Josephine Abercrombie

Horses were just a normal part of Josephine Abercrombie’s life growing up in Texas. At the age of seven, she was introduced to American Saddle Horses and as a young woman would become a record holder at Madison Square Garden for prizes won in a single season. The horse show circuit led her to major competitions in Louisville and Lexington, captivating her on her first visit to the Bluegrass in the 1940’s. In 1949, she took an interest in thoroughbred racing and set up a racing syndicate involving her father, the late Houston oilman, J.S. Abercrombie, an uncle and a couple of friends to purchase sales yearlings for training and racing. Doing quite well in racing, she and her father acquired a 1,348 ac. Farm in Woodford County, Versailles in 1952, establishing a thoroughbred-breeding farm and calling it “Pin Oak”. This farm was the former Hartland Farm that had been owned by U.S. Senator Johnson Camden. Over the next 23 years the farm expanded to 3,100 ac. Also becoming a farming operation, raising Simmental Cattle, growing tobacco, corn, hay, straw and asparagus. But horses were its mainstay. After 35 years Pin Oak took a turn in history when Ms. Abercrombie, in 1987, began developing a new Pin Oak just down the road from the original farm. The new farm, once a 750-acre hunting preserve, became a labor of love – building roads, planting grass, constructing barns and residences. It opened late in 1988 with the exclusive intention of raising Thoroughbreds. For fifty years, Pin oak has been an accomplished breeding and racing operation, but many still recall it as “the asparagus farm”, “the cattle show spott” or just simply as “Miss Josephine’s place”. However remember, Pin Oak has always been actively involved in its community, state and racing industry.