Can you imagine being a horse racing-crazy kid with a ringside seat to the creation of the Breeders' Cup? Mark Taylor can, because he was.

Fast forward more than four decades and now he is president and CEO of the Central Kentucky farm that is believed to have raised and/or sold more Breeders' Cup winners than any other. There's also the matter of having stood the Breeders' Cup winner who currently holds the record for siring the most Breeders' Cup winners in turn. And, oh yes, there's also Knicks Go, another Breeders' Cup winner, in the farm's stud barn right now, as well as a few in the fields. Yes, surely Taylor can be excused if his reverence for the Breeders' Cup might be even greater than usual.

“Listen, the [Kentucky] Derby is amazing, but if you're in this industry, the Breeders' Cup is the real deal,” said Taylor. “Every division: turf, dirt, 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, older horses, all coming together and laying it all on the line.”

Taylor's father was the legendary farm manager Joe Taylor, whose fortunes coincided with that of Gainesway. Many will remember Gainesway under John Gaines and the elder Taylor together. At one point the farm on Paris Pike stood 40 stallions and bred over 2,000 mares a year. This was all the more remarkable considering it was in the days when stallion books were much smaller and reproductive work wasn't quite so advanced, often necessitating multiple covers per mare.

In addition to owning one of the most successful stallion stations in our sport's history, Gaines is also credited with the conception of the Breeders' Cup. Joe Taylor was at his side for all of it. Although they were farm owner and employee, the two men were far closer than that, said Mark Taylor.

“Mr. Gaines and my dad were like brothers in a lot of ways,” he said. “Mr. Gaines was a brilliant business guy and the visionary. My dad was the diplomat and the horseman. My dad was really gratified for Mr. Gaines when he got it all together and got the Breeders' Cup done. What an amazing thing.”

Knicks Go at Taylor Made | Sarah Andrew

Taylor said he was the youngest of eight kids and a young teenager when Gaines hatched the idea behind the Breeders' Cup.

“I feel like I got a front-row seat,” said Taylor. “I was the last kid still in the house in those years where the Breeders' Cup was really coming to fruition. I could hear my dad in there on the phone with Mr. Gaines and the two of them brainstorming.

“It was like political warfare, getting everyone on board. For Mr. Gaines to try to bring this concept to fruition he deserves some sort of Nobel Peace Prize. I don't know how he got it done.”

All these years later, Taylor still marvels at the unobstructed view he received.

“It's really amazing. I feel like of all the thousands and thousands of people in this industry, I got to see this and I was just a 13- or 14-year-old kid. I had a really unique view of this thing coming together. I was really into horse racing. I'd be waiting for the Blood-Horse or Thoroughbred Record every week, and the race results in the Herald-Leader every day. The TDN wasn't around yet.

“It was kind of cool watching it all come together. I love the Breeders' Cup. It's one of my favorite days of the year. Watching what it's become is really special.

“I'll never forget that first Breeders' Cup Classic. That wild stretch drive. I think it was more than Mr. Gaines could have dreamt up the way it came together.

“What a privilege to see it all come together.”

Sarah Andrew

After witnessing something so special, no wonder Taylor–along with his older brothers–would later found Taylor Made Farm, today a diverse operation which has conquered the worlds of boarding, selling, stallions, and more. No fewer than 20 individual Breeders' Cup winners have been raised or sold by Taylor Made. Lest one think those eventual winners simply passed through sales barns, a full 11 of those 20 spent their formative years cavorting through Taylor Made pastures. Among those raised on Taylor Made's land were Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and leading sire Unbridled's Song. The latter also spent his entire stud career at Taylor Made and would sire six individual Breeders' Cup winners. Long before he sired a foal, Unbridled's Song was tied to Taylor Made.

“It's a long story,” said Taylor. “We had Unbridled's Song here on the farm when he was a weanling owned by Mandysland Farm. They were dispersing; ultimately he was bought by someone else and they took him to Saratoga where he sold as a yearling, but was sent back to Taylor Made for some R&R. Ernie Pargallo's Paraneck Stable and Buzz Chace bought him.

“Back then, Taylor Made sold 2-year-olds in training. We obviously didn't have a training center, so we were the marketing arm. I never will forget when Unbridled's Song breezed, he was just this big, gray monster. He breezed so effortlessly. As he crossed the line, the announcer said, 'He went so fast the infield trees swayed.'”

