LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Brereton Jones, a prominent Thoroughbred breeder and farm owner who ascended to the highest office in Kentucky, serving as governor from 1991-95, died on Monday, according to multiple announcements. Jones was 84. The first announcement of his death was made by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who said that the Jones family had requested privacy until a statement could be released. “Gov. Jones was a dedicated leader and a distinguished Thoroughbred owner who worked to strengthen Kentucky for our families,” Beshear said in a statement. Jones, whose family had deep political roots in his native West Virginia, established Airdrie Stud in 1972, shortly after moving to Kentucky with his wife, Elizabeth Lloyd, whose family owned property in Woodford County. The farm has bred and raised hundreds of stakes winners, including two Kentucky Oaks winners, Proud Spell (2008) and Believe You Can (2012), who both raced in Jones's colors. Jones owned a third Oaks winner, Lovely Maria, in 2015.  Overall, Airdrie has bred the winners of $115 million in purses, and has been a leading stallion station for decades. Although his political career focused on issues of public policy, Jones was instrumental in two major developments in Kentucky that have directly led to a resurgence in Kentucky’s racing industry. The first was the co-founding of the Kentucky Equine Education Project, in 2004, an organization for which he served as chairman until 2011. Through KEEP, he helped the industry lobby for the authority to operate historical horse-racing machines, which have led to a doubling of purses at Kentucky tracks over the last decade. “Governor Jones was a true champion for Kentucky’s horse industry,” said Case Clay, the current chairman of KEEP, which was established as a lobbying group for racing and breeding interests in the state. “His legacy will forever be felt in our organization and throughout the entire equine community.” Jones came from a political family, and he was first elected to political office in 1964 as the youngest-ever member of West Virginia’s House of Delegates. Two years later, he was chosen as the Republican floor leader for the house. But in 1968, he left his political career to attend to his real-estate business, and two years later married Lloyd. They relocated to her Kentucky family farm in 1970. In 1972, Jones founded Airdrie Stud at the property and quickly built the operation into a prominent breeding farm and stallion station. In the early 1980s, years after switching his political allegiance to the Democratic Party, he began to get involved in civic life in the state and was named to the board of directors of the University of Kentucky in Lexington and the Chandler Medical Center, where he began focusing on improving health-care outcomes for Kentuckians. Jones was elected as lieutenant governor in 1987 and served four years in that position under Wallace Wilkinson. The relationship between the two quickly deteriorated, and Jones ran for governor four years later, winning the Democratic primary in a field that included Wilkinson’s wife, Martha. He won the general election against Larry Hopkins, a seven-term Republican congressman. While governor, Jones avoided equine issues while pressing for significant changes in health-care policies that were designed to restrict the ability of insurance companies to deny coverage to people and to expand health-care access among poor residents of the states. He was also able to shepherd an amendment to the state constitution through the state legislature that would allow governors to serve two consecutive terms. To obtain the political support to get the amendment passed it was crafted to disallow the current governor – himself – from running for a second consecutive term. After serving as governor, Jones returned full-time to Airdrie Stud, where he began developing strong female families from the farm’s homebreds and recruiting stallions to the farm’s operations. He also became more active in advocating for the Thoroughbred industry, one of the signature industries in the state. The advocacy led to the establishment of the Equine Breeders’ Incentive Fund in 2005, which uses taxes on stallion fees to award payments to breeders. “Brereton Jones was a true champion for the horse-racing industry at all levels for decades,” said Rick Hiles, the longtime president of the Kentucky HBPA, who trained several horses for Jones. “Yes, he was an owner and breeder himself, but he also understood how vital the breeding and racing industries are for the economy and tourism throughout the state and not just Central Kentucky and Louisville." In recent years, Brereton Jones handed the reins of Airdrie to his son Bret Jones, who has also been an active member of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. In an interview in 2022, shortly after the farm’s homebred Zandon won the Blue Grass Stakes and was en route to a date in the Kentucky Derby – a race that an Airdrie horse has not yet won – Bret Jones talked about his father’s legacy. “Winning the Blue Grass was as great a Saturday as we’ve had in a very long time,” Jones said, in the interview with DRF reporter Nicole Russo. “I called [my father] right after they crossed the finish line, and he was dancing with joy. To me, [the Derby] would be such an incredible exclamation point on dad’s legacy in this business. He’s done it for 50 years, he’s done it the right way, and he’s done it with more passion than anybody I’ve ever known.” Zandon finished a solid third, behind the winning longshot Rich Strike and the favorite, Epicenter. Jones is survived by his wife; his son Bret; and a daughter Lucy. Due to an editing error, a previous version of this article misstated the year Proud Spell won the Kentucky Oaks. She won the race in 2008, not 2009.