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TDN Derby 12 for Feb. 23

We're inside the 11-week mark to the GI Kentucky Derby, but still a month away from the important leap to races at nine furlongs or longer. Although there was no major upheaval within the rankings this week, we do have a new No 1. The subplots thicken as the cadence quickens.

1) CLASSIC CAUSEWAY (c, Giant's Causeway–Private World, by Thunder Gulch) O/B-Kentucky West Racing LLC & Clarke M. Cooper Family Living Trust (KY). T-Brian A. Lynch. Lifetime Record: GSW & GISP, 4-2-1-1, $301,100. Last Start: 1st GIII Sam F. Davis S. Next Start: GII Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby, TAM, Mar. 12. KY Derby Points: 16.

Make no mistake: Newly top-ranked Classic Causeway didn't “inherit” the No. 1 rating on this list because the former kingpin, 'TDN Rising Star' Smile Happy (Runhappy), ran second over the weekend. Rather, Classic Causeway carved out his own spot atop the totem pole with a grace-under-pressure performance in the Feb. 12 GIII Sam F. Davis S. at Tampa. Keen to make the pace, this Giant's Causeway homebred for Kentucky West Racing and Clarke Cooper ripped through a :22.66 opening quarter, then toned down the middle fractions while being ceaselessly hounded but always exhibiting confident body language. Classic Causeway kicked for home with three legitimate threats right behind him, but spurted away under urging before unleashing a “Wow!” gear in deep stretch that punctuated a visually impressive final sixteenth in :5.98 (the only sub-six-seconds clocking among preps at 1 1/16 miles this season). The GII Tampa Bay Derby is next. Note that the Nos. 1 and 2 colts within the Top 12 exit the two most competitive individual preps we've witnessed so far in '22 (the Davis S. and the GII Risen Star S.), and they also hail from the key juvenile race from '21, the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S., which has now produced three next-out graded stakes winners and one runner-up.

2) SMILE HAPPY (c, Runhappy–Pleasant Smile, by Pleasant Tap) 'TDN Rising Star' O-Lucky Seven Stable. B-Moreau Bloodstock Int'l Inc. & White Bloodstock LLC (KY). T-Kenneth G. McPeek. Sales History: $175,000 wlg '19 KEENOV; $185,000 ylg '20 FTKSEL. Lifetime Record: GSW, 3-2-1-0, $364,810. Last Start: 2nd GII Risen Star S. Next Start: Uncommitted. KY Derby Points: 30.

'TDN Rising Star' Smile Happy's hard-charging second after enduring traffic in the Risen Star was respectable enough off a 12-week layoff to keep him in the upper tier of the Top 12. This son of Runhappy broke adeptly, settled capably when asked to rate, then secured a spot third from last entering the backstretch. From about the five-eighths pole to the three-eighths marker he was mildly pocketed but still patiently handled by Corey Lanerie. Midway through the turn it looked as if Lanerie was about to make his move outside, but he had to hit pause on that plan when the onrushing Zandon (Upstart) claimed the same path. Turning for home, Smile Happy was walled up with too much work to do, yet when Lanerie aimed for inside passage, his colt responded to rousing. But that burst of energy three-sixteenths out put Smile Happy on the heels of a caving Pappacap (Gun Runner), so Lanerie had to shift back outside before splitting horses and clearly gaining second at the eighth pole behind a good-as-gone winner. It only took two jumps after the wire for Smile Happy to gallop out abreast of the geared-down Epicenter (Not This Time), and the 94 Beyer Speed Figure he earned for his runner-up effort adds to an upward-trending three-race arc.

3) MESSIER (c, Empire Maker–Checkered Past, by Smart Strike) 'TDN Rising Star' O-SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, Robert E. Masterson, Jay A. Schoenfarber, Waves Edge Capital LLC, Catherine M. Donovan, Golconda Stable & Siena Farm LLC. B-Sam-Son Farm (ON). T-Bob Baffert. Sales History: $470,000 ylg '20 FTKSEL. Lifetime Record: 5-3-2-0, $285,600. Last Start: 1st GIII Robert B. Lewis S. Next Start: Uncommitted. KY Derby Points: N/A.

