Coolmore Australia 2017

Ashford Stud is located in the heart of Kentucky’s famous Bluegrass. In the early part of the 20th Century, the initial tract of land that Ashford consisted of was originally owned by Col. Edmund H. Taylor Jr. who founded the Old Taylor Distilleries in nearby Frankfort. In the late 1970s Dr. Bill Lockridge began to transform the farm into a state of the art stud, fit for the finest stallions in the world. Ashford opened its doors for the 1982 breeding season. The stallion roster was headlined by Vincent O’Brien’s champion 2yo storm Bird . When Ashford became part of Coolmore in the mid-1980s, storm Bird , along with other top sires like el Gran senor and Woodman , helped establish Coolmore’s reputation on an international level. In 2001 Thunder Gulch became its first champion sire. Not to be outdone, honour and Glory (2000), hennessy (2001), Tale of the Cat (2003), Giant’s Causeway (2005 and 2014) and Uncle Mo (2015), all earned champion juvenile sire honours to go with those won by Woodman in 1990 and 1994. Giant’s Causeway landed three general sire titles (2009, 2010 and 2012); a feat only achieved since 1941 by such luminaries as Bull lea , Nasrullah , Bold ruler and Danzig . Uncle Mo’s remarkable first crop has a staggering 22 Stakes winners to date including a Kentucky Derby winner. A champion at 2 and 3 years, american Pharoah became the first Triple Crown winner for 37 years and his first foals in 2017 greatly impressed all who saw them.