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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.