Trainer Bob Baffert texted “no plans yet” several days ago when asked for a next-race update. But history can provide a good guess as to where 'TDN Rising Star' Messier will show up following his romp in the GIII Bob Lewis S. on Feb. 5. Prior to Messier's win, Baffert had won the Lewis (or its predecessor, the Santa Catalina S.) nine times. Seven of those Lewis winners next started in the GII San Felipe S. in early March. Last year, Medina Spirit won the Lewis, then ran second in both the San Felipe and GI Runhappy Santa Anita Derby before crossing the finish wire first in the Kentucky Derby. In 2009, Pioneerof the Nile won all three of those Santa Anita preps, then ran second in Louisville. Those efforts stand as the best two Derby performances by Baffert horses who took the Lewis-San Felipe route.

When a horse outclasses only four others by 15 lengths like Messier did in the Lewis, it can be difficult to discern how strong the effort really was. But make no mistake about the major-league 103 Beyer Speed Figure this $470,000 FTKSEL colt by Empire Maker unleashed–the only triple-digit Beyer by a 3-year-old in 2022.

This colt, like all Baffert trainees, remains ineligible to earn Derby qualifying points or to start at Churchill Downs because of Baffert's banishment by the track's corporate parent.

4) EMMANUEL (c, More Than Ready–Hard Cloth, by Hard Spun) 'TDN Rising Star' O-WinStar Farm LLC & Siena Farm LLC. B-Helen K. Groves Revocable Trust (KY). T-Todd A. Pletcher. Sales History: $350,000 ylg '20 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $50,400. Last Start: 1st Tampa Bay Downs ALW. Next Start: GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth S., GP, Mar. 5. KY Derby Points: 0.

'TDN Rising Star' Emmanuel will go next in the GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth S., and if all goes according to trainer Todd Pletcher's plan, the GI Curlin Florida Derby will be his final start before Louisville. This physically imposing son of More Than Ready has paired a 78-Beyer MSW wire job in a one-turn Gulfstream mile with an 89-Beyer front-running allowance score over a mile and 40 yards at Tampa. Although the field for the Fountain of Youth is still taking shape, right now only one other Top 12 contender is listed as a likely entrant. That means Emmanuel will almost certainly start as the favorite in a race that's recently been brutal to the chalk: Fountain of Youth faves have gone down in defeat in four of the last five editions, and have managed just three wins from the last 15 (including one demotion via disqualification). Still, with 1 1/16-mile races at Gulfstream starting so close to the first turn and finishing in a short-stretch configuration, you'd have to think Emmanuel's pure speed and demonstrated fondness for the surface might erase any concerns about the negative trend for faves.

5) MO DONEGAL (c, Uncle Mo–Callingmissbrown, by Pulpit) O-Donegal Racing. B-Ashview Farm & Colts Neck Stables (KY). T-Todd A. Pletcher. Sales History: $250,000 ylg '20 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: GSW, 4-2-0-2, $221,800. Last Start: 3rd GIII Holy Bull S. Next Start: Uncommitted. KY Derby Points: 12.

Pletcher recently told TDN that “the [GII] Wood Memorial [S.] is the 100-point race that we've got him targeted for since he won the [GII] Remsen [S.] at Aqueduct.” The only question, he explained, is whether or not this $250,000 KEESEP colt by Uncle Mo will get another start between now and that Apr. 9 New York race.

In the GIII Holy Bull S., Mo Donegal was a beaten favorite while suffering the most glaring adverse trip among top Derby contenders so far this season. Riding a closer by nature, Irad Ortiz Jr. wasted a lot of lateral movement going from the rail on the first turn to the five path on the backstretch, only to attempt another blocked inside bid on the far turn before being directing his colt widest of all for a belated drive to the wire.

As Pletcher termed it, “everything kind of unfolded the wrong way for him and it took him a while to get out in the clear and able to make his run. It was the kind of effort we were hoping for, even though it wasn't the result we were wanting.”