Sarah Andrew

Unbridled's Song brought $1.4 million in 1995 at the Barretts March sale. At the time, it was a world record for a 2-year-old in training. However, there was a hitch. A chip was found in the colt's hind ankle and the buyer, according to Taylor, tried to negotiate a reduced price.

“We had an anxiety attack,” said Taylor. “Here we'd spent all this money going to California–we'd flown all the way to Barretts to sell him–and our big horse was being turned back. Ernie Paragallo said, 'Don't worry about it. We're going to win the Breeders' Cup with him.' The rest is history.”

Sure enough, Unbridled's Song did just that. About seven months later, he captured the GI Juvenile in a spectacular stretch duel with Hennessy.

“That was amazing. Of course, he came here [after his racing career], led the general sires list, and was a tremendous sire for us,” said Taylor. “He really put our stallion operation on the map. He had so much speed for a big horse and could carry it two turns. He also had such a sweet disposition, not a mean bone in his body.

“And he died with that chip in his hind ankle!”

Knicks Go with Ernesto Martinez  | Sarah Andrew

Unbridled's Song passed away in 2013 at the age of 20. Another Breeders' Cup winner, 2021 Classic winner and 2020 Dirt Mile winner Knicks Go, is currently in the stallion barn.

“Several farms were after him, so the fact that we were able to get the horse was very exciting,” said Travis White, director of sales at Taylor Made. “It's not often you get a horse like that. For us he checked a lot of boxes. We feel so fortunate and excited to have him.

“The Breeders' Cup is the Super Bowl of our sport. Anytime you can get a horse of that caliber, the best of the best, proven on the world's biggest stage, it's a great addition to a stallion roster. You're going to attract the top breeders in the world.”

Knicks Go was just history's sixth horse to find the winner's circle in two different Breeders' Cup races, but there was almost a third Breeders' Cup win on his CV. It's often lost among the Eclipse championships and two championship day wins, but Knicks Go also finished runner-up as a 2-year-old in the 2018 Juvenile behind eventual champion Game Winner.

“I think a lot of people forget he was a Grade I winner at two and that he won or placed in three different Breeders' Cup races,” said White. “It is extremely rare for a horse to be as precocious as he was and then come back and win two different Breeders' Cup races as an older horse. Most horses have a niche–they can't go two turns, can't come from off the pace, have to have things go their own way–but he was able to do it all. Hats off to Brad Cox and his crew for doing such a great job with him.”

White said it's an honor to have Knicks Go in the stallion barn at Taylor Made. “Anytime you have a horse with his accomplishments and accolades, it means the world.”

Knicks Go isn't the only Breeders' Cup winner currently on the farm. The most high-profile Breeders' Cup-winning mare at Taylor Made at the moment is undoubtedly Blue Prize (Arg), winner of the 2019 Distaff and a $5-million purchase out of Fasig-Tipton by OXO Equine. However, it is Miss Macy Sue who holds pride of place.

Miss Macy Sue at Taylor Made last month | Sarah Andrew

Miss Macy Sue, a graded winner who was third in the 2007 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, had five foals to race. Four were stakes winners, including GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Liam's Map (who is by Taylor Made's Unbridled's Song) and Not This Time, who was runner-up by a neck in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and is now king of the stallion barn at Taylor Made.

“She is pensioned and still lives here,” said Taylor. “She is the grand dame of Taylor Made. Almost two Breeders' Cup winners. What an achievement. Stallions get to produce hundreds and hundreds of foals every year, but mares get one chance a year for maybe 10 or 15 years. For her to have that kind of strike rate in the Breeders' Cup is just incredible.”

Taylor Made has had a lot of significant moments in the Breeders' Cup, but there was one that might have been a little extra special. In the 2004 edition at Lone Star Park, two mares grazing in Taylor Made paddocks both had Breeders' Cup winners. Silken Cat and Goulash produced Sprint winner Speightstown and Distaff winner Ashado, respectively. Now the mares are buried next to each other at Taylor Made.

Silken Cat's grave at Taylor Made | Sarah Andrew

“Both were bred by Aaron and Marie Jones, long-time customers. That day was incredible,” remembered Taylor. “We raised them both here and they were on opposite ends of the spectrum price-wise. Speightstown was a $2-million Keeneland July yearling and Ashado brought $170,000 at Keeneland September. And yet they both turned into champions. Later we resold Ashado for a then world-record $9 million.”

