Pin Oak Stud

Pin Oak Stud's Empirestrikesfast (Empire Maker) has been added to the list of late Triple Crown nominations. The connections paid the $6,000 before Monday's deadline, but the colt's name was inadvertently omitted from the list of 12 others published Tuesday. Trained by Bill Mott, Empirestrikesfast broke his maiden in his first career start Mar. 11 at Gulfstream Park. In total, there are now 382 sophomores eligible to compete in the Triple Crown series.

With the 2023 season upon us, the TDN staff is once again sitting down with leading breeders to find out what stallions they have chosen for their mares, and why. Dana and Jim Bernhard purchased Pin Oak Stud just outside of Versailles, Kentucky late last year, inaugurating a new chapter in its storied history. Here is what Farm Manager Jeff Danford had to say about their broodmare band for 2023. BROADWAY LADY (m, 6, Constitution--Livi Makenzie) booked to Munnings This mare, purchased late last year, is a very attractive daughter...

3rd-Santa Anita, $67,500, Msw, 1-29, 3yo, 6f, 1:09.52, ft, 5 3/4 lengths. GEAUX ROCKET RIDE (c, 3, Candy Ride {Arg}--Beyond Grace, by Uncle Mo), a live firster after clocking a nice work back on Dec. 30 (5 furlongs, :59.60, 1/72) for the Mandella barn, was clearly ready on debut as he sprinted against five others receiving Lasix for the first time. Sent off at odds of 6-1, the $350,000 FTKJUL buy led from the rail, but was chased down the backstretch by heavy favorite Sonoran (Ride On Curlin) to the...

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...

With the Breeders' Cup returning to Lexington for the third time, headlined by the mighty Flightline (Tapit), the buzz in Lexington was electric from late October all the way through the nearly two weeks of breeding stock sales that followed the World Championships. Combine that with a deep and diverse buying bench and high demand and the result was gains in both gross and average for the 10-day Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, which ran from Nov. 7-16. "With the close of the November Breeding Stock Sale, Keeneland is nearing...

Jim and Dana Bernhard continued adding to the broodmare band at their newly acquired Pin Oak Stud Tuesday at Keeneland, making their most expensive purchase of the auction when going to $1 million to acquire Sweet Sami D (First Samurai) from the Stonehaven Steadings consignment. The 6-year-old mare sold in foal to Gun Runner. The couple have now purchased six mares at the two-day old auction. Earlier Tuesday, they paid $700,000 for the mare Querelle (Violence).

MSW Alternate (Seattle Slew--Strike a Balance, by Green Dancer), dam of MGSW and Grade I-producing sire Alternation (Distorted Humor), died Oct. 15th at her lifetime home, Pin Oak Stud. She was 23 years old. She will be buried at her birthplace. The Pin Oak homebred won six races and placed another 11 times, seven in stakes, including the GII Monmouth Breeders' Cup Oaks, GIII Delaware Oaks, GIII Bewitch S. and the GIII Glens Falls H. She was trained by Graham Motion and earned over $550,000. The dam of nine winners...

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...

DR. E.C. 'PUG' HART When Clifford [Barry]'s number flashed on my screen [Wednesday] I had a gut wrenching feeling because I knew why he was calling. We both lamented that Mrs. A was in a better place and how it was "time." She was one of a kind, a true horse woman, a philanthropist and all the other superlatives people will be mentioning. But for those of us who were fortunate enough to really know Mrs. A, there has never been, and I doubt there ever will be another one...

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,...

Multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Alternation (Distorted Humor--Alternate, by Seattle Slew), a half-brother to Grade I winner and Darby Dan Farm stallion Higher Power (Medaglia d'Oro) and the sire of multiple Grade I winner Serengeti Empress, is being relocated from Pin Oak Stud to Darby Dan Farm by Steve Belford's Maccabee Farm for the upcoming breeding season, the farm announced today. Alternation is being re-syndicated and will stand for a fee of $7,500 S&N. "We're excited to bring a horse of Alternation's caliber to Darby Dan," said Ryan Norton, stallion director...

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...