6) ZANDON (c, Upstart–Memories Prevail, by Creative Cause) O-Jeff Drown. B-Brereton C. Jones (KY). T-Chad C. Brown. Sales History: $170,000 ylg '20 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: MGSP, 3-1-1-0, $139,500. Last Start: 3rd GII Risen Star S. Next start: Possible for GI Toyota Blue Grass S., KEE, Apr. 9. KY Derby Points: 14.

Zandon's trip to New Orleans for a prep race was exactly that–a useful preparatory effort for an overall goal that is 2 1/2 months down the road. This $170,000 KEESEP colt by Upstart broke in the air and was relegated to last in the early stages while tugging at the bit. He settled four off the rail for the back straight, then uncorked a methodical march while widest on the far turn that built momentum into a sustained three-furlong run. It appeared as if Zandon might have been losing steam at the sixteenth pole, but the colt re-engaged when he sensed a rival to his inside, digging in to win a head-bob for third.

Considering the shipping, racing under the lights, and having to square off against a much tougher crew, that's not a bad effort for a third career race. Zandon's Beyers are competitive and moving in the right direction (80, 90, 93), and trainer Chad Brown told DRF that the Apr. 9 Blue Grass (recently reinstated as a Grade I), is the next likely target.

7) EPICENTER (c, Not This Time–Silent Candy, by Candy Ride {Arg}) O-Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC. B-Westwind Farms (KY). T-Steven M. Asmussen. Sales History: $260,000 ylg '20 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: GSW, 5-3-1-0, $410,639. Last Start: 1st GII Risen Star S. Next Start: GII Louisiana Derby, FG, Mar. 26. KY Derby Points: 64.

Epicenter knows his job is to go straight to the front and establish control, and he executed that task effectively in Saturday's Risen Star over nine furlongs. Jockey Joel Rosario (and everyone else) knew this $260,000 KEESEP colt had the race wrapped up after cresting the eighth pole, and Epicenter's 98 Beyer, which he garnered by cranking out even-tempoed splits of :23.79, :24.18, :24.28, :24.33 and :12.45, establishes this son of Not This Time as a legit Louisville contender.

But in fairness, Epicenter's no-mishap win has to be juxtaposed against the trip duress suffered by the two well-backed horses who chased him through the stretch. Would he have won if both Smile Happy and Zandon had gotten clean runs at him? We've already seen that Epicenter has the physical and mental fortitude to hold off a wall of horses at the top of the lane, like he did when second in the GIII Lecomte S. And had he not gotten pipped at the final jump by an out-of-the-clouds long shot in that January race, Epicenter would otherwise be riding a four-race win streak into the GII Louisiana Derby.

Epicenter | Hodges Photography/Amanda Hodges Weir

8) EARLY VOTING (c, Gun Runner–Amour d'Ete, by Tiznow) O-Klaravich Stables, Inc. B-Three Chimneys Farm, LLC. T-Chad C. Brown. Sales History: $200,000 ylg '20 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: GSW, 2-2-0-0, $181,500. Last Start: 1st GIII Withers S. Next Start: Uncommitted. KY Derby Points: 10.

Even though he's two-for-two, Early Voting's relatively high Top 12 ranking isn't based so much on what he's accomplished so far as what he might be able to deliver. He's a late developer who has demonstrated improved conditioning, confidence and mental seasoning with races under his belt. So when and at what distance will this $200,000 KEESEP buy peak? That's a question everyone who owns a son or daughter of leading first-crop-sire Gun Runner wants answered.

His Beyers don't tell us much: Early Voting's 76 and 78 are both below-par for elite-level Derby contenders. But those numbers were both earned over dull-ish winter surfaces at Aqueduct (although the Beyers are designed to adjust for the nature of the surface). This colt's 4 1/2-length wiring of the GIII Withers S. field earned black type, but his MSW score in a one-turn mile actually comes off as the more impressive try.

Favored at 4-5, Early Voting pressed outside in a three-way duel, cracked one rival with sustained pressure, sparred with the other before dispatching him on the far turn, then capably repulsed a fresh run from the stalking second choice who had built up winning momentum through the stretch.