It's probably safe to say Taylor Made's story in the Breeders' Cup is far from over. Whether future chapters will be written from the mare side or the sales division or even by horses standing in the stallion barn remains to be seen, but the touch of Taylor Made will likely continue to be felt alongside the Breeders' Cup. What could be more fitting for a kid with a front-row seat to the birth of racing's championship days?

The post Another Chapter in Taylor Made’s Breeders’ Cup Story appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Because while one made respectable money, the other was more or less given away. War Like Goddess, swept up in the kind of cull essential to a program on the scale of Calumet, mustered a solitary bid beyond her reserve and was lost for $1,200.

“But the guy I sold her to, he couldn't get the grand with Taylor Made next fall!” notes John Stuart. “Which means I'm a better salesman than all those guys!”

His chuckle makes plain the levity of this claim. But there is a more serious point, which he can expand by recalling another filly sold for the same client. In 2013, Stuart topped the Saratoga sale for Brad Kelley with a daughter of Dynaformer at $1,225,000–and, to be fair, she did actually go on to make the podium in a couple of graded stakes for Three Chimneys. In the adjacent stall, however, a Virginia-bred Curlin filly had been almost entirely ignored while her neighbor was shown and vetted.

“Came from Peggy Augustus' Keswick Stud,” Stuart recalls. “And she ended up the lowest-price horse in the sale. Anybody could have played for her at $40,000. If you had enough money to buy lunch at Saratoga, which is expensive, you could probably have gotten in the group of four bidspotters that bought her. They pinhooked her back to Timonium that October and she brought $86,000.”

Not bad, for a flip of barely two months. But the next time this filly came under the hammer she made $6 million as six-time Grade I winner Stellar Wind.

So you never know. War Like Goddess (whose much lamented sire, incidentally, was acquired for Kelley by Stuart) was eventually found by Donato Lanni at the 2-year-old sales, for $30,000, and has so far banked over $1.6 million. Forte, for his part, realized $80,000 as a weanling pinhook, making moderate gains when sold to Repole Stable and St. Elias Stables for $110,000 the following September. But he has now added the GI Breeders' Futurity S. to the GI Hopeful S., and Amy Moore of South Gate Farm is prudently taking her chance to consolidate what remains a young operation. His half-brother by Uncle Mo made $850,000 to Mayberry Farm at the September Sale, while their young dam Queen Caroline (Blame), in foal to Not This Time, sells as Hip 222 at Fasig-Tipton next month.

Forte winning the Claiborne Breeders' Futurity Saturday | Coady

Though not strictly Virginia-bred like Stellar Wind, Forte is as close as you can get. “He was bred by a Virginia breeder–first horse she ever bred–and raised on a Virginia farm,” Stuart says. “And, incidentally, he was the lowest-price horse that the Repole crowd bought last year. Of all those expensive horses, he's the one that has hit.”

If there is a note of pride in his voice, that's fair enough. For Stuart himself was not only raised in Virginia, but on no less iconic a farm than Llangollen. His mother, Tessa (subsequently Dole), who had arrived from England after the war as an aspiring show rider, was taking schoolgirls from nearby Foxcroft out hunting when she met–and was hired by–the farm's celebrated owner.

“Liz Whitney Tippett had gotten the largest settlement in American history when she divorced Jock Whitney because he wouldn't make her Scarlett O'Hara in 'Gone with the Wind',” Stuart says. “And of course she had this 1,000-acre farm in Upperville that was her wedding present from him. So she had everything. And my mother, for 10 years, was the person who knew where all the horses were, what their names were, what they were doing.

“So we lived on the farm, mother did the horse stuff and my father had the evening duty. He would go to the Dulles airport and pick up some young trainer by the name of Whittingham and a rider, Arcaro, that mother had to mount in the fox hunt the next day! Whittingham was too smart for that. But they all came through there, the Aga Khan, everybody.”

Liz was actually Stuart's godmother, but she had evidently lost some of her sunshine by this stage of her life and his family, expanded to three sons, eventually moved on. They remained local in Clarke County, however, his father having been grandson of a Winchester doctor who had practised to 93. (On finally retiring, he received a citation from President Eisenhower in person.)

“We had a feed store in Berryville and sold a bunch of feed and hay to the horses at Charles Town,” Stuart recalls. “And we were lucky to get paid. My father wasn't interested in the horses, he just sold the feed, so it was my mother had to hustle the horses all her life.”

