The farm was founded in the 1870s by the wealthy tobacco manufacturer Pierre Lorillard IV (1833-1901) who had a home in the town of Rancocas, now a part of Westampton Township, New Jersey. Lorillard built his stable into one of the premier thoroughbred breeding and training operations in the United States. Lorillard bred Parole, one of the three greatest runners of the 1870s. In 1881, Lorillard's horse Iroquois became the first American-owned and -bred horse to win a European classic race. Ridden by the champion English jockey, Fred Archer, Iroquois won the Epsom Derby then went on to also capture the St. Leger Stakes.