NEWS
Josephine Abercrombie
Posted: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 11:42 AM
JOSEPHINE ABERCROMBIE
Pin Oak Stud
Josephine Abercrombie founded Pin Oak Stud in Versailles, Kentucky, with her father, Texas oilman Jamie S. Abercrombie, in 1952, three years after they bought their first group of yearlings.
Under her leadership, Pin Oak has thrived, breeding and/or campaigning more than 100 stakes winners, including breeding 1976 Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Elocutionist and breeding and racing Canada’s 2005 Horse of the Year and champion three-year-old male Peaks and Valleys.
Other Pin Oak homebreds include 1990 champion grass female Laugh and Be Merry and ’95 Canadian champion grass male Hasten To Add. The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association named Abercrombie as Kentucky and national breeder of the year in 1995.
In 1987, Abercrombie designed and developed the new Pin Oak near the original property and began standing stallions.
Multiple Grade 1 winner Sky Classic, whom Pin Oak bought into toward the end of his racing career, was one of the farm’s first stallions and remains there today. Pin Oak’s most accomplished stallion—1995 champion two-year-old male Maria’s Mon—died in 2007. Maria’s Mon has sired two Kentucky Derby (G1) winners in Monarchos (2001) and Super Saver (’10).
Abercrombie received the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders’ Hardboot Award in 2005 and the Penny Chenery Distinguished Women in Racing Award in ’06.
Date of birth: January 15, 1926
Birthplace: Kingston, Jamaica
Residence: Versailles, Kentucky
Title: President, chief executive officer
Company: Pin Oak Stud
Education: Bachelor of Arts, Rice University
Family: Divorced, two sons, two grandchildren
Career: Competed with Saddlebreds before purchasing a group of sales yearlings in 1949 with her father, with whom she established Pin Oak Stud in ’52
Favorite horse: Peaks and Valleys
What book are you currently reading? Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen
Favorite television show: “American Idol”
Biggest personal achievement: “Founding The Lexington School in 1959 and receiving Citations of Appreciation from both Senate and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky upon the school’s 50th anniversary.”
What advice would you give other women interested in the racing industry? “Follow your heart; have passion for what you’re doing and for the animals that created the industry.”
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