War Like Goddess took the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic over the boys Saturday | Sarah Andrew

Stuart wryly relates a pivotal chapter in family folklore that might have given them all an easier life. His maternal grandfather, a Manchester cotton man, had manufactured typewriter ribbon; but when he died, IBM having decided that they didn't need ribbon anymore, the far-sighted trustees decided to divert his stake to a sounder investment than this passing fad for computer screens.

“Unfortunately they instead decided to make disposable cotton underwear for Englishwomen,” Stuart says, shaking his head. “And that busted the company. But it made my mother work harder in life. She went into the bloodstock business in America, and I got to learn. So something good came out of it…”

Sure enough, his mother took a 20% stake when another Clarke County horseman, Tyson Gilpin, in 1958 founded what Stuart acclaims as the first bloodstock agency in America.

“Say Bull Hancock wouldn't give you a season,” he explains. “And he was tough to get a season off, for a good horse. Then a shareholder could sell it privately and the Stallion Service Bureau was the first to do that for you.”

Even today few would consider the situation adequately improved, but those were certainly tough times for a woman in the horse business. But Tessa made a success of her pioneering role in a pioneering venture for a dozen years or so.

“My mother was independent, really a go-getter in a quiet, English way,” Stuart reflects. “There was no money at the time, and we all had to work as kids. I had to work my way through college. I was 14 when I had my first job at Saratoga, showing for Tyson. That would have been 1964.

“And then I worked for all the Virginia places, because in that era there were still a dozen really good breeders out there. People from all over the world would come in June and start in Charlottesville at the Van Clief farm, work their way up to Middleburg, and look at all the yearlings. So I was lucky, because it's nearly all gone now.”

In the heyday of the Virginian Turf, the Gilpin family had been able to import horses like Teddy (Fr) to Kentmere, but now came serial migrations to Kentucky: the Hancocks left, the stallions left, and the mares followed them.

“State of Virginia didn't do much to help,” says Stuart with a shrug. “They have now, with the Virginia Certified Program, that was a great idea. But the breeding, it's gone everywhere except for Kentucky. I mean, there's breeding everywhere. But if you're not in Kentucky, you're not commercial.”

And, actually, Stuart himself contributed to that revolution.

“When I first came here and put my sign out with my partner Peter Bance from Richmond, Virginia in 1980, the business was evolving,” he explains. “Because, you know, those old hardboots didn't prepare their horses well; didn't show them right. And so a group of us came in. Billy Graves, Fred Seitz. I'd been taught how to groom and show, I'd won a National Pony Club championship. And we also had a little different ethical standard. Some of those hardboots, they were interested in the one-night stand–not a honeymoon!”

Stuart at work | Keeneland photo

Stuart had started in the Bluegrass with a couple of years selling and advertising seasons for Spendthrift, just about the time Seattle Slew arrived. With the commercial market just taking off, it was a promising time to be seeking out new angles and opportunities. For instance, here came the young guy who had bought Meadow Stud back in Virginia, asking Stuart to fill the paddocks that had introduced Secretariat to the world. It so happened that there was a Contagious Equine Metritis scare just then, so Stuart did a deal with a shipping company to take stock for their month of isolation. And this also happened to be the summer that Sheikh Mohammed was sending the market into the stratosphere.

“He came to the summer sale at Keeneland and bought the highest-price filly in history, and the highest-price colt,” Stuart recalls. “And next thing I knew I was meeting six Sallee vans full of horses, Wednesday morning at the Meadow Stud. And then, in September, he bought about 100 more. Well, out of that whole bunch they got one little sprinter, Ajdal.”

But later dealings would prove very fertile, both for the Sheikh's team and Stuart. For example, he sold them G1 1,000 Guineas winner Blue Bunting (another Dynaformer filly bred by Brad Kelley) for $200,000 at Saratoga. And when he sent an Argentinian mare for what proved the final foal-share to Dubai Millennium, the Sheikh asked to buy her after losing his cherished young stallion. Urged to return to the same talent pool, Stuart found another Argentinian mare to send to Rahy and the result was Godolphin stalwart Rio de La Plata.

The South American scouting avenue had first opened through Roy, the son of Fappiano he brought back to syndicate in Kentucky.