9) NEWGRANGE (c, Violence–Bella Chianti, by Empire Maker) O-Golconda Stable, Madaket Stables LLC, SF Racing LLC, Siena Farm LLC, Starlight Racing, Stonestreet Stables, LLC, Waves Edge Capital LLC, Catherine Donovan, Robert E. Masterson & Jay A. Schoenfarber. B-Jack Mandato & Black Rock Thoroughbreds (KY). T-Bob Baffert. Sales History: $125,000 yrl '20 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: MGSW, 3-3-0-0, $552,000. Last Start: 1st GIII Southwest S. Next Start: GII Rebel S., OP, Feb. 26. KY Derby Points: N/A.

The three-for-three Newgrange headlines Saturday's GII Rebel S. at Oaklawn, which this year is newly positioned as a late-February prep because of Oaklawn's earlier-than-usual Apr. 2 scheduling of the GI Arkansas Derby. Trainer Bob Baffert has won the last two Rebels and eight of the previous 13. But prior to Nadal's win in 2020, he saddled beaten favorites in four straight runnings (counting split divisions in '19).

This $125,000 KEESEP colt had to be really pushed along on the far turn before finishing with interest to win the GIII Southwest S., and Baffert said afterward that jockey John Velazquez told him Newgrange might not have been handling the track. Since then, the connections of several Southwest also-rans have similarly described that day's surface as being cuppy and deep in the aftermath of very cold weather, which could explain why some runners didn't care for it, and why Newgrange only earned a one-point Beyer bump off his previous effort (88 to 89).

We've now seen him wire fields and win from off the pace, so Newgrange is tactically versatile; being able to run well despite not really liking the footing also shows he doesn't need everything his own way to win.

10) RATTLE N ROLL (c, Connect–Jazz Tune, by Johannesburg) O-Lucky Seven Stable. B-St. Simon Place (KY). T-Kenneth G. McPeek. Sales History: $55,000 wlg '19 KEENOV; $210,000 ylg '20 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: GISW, 4-2-0-1, $379,460. Last Start: 1st GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity. Next Start: Probable for GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth S., GP, Mar. 5. KY Derby Points: 10.

If Rattle N Roll goes Mar. 5 in the Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth S., that will represent a 21-week layoff since his 81-Beyer GI Breeders' Futurity S. score. Over the last five years, trainer Ken McPeek has won at a 16% clip with layoffs between 120 and 180 days. If you drill down to look at only the subset of 3-year-old males within those parameters, he is two for 20. There are pluses and minuses to this $55,000 KEENOV and $210,000 KEESEP colt's Grade I win last fall. On the pro side, he displayed a high level of comfort while racing covered up midpack before launching a prolonged winning bid three furlongs out, beating No. 1-ranked Classic Causeway in the process. On the con side, Rattle N Roll really only had to outrun stragglers over a short-stretch configuration for 1 1/16 miles, and with the exception of Classic Causeway, not a single horse out of that Keeneland stakes has subsequently won a race.

11) MAJOR GENERAL (c, Constitution–No Mo Lemons, by Uncle Mo) O-WinStar Farm LLC & Siena Farm LLC. B-Circular Road Breeders (KY). T-Todd A. Pletcher. Sales History: $265,000 ylg '20 KEEJAN; $420,000 ylg '20 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: GSW, 2-2-0-0, $232,525. Last Start: 1st GIII Iroquois S. Next Start: GII Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby, TAM, Mar. 12. KY Derby Points: 10.

They say if you wait long enough, everything cycles back into vogue again. Way back on Sept. 18, Major General won the very first qualifying points race for the '22 Derby, the GIII Iroquois S. at Churchill. He was then shelved, but this Constitution colt's two-for-two record was good enough to get him listed on January's first installment of the Top 12. He was a little bit behind in training and thus got leapfrogged in the rankings, but now with seven published breezes and three straight bullet workouts, his stock is rising again.

Trainer Todd Pletcher has this $265,000 KEEJAN and $420,000 KEESEP colt humming along under the radar in preparation for a likely start in the Tampa Bay Derby. His Iroquois win earned grittiness points because Major General overcame a bobble at the start before unwinding with an all-business move 3 1/2 furlongs out. He gamely traded bumps with the favorite in upper stretch, then still had enough gas late to fend off an onrushing closer to win by a neck.

