Taylor Made

Taylor Made Stallions has purchased the trotting stallion Pastor Stephen (Cantab Hall) and will stand the horse next year in Indiana, it was announced Tuesday. The purchase marks the second time since 2018 that Taylor Made has made an investment in harness racing. In 2018, the Taylor operation was part of a deal to import New Zealand champion Lazarus. A pacer, he won two of six starts in the U.S. in 2018 and now stands at stud at Deo Volente Farms in New Jersey. In its early days, Taylor Made...

Since the loss of Taylor Made's signature stallion Unbridled's Song seven years ago, the farm has worked to regain its footing in the ever-evolving, ever-competitive business of stallion development. The first step, finding prospective stallions that fit a specific program, often proves to be the most difficult. "What do you look for in a stallion?" asked Taylor Made's Frank Taylor. "The one thing we know is nobody knows who is going to be a great stallion. If anybody tells you they do, they're not telling the truth." [tdn_vimeo_embed title="Taylor Made...

What a business this is: how random, the turn of the dial. And yet, at the same time, how symmetrical; how suggestive of a destiny coherent enough for us all to keep trying to read it. A budget of $10,000, permitting the purchase of a mare for $7,000. Jim Weigel would have gone home already, but the two he had earmarked in the catalog had both soared past his reach. Then a reserve of $10,000 on her yearling daughter, only for the bidding to stall at $7,000. So he kept...

As the sale season finally restarts, Taylor Made vice president Mark Taylor joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland this week to discuss where he sees the market going from here, the early success of Taylor Made stallion Not This Time (Giant's Causeway) and a host of other hot-button industry issues. [audio mp3="https://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/TDN-20200617-v1-Writers-Room-41-Audio-2-1.mp3"][/audio] Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week on the heels of OBS Spring, Taylor said, "I don't see any scenario where the market's not going to be off from 2019. I...

This week on the TDN Writers' Room, we spoke with Taylor Made's Mark Taylor and discussed Not This Time's (Giant's Causeway) fast start as a freshman sire, as well as his predictions looking towards the upcoming sales season.

Through the first three installments of this series, we've repeatedly complained about ever-more manic investment in unproven stallions and the resulting potential for chronic deterioration in the gene pool. So we won't reprise the theme today, other than to remark that this situation creates a rather more immediate and specific challenge for the next group under review. Because while second- and third-season stallions can still offer breeders the possibility of riding an early vogue, this lot have just been exposed to the judgment of the yearling market--which history reveals to...

I'd like to respond to Mark Taylor's comments regarding removal of repository X-rays for the later books of the Keeneland sale. First off, I have to give Mark and all of the 'Taylor Boys' credit for always looking forward and trying to innovate in this business, they have been leaders in this business for as long as I can remember. As an agent who manages portfolios for breeders as well as a buyer of racehorses, I understand both sides of the fence. Often times, as a buyer, you feel like...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearlings Sale will look to follow up on its record-setting 2018 renewal when bidding gets underway at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion Monday evening at 6:30 p.m. "I think there is a very good group of horses on the grounds," Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. said Sunday morning. "We felt very good about the horses as we saw them this spring and as we were putting the catalogue together. You never know exactly until they get to the sales grounds, but the...

It its 34-year history and over hundreds of races, the Breeders' Cup has provided many a thrill and many a great race. But virtually everyone agrees that one race stands alone: that the 1988 Distaff, won by Personal Ensign, was the greatest Breeders' Cup race ever run. This year marks the 30th anniversary of that race and on this week's Thoroughbred Daily News podcast, brought to you by Taylor Made, we'll look back at this great race with trainer Shug McGaughey and jockey Randy Romero. Recalls McGaughey of the race,...