Josephine Abercrombie

Jim and Dana Bernhard, recent buyers of the 793-acre Pin Oak Stud near Versailles, KY, have acquired an additional 465 acres from Adena Springs, bringing the total size of the farm to just over 1,250 acres. The land, purchased from eight-time Eclipse Champion Breeder Adena Springs, connects the existing Pin Oak land on the east side of US-60--commonly known as Versailles Road--with an entrance on Old Frankfort Pike. "Frank Stronach's Adena Springs and Josephine Abercrombie's Pin Oak Stud are two legendary farms. Both were champion breeders focused on raising the...

The Josephine Abercrombie Pin Oak Foundation will match up to $750,000 in donations for a new, state-of-the-art Old Friends visitor center at its Georgetown, Kentucky location to be called The Ms. Josephine Abercrombie Center at Old Friends. The structure, a renovation of an old tobacco barn, will be named in honor of the horsewoman, philanthropist, and late owner of the renowned Pin Oak Stud in Versailles, Ky. To date, $150,000 for the project has been raised, which includes a $50,000 donation by the Georgetown/Scott County Tourism board. According to Old...

Former WinStar Farm broodmare manager Jeff Danford has been named farm manager at Pin Oak Stud near Versailles, Ky. The farm was sold earlier this year to Jim and Dana Bernhard after the passing of Josephine Abercrombie this January. "Leaving WinStar was a difficult decision and I want to thank Kenny and Lisa Troutt for all they have done for me over the past nine years," said Danford. "I am excited about this new opportunity and am thankful to Jim and Dana Bernhard for trusting me with the duties at...

No matter what privileges or disadvantages we take into the starting gate, and no matter how many circuits we get to run, all of us ultimately pull up at the same finishing line. But it is not just that humbling reckoning, reached within days of each other, that united Billy Turner and Josephine Abercrombie. Their lives, though wildly contrasting, were animated by the same bond of vitality that sustains many who grieve them. "Mrs. A.", as she was known to those blessed by her friendship or patronage, embraced the extraordinary...

Lifelong horsewoman Josephine Abercrombie died peacefully at her home on Pin Oak Stud in Woodford County, Kentucky Jan. 5. She was 95. Abercrombie is survived by two sons, George Anderson Robinson IV and Jamie Abercrombie Robinson, as well as grandchildren George Anderson Robinson V and Blair Abercrombie Robinson. Abercrombie, the only child of Texas oilman and Cameron Iron Works founder J. S. "Mr. Jim" Abercrombie and Lillie Frank Abercrombie, was born Jan. 15, 1926, in Kingston, Jamaica. Growing up in Texas, her love of horses begun at a young age,...

Pin Oak stalwart Broken Vow (Unbridled--Wedding Vow, by Nijinsky II), the sire of 2016 Eclipse champion Champagne Room and 79 other black-type winners, has been pensioned from the stallion barn and will remain at his lifetime home. Racing as a homebred for Pin Oak Stud, the nom de course of Josephine Abercrombie's historic racing and breeding operation, Broken Vow was a five-time stakes winner for trainer Graham Motion. His top wins included the 2001 GII Philip H. Iselin H. and the GIII Ben Ali S., as well as another four...

LEXINGTON, KY - A large group of interested parties turned out at Fasig-Tipton as an offering of 23 mares and foals from the dispersal of Josephine Abercrombie's historic Pin Oak Stud went through the sales ring Sunday evening at Newtown Paddocks. Bloodstock agent Lincoln Collins, bidding on behalf of John and Susan Sykes's Woodford Thoroughbreds, made the evening's highest bid when going to $650,000 to acquire multiple graded stakes winner Don't Leave Me (Lemon Drop Kid) (hip 18). The 9-year-old mare sold in foal to 2020 Horse of the Year...

An offering of 24 broodmares, weanlings and horses in training from Josephine Abercrombie's Pin Oak Stud will be on offer through the Denali Stud consignment at Fasig-Tipton Sunday evening, with bidding slated to begin at 6 p.m. "This sale provides people with an opportunity to access these wonderful families that have been cultivated and expertly maintained through Mrs. Abercrombie and Clifford Barry," said Denali's Conrad Bandoroff. "You look through the catalogue, you have a lot of mares from good Pin Oak families and one of the main common denominators is...

The breeding of Thoroughbreds being such a notoriously long game, a dispersal as uncommon as this one offers the most privileged of short cuts. It's as though you can transplant an oak overnight from a mature plantation. Someone else has put in all the necessary, painstaking seasons, years, decades since the acorns were first sown. So it's a given, absolutely, that the root-and-branch dismantling of Pin Oak Stud into the Lexington lumberyards next week--two dozen mares, fillies and weanlings at Fasig-Tipton on Sunday evening, with 14 yearlings to follow across...

The catalogue for The Pin Oak Stud Sale, to be conducted by Fasig-Tipton, is now available online. The sale will be held at Fasig-Tipton's Newtown Paddocks facility in Lexington, Ky. Sunday, Sept. 12. The auction will begin at 6 p.m. This past Thursday, Josephine Abercrombie's Pin Oak Stud announced that it will be offering its remaining broodmares, weanlings and some racing fillies at auction. The catalogue consists of 24 horses, including graded stakes winners Overheard (Macho Uno), in foal to McKinzie; Gold Medal Dancer (Medaglia d'Oro), in foal to Munnings;...

Josephine Abercrombie's Pin Oak Stud, one of the country's most successful Thoroughbred breeding and racing operations over the past six decades, will be offering its remaining broodmares, weanlings, and some racing fillies at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Sept. 12. Denali Stud will handle the sale as agent for Pin Oak. Separate from this main group are 14 yearlings which will be offered in the upcoming Keeneland September Sale and an additional yearling entered to sell at Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga Sale. Some 14 retired mares and horses will remain on the farm. "This has...

Who has been the biggest inspiration in your career? JO: Josephine Abercrombie took a big chance in appointing me (aged 22) as manager of Pin Oak Stud, Kentucky in the mid-1980s. Some trusted older and wiser mentors guided me through that part of my career, but the biggest inspiration came from someone even younger than I was. Clifford Barry joined the Pin Oak team a few years after me. He came with strong recommendations from his Irish employers. From day one he brought a work ethic, attention to detail and...