12) WHITE ABARRIO (c, Race Day–Catching Diamonds, by Into Mischief) O-C2 Racing Stable LLC and La Milagrosa Stable, LLC. B-Spendthrift Farm LLC (KY). T-Saffie A. Joseph, Jr. Sales History: $7,500 ylg '20 OBSWIN; $40,000 2yo '21 OBSMAR. Lifetime Record: GSW, 4-3-0-1, $240,850. Last Start: 1st GIII Holy Bull S. Next Start: GI Curlin Florida Derby, GP, Apr. 2. KY Derby Points: 12.

Efficiency, athleticism and an affinity for the Gulfstream racing surface all play in White Abarrio's favor as he points for the Florida Derby. This speed-centric Race Day colt ($7,500 OBSWIN; $40,000 OBSMAR) owns three open-length wins at Gulfstream, and his only loss to date was a credible third at Churchill behind heavy hitters Classic Causeway and Smile Happy. But similar to what was discussed in Epicenter's write-up, in terms of the bigger Derby picture, it's legit to question how much of White Abarrio's win in the Holy Bull S. was attributable to this colt's own prowess, or to him being able to sail clear on the front end while the top four favorites behind him all endured various forms of in-race adversity. Having said that, his 97 Beyer merits respect. Only two sophomores have run a better number this year: Messier's 103 and Epicenter's 98.

On the Bubble (in alphabetical order):

Belgrade (Hard Spun): Bought for $45,000 at FTKSEL and just sold for $700,000 last month at KEEJAN, this H. Graham Motion trainee is two-for-two with wins at Fair Grounds and Tampa, and could be the sleeper in the Tampa Bay Derby, a stakes that has been won by horses with odds of 8-1 or higher in each of the last four runnings.

Blackadder (Quality Road): Nice surge late from this $620,000 KEESEP colt to catch his Baffert stablemate napping in the late stages of the El Camino Real Derby.

Call Me Midnight (Midnight Lute): Lecomte S. upsetter's form got shored up when the horse he caught at the wire, Epicenter, came back to wire the Risen Star S. Four-time auction entrant ($25,000 KEENOV; $37,0000 RNA KEESEP; $17,000 OBSOCT; $80,000 OBSMAR) prepping for the Louisiana Derby.

Charge It (Tapit): Whisper Hill Farm homebred named a 'TDN Rising Star' in start number two for Pletcher when a daylight winner in a one-turn MSW mile at Gulfstream. Lots of options for a new graduate, but the Derby clock is ticking.

In Due Time (Not This Time): This three-time sales grad ($9,500 KEENOV; $35,000 KEESEP; $95,000 OBSAPR) fired a bullet breeze last Friday off a 92-Beyer allowance win by open lengths.

The post TDN Derby 12 for Feb. 23 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Duncan Taylor: With Him, You’ve Been Family, Part II

Taylor had worked Saratoga one summer for the pioneering Lee Eaton and, as early as 1978, dipped a toe in the same water. A first seven-yearling consignment at Keeneland included a first stakes winner—since followed by 126 Grade I winners raised or sold, including 10 last year alone.

“It was a natural extension of what we were already doing: a lot of customers you boarded for needed to sell,” Taylor says. “And I thought, well, if Lee Eaton could sell a horse for $100,000 and make $5,000, that's more than I could get boarding a horse for a whole year. At that time people were charging commission for RNAs. They probably hated me but the first thing I said was, 'Hell, you can't take a guy's horse over there and run it through the sale, and it goes through for $200,000, and you want $10,000 when he didn't even sell his horse!' So we needed a minimum commission; and then if we sell, we get paid. Well of course our customers loved that, and now everybody does it.”

Success, however, brought its own challenges. Taylor remembers customers waiting in line at the sales, wanting to talk reserves, discuss the action on their horse. But he sought some expert counsel, and was told that Taylor Made—which had meanwhile also opened a stallion operation, starting with the arrival (or strictly the return) of Unbridled's Song in 1997—had developed in isolated “silos.” The solution they came up with was assignation of Thoroughbred Advisors to different clients, maintaining continuity across the board. “From problems come opportunities,” Taylor remarks. “Every customer now had their point person. And that was what allowed us to continue to grow, while keeping that family feel, that family touch.”

