LEXINGTON, Ky. - Led by the $650,000 mare Don’t Leave Me, Josephine Abercrombie’s Pin Oak Stud operation was showcased in a special dispersal sale hosted Sunday evening by Fasig-Tipton at its Newtown Paddocks headquarters in Lexington, Ky. Pin Oak has been downsizing its stock over the past several years as part of its strategic exit from commercial operations. The farm announced in early August that its remaining active broodmares, their 2021 weanlings, and some racing fillies would be offered at public auction. Led by Don’t Leave Me, 23 horses sold without reserve for a gross of $3,999,000, resulting in an average price of $173,870 and a median of $130,000. Denali Stud handled the consignment as agent. More than a dozen retired mares and runners will remain as pensioners on Abercrombie’s Versailles, Ky., farm, which stood two homebred stallions in 2021 – graded stakes winners Broken Vow, 24, and Alternation, 13. Farm manager Clifford Barry indicated that Broken Vow will join the pensioners on the farm. Plans are still being decided for the younger Alternation, sire of Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress. Denali’s Craig Bandoroff said he was hopeful the marketplace would be strong Sunday once he saw the reception for the Pin Oak horses from potential buyers on the sale grounds this weekend. :: Join DRF Bets and play the races with a $250 First Deposit Bonus. Click to learn more. “We started showing Saturday morning,” he said. “They were here at quarter to 8, and her 23 horses showed 1,056 times. … So we were hoping that the community would appreciate the quality of the offerings and the quality of Ms. Abercrombie and Clifford’s lifetime work, and they did. It was gratifying.” Abercrombie, a lifelong horsewoman, first entered Thoroughbred racing in 1949, and has developed her Pin Oak into one of the nation’s leading operations, seeing it rise to be named the 1995 National Thoroughbred Breeder of the Year by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association. Abercrombie, whose farm has produced or raced more than 100 stakes winners, has also 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. “This has been her baby for 60-plus years,” Barry said of Abercrombie, 95, who was not in attendance Sunday. “It’s kind of nice to come in tonight and showcase … there are mares here today she’s got three, four generations of. Very, very proud of her.” Abercrombie’s involvement with multiple generations of prominent families was showcased with sale-topping homebred Don’t Leave Me, purchased by bloodstock adviser Lincoln Collins on behalf of Woodford Thoroughbreds. The 9-year-old Lemon Drop Kid mare, whose first foal is a placed juvenile this season, is in foal to 2020 Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Authentic. The Horse of the Year stood his first season this year at Spendthrift Farm, alongside his own leading sire, Into Mischief. “She was a lovely mare, it’s the right pedigree, we like the sire,” Collins said. “As a commercial operation, you have to consider that a lot of times, these first-season stallions will be very popular.” Don’t Leave Me won 5 of 14 career starts and earned $315,517. She captured the Grade 3 Bourbonette Oaks in the spring of 2015 at Turfway Park, then won the Grade 3 Ontario Colleen later that summer at Woodbine. Don't Leave Me is out of the Maria's Mon mare See How She Runs, winner of the Grade 1 Selene Stakes at Woodbine and three other stakes races while racing as a homebred for Pin Oak. That mare is a half-sister to Pin Oak's Canadian champion Hasten To Add Don’t Leave Me’s Medaglia d’Oro filly fetched the top price among the weanlings on offer Sunday evening, going for $370,000 to Rigney Racing. The other top prices of the evening were for the graded stakes-winning broodmares Point System and Gold Medal Dancer. Point System, a Broken Vow mare in foal to another first-season stallion in Eclipse Award champion Improbable, sold for $420,000 to Shepherd Equine Advisors, as agent for Larry Hirsch. Gold Medal Dancer, a Medaglia d’Oro mare in foal to Munnings, sold to Eaton Sales for $400,000. For hip-by-hip results, click here: https://www.fasigtipton.com/2021/The-Pin-Oak-Stud-Sale#/