Veterinarian, breeder Doc Solomon dies at 84, shaped Mid-Atlantic racing
Doc Solomon, who founded Pin Oak Lane Farm and helped raise Lil. E. Tee, died at 84, leaving a breeding operation still standing Cloud Computing for $3,500.
The Mid-Atlantic horse business lost one of its quiet architects when Dr. William Joseph “Doc” Solomon died peacefully on May 5 at age 84. He founded Pin Oak Lane Farm in New Freedom, Pennsylvania, and turned it into a full-service breeding and equine clinic that shaped Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing far beyond one farm.
Solomon trained at the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School and built his reputation the old-fashioned way, through hands-on work and hard-earned trust. After a surgical internship at the University of Minnesota, he served as resident veterinarian at Hanover Shoe Farms in Hanover, Pennsylvania, and later at Castleton Farm in Lexington, Kentucky before moving to New Freedom and, in 1973, opening the equine medical and surgical practice that became his lifelong project.
Pin Oak Lane Farm & Equine Clinic, now listed at 14864 Boyer Rd. in New Freedom, still reflects the model Solomon built: horses are raised, treated, managed and sold under one roof, with services for both Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds across the Mid-Atlantic. The farm also became a regular stop for notable stallions over the years, including Will’s Way, who was moved to New Freedom in 1998, and Grade II winner Appealing Skier, who arrived in 2004.
His influence reached the biggest stage in the sport. Solomon played a role in helping raise Kentucky Derby winner Lil. E. Tee, a reminder that his work was not limited to the backstretch or the breeding shed. He also helped clients buy and sell horses at Thoroughbred sales throughout the United States, making Pin Oak Lane a practical business outpost as much as a medical center and breeding farm.
That legacy is visible in the present tense of the operation he left behind. Cloud Computing, the 2017 Preakness Stakes winner, stands at Pin Oak Lane Farm, moved there for the 2024 breeding season, and his 2026 fee is $3,500. For a horseman who spent decades quietly building bloodlines, careers and confidence, that is the strongest measure of Solomon’s reach: the farm he created still sits inside the commercial and competitive life of racing today.
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