“I flew down, didn't have any money, and the horse walked out of the stall,” Stuart recalls. “And he had a look of eagles about him. They wanted $1 million and I said, 'I'll take him.' And though he didn't really work in America, every country I leased him to–Brazil, Argentina, Chile–he was leading sire.”

Then he helped to import Blue Prize (Arg) (Pure Prize) to win the GI Spinster S. twice and the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff for Merriebelle.

“They don't hothouse them like we do,” he says of the South American breed. “And remember that in Argentina they race more like the United States than any country in the world. They run on the dirt, they go around our way, they get after their 2-year-olds. They make horses tough. And so if you're buying the best of the crop, they'll have gone through a lot to get the special one.”

Eclipse champion Chief's Crown | Coglianese

But the turning point was perhaps when Carl Rosen's son Andrew revealed a precocious wisdom in sorting out his father's estate.

“I got really lucky,” Stuart admits. “I was running low on funds, a young, struggling bloodstock agent with two sons. And they had this Danzig colt out of Six Crowns, who was a Secretariat daughter of Chris Evert. And Andrew said, 'If the estate needs some money, I can move this 2-year-old.' This was in June, he was still unraced. By the end of the summer, he was the best 2-year-old in the country: Chief's Crown. And I sold a half-interest in him to Robert Clay for $10 million cash. A half-interest!

“So I had my commission and got myself out of jail, and the horse won the first Breeders' Cup race. And I get to know this 25-year-old, Andrew Rosen. Hell, we've talked about every day ever since.”

Stuart was asked to handle the dispersal of the rest of the Chris Evert family.

“There was one that seemed much the most unlikely to be of merit,” he recalls. “She'd never run, she was huge, she had a tube hanging out of chest. Nijinsky Star. I guess there's been 30 graded stakes winners come through her for Juddmonte.”

Few horsemen can compete with the influence of Stuart's draft at that auction, which also included another mighty matriarch, Toll Booth, sold for John M. Schiff. But perhaps there is one legacy, a very literal one, that means even more to this proud Virginian.

“One of my favorite things in my professional career is that I got to sell the last crop of yearlings for Paul Mellon,” Stuart says. “As a result, I got to know the trustees. And, in his will, he had said: 'If you ever run across a really good charity that takes care of retired horses, then you can support it.' Well, at the time, I was president of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. And, in three different pops, I was able to get them $8 million from the Mellon estate. They gave $4 million to the Brits, too, because he was of course a great anglophile. But what was most important was not so much the money as the old guard saying to themselves, 'If Paul Mellon says we need to do this, then we need to do it.'”

Much of the change Stuart has observed in the business has nourished his own progress. Equally, however, he feels that some old principles are nowadays unduly overlooked.

“Okay, it's a lot more sophisticated now,” he concedes. “In the old days, you'd walk around with your trainer and buy your horses. Now you've got 30, 40 agents backed up with cardio, X-rays, DNA samples, and every other thing. The one thing they don't do much is study the pedigree. Back then, pedigree was the big thing.

“I do remember, as a young consignor, when James Delahooke came along with Guy Harwood, they'd make you walk and walk and walk. And of course he was very good at it. But now it's gone too far the other way. It's all about the physical–and they all follow the same horse.”

Stuart with his son, Sandy | Sue Finley photo

Needless to say, no less than his patrons with War Like Goddess, Stuart knows perfectly well what regret feels like. He sold Army Wife (Declaration of War) for $50,000 as a short yearling, and she has now earned close to seven figures. So none of us ever stops learning. Sure, now that he has tipped 70, Stuart is spending a little more time in Florida in winter and Maine in summer and is relying on his son, Sandy, to run the agency day to day. But it was only in recent years that he started, after due research, assembling a dozen mares of his own.

“And they've been spectacular,” he says. “I probably didn't give more than $50,000 for any of them, but I already have six silver cups for graded stakes. And no, I'm not going to tell you how I pick them!”

Stuart credits his wife, Douglas Wise Stuart, for her contributions to the team, as she painstakingly combs through the race records of every mare offered at the breeding stock sales.

One admitted ingredient, however, is that the mare could run. That, after all, is something he could have learned from his own pedigree.

“My mother died a couple years ago,” Stuart says. “She spent her last 20 years here in Lexington, said the country reminded her more of England than anywhere she'd been in America. Founded the Woodford Hounds here. Nothing fancy about her. Loved her dogs, loved her horses. But she was genuinely loved by those that knew her.”

