Jospehine Abercrombie | Horse Racing Free Tips

Broken Vow (Unbridled–Wedding Vow, by Nijinsky II) passed away from natural causes Sept. 3 at his birthplace and longtime home, Pin Oak Stud. He was 25 years old.

The Pin Oak homebred won nine of 14 career starts, and won or placed in six graded stakes, earning $725,296. Trained by Graham Motion, Broken Vow won the GII Philip H. Iselin H. and GIII Ben Ali S. and placed in the GI Gulfstream Park H., GIII Fayette S., and the GII Meadowlands Cup H. before retiring to start his career at stud.

“He was an incredibly influential horse on my career and was probably my first 'big' horse,” commented Motion. “I'm so glad that I got to visit him in his field this past Spring. He was a happy horse enjoying his retirement. This truly is the end of an era.”

The stallion, who stood two decades at Pin Oak, was among the top 15 active sires, with 15% black-type horses from starters. He is the sire of 159 black-type horses in total, 80 of those black-type winners and 27 graded scorers. He also is responsible for six champions. Included among his six Grade I winners: Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and Eclipse Champion Champagne Room, the co-topweight female sprinter of her year Sassy Image, as well as Cotton Blossom, Unbridled Belle, and Rosalind. As a broodmare sire, his daughters have already produced three champions and approximately 100 black-type horses, including Eclipse Champion Runhappy.

“Words cannot express the loss of Broken Vow to everyone here at Pin Oak,” said long time manager Clifford Barry. “We had been with him from birth to breaking, his races and his stud career.”

Barry continued, “As we reflect on the many great memories he provided, how we cheered for him in the royal blue and gray silks of Pin Oak, and we cheered even louder for his offspring as if they were ours and for the loyal breeders that supported him. He was a very special horse to be around–smart, classy and a huge will to succeed. And if he could speak, he would have said thank you to the vets and grooms that cared for him throughout his life. It's testament to Ms. [Josephine] Abercrombie's program that he spent his whole life here at the farm. I know she's getting to feed him sugar again.”

Broken Vow will be buried alongside other former Pin Oak stallions Sky Classic, Peaks and Valleys, and Maria's Mon.

The post Pensioned Sire Broken Vow Dies appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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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 like her. When I listened to Terence Collier talk of her accomplishments at the Pin Oak dispersal last fall, I thought of all the stories I would like to share about Mrs. A, but that would take days and some of them aren't exactly appropriate for this publication.

The first time I met Mrs. A, she and her entourage came to Ocala to buy a stallion that we owned. After a few volleys back and forth with offers, she turned and said “aren't you from Texas?” I replied, “yes, M'am” and she said, “let's go in your office and cut this deal.” In less than five minutes we came out and she bought her first stallion Caller I.D. from me and that was done on a handshake. We sold her another stallion and she had fun with it and then said she wanted a good horse if I ever saw one. A year later I called about a horse I was managing for my longtime owner Morton Rosenthal. She and Clifford flew to Florida and once again–on a handshake–she bought Maria's Mon.

But more enjoyable are the Josephine stories that she loved to share when we got together. Here are just a few:

The time she left her dear friend on the tarmac because he was five minutes late to the plane to go to a dog show. He was running towards the plane and she instructed her pilot to take off as she waved to him. Every time we got together after hearing that story, we made sure we were 15 minutes early to any meeting with Mrs. A.

Then there's the one she enjoyed telling a story about how she was a much better skier than her instructor, but she always followed him down the slopes because she enjoyed the view.

And the tales of her travels all over the world were fascinating to hear. She once offended someone at a dinner party in a foreign country and her father sent the plane to pick her up the next morning. But that was Mrs. A, she was truly a lady, but she did it her way as Frank Sinatra would say (but that's another Mrs. A story better told by her than me).

Then there were all the Thanksgiving dinners in Virginia, the birthday parties in Kentucky and Ocala and all the memories of our visits to Pin Oak.

When Maria's Mon died, we sent Mrs. A ,and Clifford each a champagne flute and I still have her letter thanking me and suggesting that every New Year's Eve we would make a toast to Maria's Mon. Just the other evening we got out the flutes, but this time we raised our glasses to Mrs. A, and to Maria's Mon.

She used to ask me to stop addressing her as Mrs. A ,and just call her Josephine and I would almost always respond, “yes, Mrs. A” and we would laugh.

The last time I walked her up those long winding stairs after a dinner outing, I wondered how many more times I would be in her company.

Susie and I will always be grateful to Mrs. A, and we'll get out those Moët & Chandon flutes again and toast a very special lady.

The post Letter to the Editor: Remembering Josephine Abercrombie appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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