Taylor Made Turns 35

By Michael Illiano 
    Taylor Made Sales Agency, which has been a mainstay of the American auction scene for more than three decades, is celebrating its 35th anniversary selling horses at public auction this spring. In that time, the company has grown from a small family business to one of the most successful and innovative sales agencies in the industry. The company is run by, and was grown by, four Taylor brothers: Duncan, Ben, Frank and Mark, along with Pat Payne, a life-long friend of the family who serves as the company's vice president of sales. 
    Joe Taylor, the father of the Taylor brothers, raised his sons in the horse business. The elder Taylor got a job with Clarence Gaines, who ran Gainesway Farm, and ended up being a key contributor to the growth of that farm. Together, Taylor and Gaines built one of the most successful trotting horse stables in the country, and laid the groundwork for the farm's transition into Thoroughbreds. The Taylor brothers grew up around Gainesway Farm, working with and learning horsemanship from their father. 
    “We grew up running around Gainesway Farm with my dad, and he basically mentored us,” Mark Taylor, the Vice President of Marketing and Public Sales Operations, said. “My dad was a workaholic. He was obsessed with horses and that rubbed off.” 
    Duncan Taylor, along with his business partner Mike Shannon, launched Taylor Made in1976, though it was initially a boarding operation. Within the first few years of the business, however, Duncan realized there was an opportunity to get involved with the sale of horses by applying marketing principles from other successful businesses to the sale of Thoroughbreds. 
    “The culture back then was almost all of the big breeders sold their own horses. There were few other 'sales agencies,'” Taylor explained. “Duncan saw that the farmers that had been bringing the product to market really weren't equipped to market as effectively as someone who was doing it full time.” 
    Taylor Made took on a modest consignment of three horses in 1979 and grew steadily from there. The company's breakthrough came in1984, when, at the Keeneland summer sale, the agency sold Fiesta Lady, a Secretariat filly raised on the Taylor Made Farm, who went on to capture the GI Matron S. for trainer D. Wayne Lukas that year. Later that year, three mares Taylor Made had consigned each sold for over $1 million at the Keeneland November sale. 
   “That year really put us on the map,” Taylor said. “People looked at us and said: 'These kids are on to something.'” 
Taylor Made's growth always stemmed from the brothers. Each brother found a way to contribute to the company in a way that both eased the workload and added a new dimension to the business by carving out a niche for himself. 
    “The business grew as the brothers grew and were added,” Taylor said. “It started with just Mike [Shannon] and Duncan and they were boarding horses. Then [the late] Chris [Taylor] came into the business so they had more support on the farm, which allowed Mike and Duncan to start working on more deals. Then Ben came along, and he added more support on the farm, which allowed Duncan to work on the business– processes, procedures, structures, hiring and training people — and allowed him to fall into his niche as the kind of CEO that really loves business. Frank came in, and Frank is a natural horseman, he became full-time farm manager, but he also worked on cultivating business. That allowed Ben to move into the office and get into private sales, which really became his niche. All of us started on the farm and moved into the office when the time was right.” 
    While Joe Taylor was still working for Gainesway when Taylor Made took off, his instruction and ideas formed a foundation for the company to build on. 
    Taylor, who would write the definitive book on managing a horse farm in Joe Taylor's Complete Guide to Breeding and Raising Racehorses, was a constant presence at Taylor Made as the Taylor brothers were building the company. 
    “We were living the book before it was written,” Taylor said. “He'd get off work at Gainseway and he'd drive around Taylor Made coaching us and telling us what we were doing wrong. We were constantly corrected.” 
    And though the Taylor brothers were largely responsible for developing the company's sales operations, Joe Taylor's philosophies about the horse business were fundamental to the growth of Taylor Made. 
   “My dad always said that in the horse business, you never have it figured out; things are always changing and you have to have a progressive open mindset, or you're going to get passed by,” Taylor said. “Even though he was at the top of his career, he was always assimilating information and coming up with new theories and ways to do things. So we didn't take his model, but we took his mindset and his philosophy of always trying to improve.” 
    That philosophy helped Taylor Made develop an innovative approach to the marketing and sale of horses. 
    “As time has gone on, if you look at a lot of the things that are considered standard operating procedure by most consigners, a lot of that started with us,” Taylor said. “We were the first ones to have a full-time research department, the first ones producing our own catalog.” 
    The core of Taylor Made's approach, however, is to create and promote a brand for each horse they are charged with. 
    “We have a philosophy that we always put the horse and their credentials first, and the Taylor Made brand second [in advertisements],” Taylor said. “Customers know that we are focused on telling their horse's story, not Taylor Made's story.” 
    As Taylor Made grew, the company focused on recruiting a team that could implement the Taylor Made philosophies and strategies over a broader customer base. 
    “We try to be very systematized in everything we do,” Taylor said. “We've got the knowledge and experience and the core values of the Taylor family, but we've surrounded ourselves with a hell of a team that lets us be very organized in our approach.” 
    Taylor Made's resilience is, in large part, a testament to its commitment to the approach to business and core philosophies that the Taylor family has developed. In 2008, when the economic recession caused a severe downturn in the sale of Thoroughbreds, Taylor Made focused on keeping its commitments low and its core principles intact. 
    “Our philosophy of not having a huge portfolio of horses we own is what paid off,” Taylor said. “Our income obviously dropped, but we didn't have to worry about debt we'd incurred to buy a bunch of broodmares. We could hunker down and focus on our core customers and weather the storm.” 
    That commitment extended to the team Taylor Made had assembled when the market was strong. 
    “A big goal of ours was not to break up our team,” Taylor said. “We had a lot of overhead and a big team put together, but we came out of it in tact and I think we're a better company because of it.” 
Though Taylor Made is sure to face uncertainty going forward, the Taylors have faith that adhering to their fundamental values will see them through. 
    “We're nimble and I think, as an industry, we're well positioned going forward,” Taylor said. “What we've got is the horse. When someone gets exposed to the beauty of the horse they want to get involved. I think the horses are the key to the future with us.”