With Record Setter Informed Patriot, Houlihan Back Home at Taylor Made

Getting Informed Patriot (Hard Spun) from Horseshoe Indianapolis to the sales ring at Fasig-Tipton in less than 48 hours was going to be quite the juggling act, but Hunter Houlihan and the rest of the Taylor Made team managed to keep all the balls in the air and then finish with a flourish when the late supplement to the Fasig-Tipton July Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale came out as a record-breaking sales topper.

The morning that Informed Patriot was set to run in the GIII Indiana Derby, Hunter Houlihan, a Thoroughbred advisor for Taylor Made Farm, shot a good luck text to owners Kirk and Judy Robison. That message was followed up with a congratulatory text a few hours later when the full-brother to GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile victor Spun to Run finished a well-fought third.

The next morning, the Robisons called Houlihan to ask what he thought of offering Informed Patriot at the sale the following afternoon. After trainer Steve Asmussen and Mark Taylor were brought into the discussion and all were in favor, Informed Patriot was put on a van bound for Lexington by Sunday afternoon.

The biggest challenges were still ahead as Houlihan raced to get the word out on the new supplement with less than 24 hours before the sale was set to start. Meanwhile, there were still questions surrounding how the colt would vet and how he would present to buyers in the few hours of showing on Monday morning before the sale began.

“Luckily when he got off the van we all knew we were in good shape,” recalled Houlihan. “He was almost dead correct. He had maybe a little more stretch to him than your typical Hard Spun, but at the same time he had that Hard Spun neck and shoulder to him. He was a very nice horse.”

A nice horse with a resume to match. In addition to the 3-year-old's second graded-stake placing in the Indiana Derby, which brought his lifetime earnings to just under $350,000, Informed Patriot also earned a win in the Bathhouse Row Stakes earlier this year.

The colt was the last horse to go through the ring on Monday, but there was plenty of demand waiting for him. Representing HRH Prince Saud bin Salman Abdulaziz, agent Ibrahim Rachid won out with a $1.55 million bid–a record figure at the July Sale.

“We knew that we had a couple of people locked onto him going into the ring, but we never thought $1.55 million,” said Houlihan. “That was huge. We were on the phone with Kirk and Judy afterwards and they were over the moon.”

The successful sale was a victory in more ways than one for Hunter Houlihan, who started working for Taylor Made in 2006 and, after a brief hiatus away from the farm for several years, has just recently returned to his role as Thoroughbred advisor.

Hunter Houlihan | photo courtesy Taylor Made

A native of Winchester, Kentucky, Houlihan got his start in horse racing as a college student working part-time as a translator for the track chaplain at Keeneland. As a 20-year-old spending his afternoons playing ping-pong in the jocks' room with the likes of Jerry Bailey and other famed riders, it wasn't long before Houlihan was hooked.

After a stint working at the track for D. Wayne Lukas, Houlihan got his foot in the door at Taylor Made in 2006 as an office runner. He spent the next decade with the farm, eventually working his way up to Director of Research and then Thoroughbred advisor.

In 2017, he stepped down at Taylor Made to take on a different role within in the Thoroughbred business, but left soon after when COVID hit. In 2021, he reached out to Taylor Made about rejoining their operation. He started out in his former position as the Director of Research, but eventually returned to the role of Thoroughbred advisor in April of this year.

For Houlihan, returning to Taylor Made was like coming home.

“One of our mottos is, 'With us, you're family' and you just really feel that,” he explained. “It's a family feeling in the office. The Taylor and the Payne families are some phenomenal people to work with and to work for. Any time anybody needs literally anything, the whole team is there.”

Houlihan enjoyed plenty of success over his early years at Taylor Made. Through his relationship with King of Prussia Stable's Ed Stanco, he was responsible for bringing in 2013 GI Kentucky Oaks victress Princess of Sylmar (Majestic Warrior), who sold for $3.1 million with Taylor Made at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton November Sale.

Even though he wasn't gone for all that long, when Houlihan returned to the same role at Taylor Made after a seven-year hiatus, he had to learn to adjust to the market's ever-increasing demand for recent form. Informed Patriot's swift turnaround from the track to the sales ring was just the latest example.

“I think the difference now is I'm literally hunting every day instead of during different seasons,” he said. “It's less of a seasonal kind of sales cycle and now we are all hunting every day. The landscape has undoubtedly changed. It is 1,000% a different beast. Everything is so 'now' and everything can be done so quickly.

“If you factor in these Fasig-Tipton Digital sales, there's basically one every month now. Racehorses are trading at an all-time high. You can now turn them over every month. Especially with companies like Fasig-Tipton or Keeneland that are so willing to work with you, when you do get a big update and you can get a horse in so late to the sales, people are paying a premium for horses with recent form that they think can go on. If we have a client's horse run big, we say hey, strike while the iron is hot.”