Even with such delegation, the brothers maintain a conspicuous front-of-house presence: if the help are wearing the tie and livery, so are their bosses. “We want them to share the kindred spirit of the family,” Taylor says. “We're not on any pedestal, we're in there beside them working. And the fact is we're not just one business owner but five of us trained by the same master, united so that when I win, Frank wins, Ben wins, Mark wins and Pat wins: we all win together.

“It's all about those innate, core values that have helped us, whether in terms of scale, or how we keep our dominance. We're always looking to get better, internally, externally, not because it's some big strategic plan but because it's in our nature to ask how can we do that better.”

First of three key values, he suggests, is honesty. “It's not that I never told a lie in my life, but if I ever did, I felt like crap after; beat myself up forever,” he says. “And then we want to care for our customers and their horses and each other like family. And the other thing is to always look for a better way, so that just because we're doing something now doesn't mean we'll be doing it two or three years from now.”

Fasig-Tipton photo

But while Taylor Made will unquestionably continue to absorb his ardor as it faces the future, it's up to the wider industry to heed some no less imaginative and dynamic input in doing the same. For Taylor is grieved by the obstinacy with which our sport resists the kind of adventure that has long sustained own business.

“I'm full of ideas,” he says, sounding rather exasperated. “I don't know if they're any good, but I've told them to every track executive I can and there's something about this business, people don't seem to use common sense.”

His opening premise is simple: purses go up when handle goes up, and that's obviously key to doing the best we can for horse owners. But too many racetracks have been so obsessed with becoming a casino that the core product is neglected, and offered with bad grace.

“Say we were in the popsicle business,” he says. “It's like we have the licorice popsicle stand and say: 'If you don't like our licorice, we don't want you as a customer. We're not going to give you cherry, orange, grape, we're not going to give you the flavors everybody loves. We're just here to sell our licorice, screw you, go someplace else.'”

Any novice who does try the track is bewildered. “It's like you need to learn Chinese or Russian to play the game, and it's going to take you too long to learn it,” Taylor complains.

While not a gambler himself, and therefore not presuming to design alternatives himself, he is appalled that the wagering product has basically remained unchanged for a century. “No bets for people who just want to bet and have fun,” he says. “They don't care about learning how to handicap. Like the slot machine player versus playing at the craps table: one is intellectual; the other is. 'Let's bet and have some fun.'

“And I'll tell you the problem with not being customer-focused. In 1890, Dan Taylor was born. That's my granddad. Everybody had a horse, everybody loved horseracing, that's the culture he grew up in. In 1924, Joe Taylor my dad was born: the car's just invented, but Joe rides a pony to school, and you go to the Hawthorne Derby in Chicago and there's 100,000 people watching. Everybody's still part of that horse culture. In '56, Duncan Taylor is born. And it's all about the damned car. Out of 100 kids in my class at Lexington Catholic, about four liked going out to the track. Go forward 30 years, and my son Marshall is born. And the kids in his class know as much about a giraffe as they do about a horse. As the horse's usefulness diminished, as a mode of transportation and an agricultural tool, so we have lost our competitive advantage.”

Taylor deplores a complacency he traces to the long years when horseracing was the only gambling game in town. “We're like the little kid at the table, whose mom always brings him food, never makes him work,” he says. “And he turns into a big fat kid who doesn't know how to do anything and can't get a job anywhere. With the monopoly we had, we got lazy and fat, we got a bad culture and never thought about the customer.”

Who, after all, is that customer? Not the horse's owner. “Because he's like the sports player, providing the talent,” reasons Taylor. “He's Wilt Chamberlain, he is putting on the show. The customer is the one who comes to the races, who's betting on the owner's horse. Yet we look down on him like he's a tramp and an idiot, we don't esteem him at all. And no business can treat customers like second-rate citizens and last very long.”