Maybe she could have bought Llangollen itself, if only those trustees had stuck with IBM. But while Stuart would have been richer that way, the same could hardly be said of the life he has led.

The post No Mistaking this Man’s ‘Forte’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Best retired two stallions to Taylor Made–GISW Instilled Regard (Arch) and GSW/GISP Instagrand (Into Mischief)–for their first seasons last year, with both represented by their first foals in 2022. A majority of his broodmare band, over 50 strong, will go to one of the two and are expecting foals by either of the young sires this year, but Best also supports another former runner who also entered stud last year in MGISP Rowayton (Into Mischief) at Diamond B Farm in Pennsylvania. He also uses a number of outside stallions.

With his first recorded start as an owner in 2017, Best has amassed a large and stellar group of broodmares in a short time, and said, “OXO has three priorities. 1, Quality. 2, Quality. 3, Quality.”

“OXO Equine has collected an unbelievably accomplished, well-bred, and beautiful group of mares,” said Taylor Whalen. “It is a joy to work with such an exceptional group. Larry has done a wonderful job of identifying young mares with active families. Breeders should pay close attention to the depth of his support for Instilled Regard and Instagrand. Both Instilled Regard and Instagrand were precocious accomplished racehorses, and they are receiving a caliber of mares that many stallions don't see until they are well established. Great things are in store for both OXO stallions and mares.”

With an addition of 18 maiden mares currently lined up for this season, in 2021 Best bred 33 mares he boards at Taylor Made. All but one of them went to Instagrand, Instilled Regard, or Rowayton. Every one of his maiden mares in 2022 is going to either Instagrand or Instilled Regard and all but 10 of his other mares will also stay with one of his own stallions.

Said Taylor Whelan, “Though OXO is excited and committed to support their own well accomplished stallions, they see the value in rotating top mares to interesting outside stallions. Essential Quality and Practical Joke both fit the mold. They were accomplished on the track, from the top two most powerful sire lines (Tapit/Into Michief) and have racing and commercial upside. We also learn from what goes well! We are taking Hung the Moon back to Quality Road. Her exceptional yearling colt by Quality Road was purchased last summer at Saratoga by Maverick Racing.”

Following is a selection of some of the biggest names in Best's broodmare band and their plans.

BEAU RECALL (IRE) (m, 8, Prancealot {Ire}–Greta d'Argent {Ire}, by Great Commotion), to be bred to Instagrand

Best acquired this MGSW for $350,000 at the 2020 Keeneland November sale. She went to Instilled Regard for her first season last year and will visit Instagrand this year.

BLUE PRIZE (ARG) (m, 9, Pure Prize–Blues for Sale {Arg}, by Not For Sale {Arg}), to be bred to Practical Joke

Best purchased the 2019 GI Breeders' Cup Distaff winner for a sales-topping $5 million at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton November Sale. He sent her to Into Mischief for her first foal, now a yearling filly. The MGISW and $2.6-million earner is due to Instagrand this year and will be bred back to Practical Joke. Taylor Whalen said the farm is very high on Blue Prize's yearling by Instagrand's sire.

CAMBIER PARC (m, 6, Medaglia d'Oro–Sealy Hill, by Point Given), to be bred to Instagrand

Out of Canada's 2007 Horse of the Year who has since produced four graded winners, Cambier Parc was a $1.25-million buy for Best at the 2017 Keeneland September sale and turned into a MGISW for him while under the tutelage of Chad Brown. The mare's first foal is due this year–an Instilled Regard foal–and she will be sent to the court of Instagrand.

CONCRETE ROSE (m, 6, Twirling Candy–Solerina, by Powerscourt {GB}), to be bred to Essential Quality

Another GISW in the OXO broodmare band, Concrete Rose was a $1.95-million acquisition by Best at the 2020 Keeneland November sale. The mare recently made headlines again when she delivered her first foal, which also happened to be one of the first reported foals by Instagrand.

FINITE (m, 5, Munnings–Remit, by Tapit), to be bred to Instagrand

Picked up at Fasig-Tipton November just two months ago for $2.2 million, Finite is a MGSW out of a full-sister to MGSW Tapiture. She is one of the maidens headed to Best's Instagrand.

