Abercrombie's Pin Oak Stud continues dispersal

As the season moves into the fall and the leaves on the oak trees change colors to mark the passing of time, so, too, will there be a season of change in the Thoroughbred world. Josephine Abercrombie’s Pin Oak Stud announced in early August that it would take its most serious steps yet to end its commercial operations, dispersing the bulk of its stock.

Pin Oak’s remaining active broodmares, their 2021 weanlings, and some racing fillies will be offered in a special auction at Fasig-Tipton’s Newtown Paddocks headquarters in Lexington, Ky., the evening of Sunday, Sept. 12. The following day, the Keeneland September yearling sale begins, where the bulk of Pin Oak’s yearling crop will be offered, a process that began in Saratoga in August. Consignor Denali Stud is acting as the agent for Pin Oak in these proceedings.

Pin Oak has been downsizing its stock over the past several years as part of its strategic exit from commercial operations, with farm manager Clifford Barry noting that Abercrombie, 95, has sold more yearlings than she has kept to race recently. More than a dozen retired mares and runners will remain as pensioners on the Versailles, Ky., farm, which stood two homebred stallions in 2021 – graded stakes winners Broken Vow, 24, and Alternation, 13.

Abercrombie, a lifelong horsewoman, competed in Saddlebred shows in her youth. In 1949, she made her first foray into Thoroughbred racing when she purchased a group of yearlings with a partnership that included her father, J.S. Abercrombie. Three years later, she and her father acquired 1,348 acres in Kentucky and named it Pin Oak. The original Pin Oak raised cattle and grew tobacco and other crops, in addition to raising Thoroughbreds. Abercrombie furthered the success of the latter operation, and in the 1980s designed and developed an additional 750 acres, a former hunting preserve, into a Thoroughbred nursery.

Pin Oak was named the National Thoroughbred Breeder of the Year in 1995 by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association. The farm has produced or raced more than 100 stakes winners, with its prominent homebreds including Canadian Horse of the Year Peaks and Valleys, Eclipse Award champion Laugh and Be Merry, and Grade 1 winners Confessional, Missed the Storm, and See How She Runs.

Abercrombie has been honored with the William T. Young Humanitarian Award and the Hardboot Award, both presented by the KTA/KTOB, for her beneficial work within the industry. In 2018, she received another of the industry’s most prestigious awards when she was named the Thoroughbred Club of America Honor Guest.

“She’s a fascinating lady,” Keeneland vice president of sales Tony Lacy said. “She’s been a solid supporter of Keeneland racing and sales for a number of decades. Pin Oak has developed a really beautiful farm, great bloodlines. I’m lucky enough to be on the board of the Thoroughbred Club, and it was great to have her there, honored the way she should be.

“She’s done so many things philanthrophically – she started the Lexington School. She’s done so many good things – I think she was a boxing promoter at one point. . . . We need more people like her in the game. It’s always an honor to have horses from Pin Oak, and it’s a pleasure to have them again this year.”

The Pin Oak broodmares on offer at Fasig-Tipton include Gold Medal Dancer, currently in foal to Munnings. The mare’s multiple stakes scores were highlighted by a win in the Grade 2 Azeri Stakes at Oaklawn over champion Untapable. Gold Medal Dancer’s unraced 2-year-old daughter Dance Routine, by leading sire Into Mischief, will be offered with her, as well as her Candy Ride weanling colt.

Also being offered are Grade 2 winner Overheard, in foal to McKinzie, and her weanling filly by Triple Crown winner Justify; and Grade 3 winner Don’t Leave Me, in foal to Kentucky Derby winner and champion Authentic from his first season, as well as her weanling Medaglia d’Oro filly.

“The names Josephine Abercrombie and Pin Oak Stud are synonymous with excellence and quality,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said. “Ms. Abercrombie is a pillar of the Thoroughbred industry and our local community. Her legacy will carry forward through the lives of the many people she impacted and these Thoroughbred families she cultivated and developed.”

The Pin Oak yearlings on offer at Keeneland September include a Mastery colt out of stakes winner Another World, from the family of Eclipse champion Pleasant Home; and a Cairo Prince colt from the family of Confessional.