) who won over $1.2 million and four graded stakes, including the Grade...

   In this new series, the TDN takes a look at the success of European-based sires in North America, on a semi-weekly basis. This week's column (Feb. 18-Feb. 25) is highlighted by the victory of Godolphin homebred Lake Lucerne (Dubawi {Ire}) in the Albert M. Stall Memorial S. at Fair Grounds on Feb. 18. A worldwide influence for class, Dubawi celebrated his 250th stakes winner with Lake Lucerne's two-length victory for Brendan Walsh and Tyler Gaffalione in a 1 1/16-mile turf stakes in New Orleans eight days previously. The 6-year-old...

Ashbrook Farm and Upland Flats Racing's Red Carpet Ready picked up right where she left off Saturday, dominating Gulfstream's GIII Forward Gal S. to stay unbeaten and earn eight GI Kentucky Oaks qualifying points. Belying almost 37-1 odds when she aired in the Churchill slop first out Oct. 30, the dark bay handled the next step with aplomb, taking the Nov. 26 Fern Creek S. by daylight over a next-out allowance winner back under the Twin Spires. Off as the narrow second choice behind multiple local stakes winner Atomically--last seen...

Owner Glenn Bromagen, who raced under the name of Ashbrook Farm, passed away Tuesday at his home in Versailles, KY. He was 90. An Air Force veteran, Bromagen graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1955 and shortly thereafter moved to Chicago, where he worked at the Union Stock Yards for Armour and Company. The native of Sharpsburg, KY joined the Chicago Mercantile Exchange as a cattle broker and then co-founded the brokerage firm, Rufenacht, Bromagen and Hertz, where he flourished professionally. He bought his first racehorses in the late...

by Brian DiDonato, Jessica Martini & Christie DeBernardis LEXINGTON, KY--OXO Equine's Larry Best took home the top two lots Monday during the lone Book 1 session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. Early in the day he went to $1.9 million for Indian Miss (Indian Charlie) (hip 32), the dam of champion sprinter Mitole (Eskendereya) and last Friday's GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile runner-up Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow), in foal to Into Mischief and from the Hill 'n' Dale consignment; and towards the end of the session he paid $1.95...

Larry Best continued his spending spree during the early stages of breeding stock sales season, going to a session-leading $1.95 million to secure 2019 GI Belmont Oaks Invitational S. winner Concrete Rose (Twirling Candy) at Keeneland November Monday. The 4-year-old filly, a daughter of GI Humana Distaff S. runner-up Temple Street (Street Cry {Ire}), was consigned to the sale by Lane's End as agent for Ashbrook Farm and BBN Racing as hip 216 and took Best's purchases Monday to four horses for gross receipts of $4.54 million. Best also signed...

If you peak through the windows of the new café in downtown Versailles, Kentucky, the sights and smells of the tantalizing cuisine draw you closer to the door. Cajun shrimp and grits, chicken pesto pizza and beef short ribs are laid out across wooden tables adorned with mason jars filled with freshly-cut flowers. Normally, many people living in this community wouldn't dream of stepping across the threshold of such an upscale, and perhaps mistakenly pretentious, establishment. The dollar signs listed on the menu next to those mouth-watering entrees would make...

Grade I winner and millionaire Concrete Rose (f, 4, Twirling Candy--Solerina, by Powerscourt {GB}) will be offered as a racing or broodmare prospect during the premier Book 1 of this year's Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, which begins Monday, Nov. 9, and follows the Breeders' Cup World Championships at Keeneland Nov. 6-7. Concrete Rose has won six of seven career starts and has bankrolled $1,218,650, led by wins in the 2019 GI Belmont Oaks Invitational S. and Saratoga Oaks Invitational S. She will be consigned by Lane's End, agent for...

The Churchill Downs main track was opened for training Wednesday morning for the first time since last fall, with horses such as the Greg Foley-trained Major Fed (Ghostzapper) and others conditioned by Steve Asmussen, Phil Bauer, Buff Bradley, Bret Calhoun, Mark Casse, Brad Cox, Neil Howard, Michelle Lovell and Dallas Stewart all stepping onto the surface just after 5:30 a.m. (video) "It's a relief to be home," said Lovell, who shipped her horses from the Fair Grounds to Ashbrook Farm in Lexington and made the trip across Interstate 64 each...

Glenn "Bo" Bromagen might bear the same name as his dear old dad, but he's very much his own (horse)man. A bloodstock agent and racing manager for his family's Ashbrook Farm in Versailles, Ky., Bromagen came about working with horses in a unique way. The 36-year-old said, "Honestly, when I was growing up, my dad owned a few and it's more of kind of a spectator sport for me as a kid. We didn't have horses on the farm; we had cattle growing up." And by the time Bromagen graduated...

Ashbrook Farm and BBN Racing's Concrete Rose (Twirling Candy) is 'probable' to proceed to the final leg of the inaugural Turf Tiara series, the $750,000 Jockey Club Oaks, to be contested over a mile and three-eighths at Belmont Park Sept. 7. Also victorious in the GI Belmont Oaks last month, the $61,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic juvenile acquisition remains under consideration for Keeneland's GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Oct. 12. "We'll probably run at Belmont," trainer Rusty Arnold told the NYRA notes team. "If she's good, she'll probably run [in the...