INDIAN MISS (m, 13, Indian Charlie–Glacken's Gal, by Smoke Glacken), to be bred to Practical Joke

A $1.9-million buy by OXO at the 2020 Keeneland November sale, Indian Miss is the dam of 2019 champion sprinter Mitole (Eskendereya) and additional GISW Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow), who is slated to contest the G1 Dubai World Cup Mar. 26. The oldest and most accomplished broodmare to date in the OXO broodmare band, Indian Miss is currently in foal to Instagrand and will go back to Practical Joke. Best also has her yearling colt by Into Mischief.

Let us know who you're breeding your mares to in 2022, and why. We will print a selection of your responses in TDN over the coming weeks. Please send details to: garyking@thetdn.com.

The post Mating Plans: OXO Equine appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Fernando Fantini Braun, who manages the racing stable of owner Haras Pozo de Luna, contacted third-generation trainer Polanco in the U.S. after Blue Stripe won the G1 Gran Premio Criadores at Palermo Racecourse on May 1.

“At one point, it didn't look like she was even going to get third,” Polanco told TRC, regarding the filly's run in the “Win and You're In” contest. “But she put her ears down, kept fighting, kept fighting. Jesus, that's a lot of heart.”

A four-time winner from six starts, Blue Stripe has been working steadily in Southern California since late June. Her record includes multiple two seven-furlong moves and a one-mile breeze, so she should be plenty fit for the challenge she'll face at Del Mar.

Polanco has partnered with Blue Stripe's Argentinian trainer Nicolas Martin Ferro to have her in top shape ahead of this year's edition.

“When you get to these kinds of races, you're running against champions,” added Polanco. “But, looking at the ability she showed in her races, and what she shows in the morning, she'll be very competitive.”

Read more at the Thoroughbred Racing Commentary.

The post ‘A Lot Of Heart’: Argentine Hope Blue Stripe Has A Real Shot In Breeders’ Cup Distaff appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The 4-year-old daughter of Equal Stripes won four of her six starts in Argentina for trainer Nicolas Martin Ferro. Blue Stripe won her last start on May 1 in the Group 1 Gran Premio Criadores, a “Win and You're In” for the Distaff, and has since been based in California.

Blue Stripe has been working steadily since June 30 at both Santa Anita and Del Mar, building up to work as far as seven furlongs on both Sept. 3 and Oct. 4.

Blue Stripe and Blue Prize are both out of the Not For Sale mare Blues For Sale, a three-time group winner in Argentina.

Read more at the Daily Racing Form.

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The 6-year-old will stand his first year at stud for a fee of $12,500 and Taylor Made's Frank Taylor said that demand has been high since his retirement was announced in December.

“We are very excited about having Instilled Regard added to our roster at Taylor Made,” he said. “You don't see horses like this come along very often. He's been very well-received and we're steadily booking mares to him.”

Bred by KatieRich Farms, Instilled Regard RNA'd for $110,000 at the Keeneland September Sale, but then brought the fourth-highest bid of the 2017 OBS March Sale when he sold to OXO Equine for $1.05 million.

Placed under the care of Jerry Hollendorfer, he broke his maiden by over four lengths in late October of his juvenile season before running second to eventual four-time Grade I winner McKinzie (Street Sense) in the GI Los Alamitos Cash Call Futurity.

Instilled Regard became a top consideration on the Derby trail after taking the GIII Lecomte S. and while he had to settle for fourth in the 2018 GI Kentucky Derby, Taylor said he believed it was one of the colt's best efforts.

“He performed amazingly in the Derby,” Taylor said. “He broke last and had a terrible trip, but he just closed like crazy and ran the fastest quarter of that Derby and was closing in on Justify (Scat Daddy) and some other top horses in Good Magic (Curlin) and Audible (Into Mischief).”

After transferring to Chad Brown's barn, the dark bay switched over to the turf and placed in the GI Hollywood Derby in his final start as a sophomore. He came back at four to win the GII Ft. Lauderdale S.

Following a third-place finish in GI Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational S. in January of his 5-year-old season, he won the GII Fort Marcy S., and turned in a come-from-behind performance in the GI Manhattan S. to defeat stablemate Rockemperor (Ire) {Holy Roman Emperor (Ire)}, as well as Grade I winners Sadler's Joy (Kitten's Joy) and Channel Maker (English Channel).

“It was absolutely amazing how he performed in the Manhattan,” Taylor recalled. “[Jockey] Irad Ortiz had so much confidence in the horse. I was scared; I thought he was going to run last the way it was looking. Then when he turned that horse loose, he exploded and shot through all the horses and finished up strong. It was just a turn of foot that you hardly ever see. It takes a superhorse to be able to do that.”

Instilled Regard retired with just under a million dollars in earnings, running in the money in a dozen of his 18 starts over his four-year career.

“It's very rare to see a horse run at all those ages and stay sound through all of that,” Frank said. “To go through the 2-year-old sales and then stay sound at two, three, four and five and have very little to no setbacks, to run steady that whole time and switch from dirt to turf, it takes a special horse to be able to do that.”

The son of Arch is out of the winning Forestry mare Enhancing, a daughter of Heavenly Prize (Seeking the Gold), an eight-time Grade I winner, champion and Hall of Fame inductee. Heavenly Prize is also responsible for the likes of dual Grade I winner and millionaire Good Reward (Storm Cat), graded stakes-winning dual-hemisphere sire Pure Prize (Strom Cat), as well as Just Reward (Deputy Minister), the dam of GI Personal Ensign S. winner Persistently (Smoke Glacken).

“Instilled Regard is a true Classic-bred horse,” Taylor noted. “That sire line, with Heavenly Prize on the bottom side, gets you distance. The Phipps family gets you distance. But he's also extremely fast. It absolutely amazes me that a horse bred like he's bred works that fast at a 2-year-old sale to bring a million dollars.”

Taylor also said he believes Instilled Regard offers a much-needed continuation of his sire line.

“I love the Hail To Reason line,” he said. “It's very interesting because we actually stood Kris S. (Roberto) with WinStar and he was a superhorse. Even going back to Halo (Hail To Reason), my father raised Halo so we were around him as a kid. That sire line, there's not a lot left of it and it's a strong strain that gets you the distance that we so desperately need in this country.”

Taylor added that he is encouraged by the similarities between Instilled Regard's pedigree and that of hot young sire Nyquist (Uncle Mo).

“If you look at Nyquist's pedigree, he's by Uncle Mo, who is out of an Arch mare. Then on the bottom side, he is out of a Forestry mare and she is out of a Seeking the Gold mare. So you've got Arch on both horses and then you've also got Forestry and Seeking the Gold on the bottom side for both horses.”

The first mare slated for Instilled Regard's book was three-time Grade I winner Blue Prize (Arg) (Pure Prize), the 2019 GI Breeders' Cup Distaff heroine and $5 million purchase for OXO Equine. Blue Prize was bred to Into Mischief in 2020 and this year's mating with Instilled Regard will double up on champion Heavenly Prize.

“If that's any indication of how he's going to be supported by our team and by OXO Equine, that's a big plus,” Taylor said. “OXO believes in the horse for the long term and we just think he is a super horse. I mean, he is a specimen. Once people see him, they're going to want to sign a contract.”

Taylor said that balance is the key word when describing Instilled Regard physically.

“Everything about him is just balanced,” he said. “He's got a beautiful head and every time he walks out, he has that presence– that Grade I presence. He's got a beautifully clean neck that ties in perfectly to his shoulder and a deep heart girth. What amazes me is that he looks like a true Classic horse, but then the fact that he had as much speed as he did and could run at two just blows your mind. This horse could do it all.”

With hopes for that same versatility and durability to pass on to the new stallion's offspring, Taylor said he finds Instilled Regard's price point to be of great value.

“At $12,500, he is an absolute steal,” he said. “If you want to breed a 2-year-old that is fast, he can get that. If you want to breed a horse than can run a mile-and-a-quarter in the Derby, he can do that too. This horse has got a big shot in my mind. If you look at all the other horses standing for $15,000 and below, I think he's the best value out there.”

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The Grade 1-winning son of Arch has a royal pedigree and finished fourth the 2018 Kentucky Derby, just behind Triple Crown winner Justify, Good Magic, and Audible.

He won the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes as a 3-year-old, then he took the G2 Ft. Lauderdale Stakes at four. His most successful season came this year at age five, which included victories in the G1 Manhattan Stakes and G2 Fort Marcy Stakes.

Blue Prize, the 2019 Breeders' Cup Distaff winner and 3-time Grade 1 winner, is currently in foal to Into Mischief and she will be bred to Instilled Regard in 2021.

Details on Instilled Regard's location at stud and his advertised fee will be announced at a later date.

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