Taylor said he suspected that some people don't actually want to expand the sport's reach: that they don't want to build our industry into Mount Everest, but are happy just to be kings of the anthill. But he looks around the game and sees people of prodigious wealth and influence, amply competent to reboot betting technologies and run racetracks altruistically.

“I still think we have a great product,” Taylor stresses. “That's the thing, we have something so special. How much better to be around these beautiful horses, with a really good atmosphere, than sitting pulling a lever in some dungy casino with lights going on and off.”

According to Taylor, the person who has done most to evangelize our walk of life is Michael Behrens of MyRacehorse. “Those 60,000 people he signed up now have a reason to try and 'learn the Russian',” he said. “They have a hook. Our entry level to have horse ownership was way too high before. A percentage of those 60,000 will become millionaires, even billionaires. Who knows? One of them could be the next John Magnier.”

A new generation: Brooks Taylor, Logan Payne, Marshall Taylor, Katie Taylor, Joe Taylor, Alex Payne | Laurel Donnell photo

Or even the next Duncan Taylor. Happily, for Taylor Made, and for our industry, he isn't going anywhere. He'll still be in the office every day, mentoring his brother Mark in the role he has relinquished, and everyone else on the team; and he'll never stop aspiring, both for the good name of one business and for the viability of its trading environment.

“We're not perfect at Taylor Made, by any means,” he said. “I'm sitting here now, retired from being CEO, but I've a lot of thoughts how we can improve still. You know, I'm not the greatest horseman. I'm not the greatest businessman. I'm not the greatest anything, really. But I have a streak in me that I just try really hard, whatever I do, to keep focused, keep working. I think that's really been my gift to the company: I've always looked out for it, and always tried to keep the big picture in mind.”

But the real key, he emphasizes, remains the same as it was the brothers sought to live up to the example of Daddy Joe: doing things the right way, doing things together, sharing that Taylor-made family feeling.

“There are so many people that have worked with me through the years—customers, team members, vendors, family—that have been part of Taylor Made's success,” he says. “I am thankful for each one of them. The person I owe the most to is my beautiful wife Carol. She has been a lot like my mother, always putting our family first. She has raised five beautiful children, and that's worth more than all I have accomplished.”

As a new cycle opens in this remarkable dynastic tale, then, an apt final word is offered by Taylor's brother and successor as CEO. Mark Taylor recalls how John Gaines, such a pivotal influence on their father, celebrated Daddy Joe not just as the complete horseman but also as “an agronomist, builder, geneticist, caretaker, nutritionist, salesman, entrepreneur, executive, promoter, accountant, arborist, midwife, dealmaker, diplomat and handyman.” Joe, Gaines said, was “truly a man for all seasons but anyone who knows him understands that his real business is helping people.”

That was the template, and Mark feels that is exactly how his brother has presided over Daddy Joe's legacy. “In many ways, Duncan has been all these things and more for our family, our team members, our customers, and their horses,” he says. “Our plan is to free him of many of his prior duties as CEO, while harnessing his drive for customer service and innovation heading into our next chapter.”

To read part I of this story, click here.

The post Duncan Taylor: With Him, You’ve Been Family, Part II appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Pike Place Farm

With the 2022 breeding season underway, we continue to feature a series of breeders' mating plans. Today we have Jake Bennett of Pike Place Farm.

“My wife, Jaclyn, and I have just recently moved to Kentucky to start up our breeding operation,” said Bennett. “We have a small farm in Georgetown with four broodmares (three that we will get bred this year), a retired gelding (that I joke is my wife's horse), one yearling that we are preparing to sell this fall after acquiring him at the Keeneland November sale, and one 2-year-old that is back home in Seattle preparing for his racing career.”

EURASIA (m, 7, Pioneerof the Nile–Laurasia, by Black Mambo), to be bred to Vekoma

We first acquired this mare as part of our racing operation and she had some tough luck unfortunately. She is just beautiful and was a $135,000 purchase as a 2-year-old. She is inbred to some influential female lines and the great broodmare, Lassie Dear, and stems from the well-respected breeding operation of Bonnie Heath and his family down in Florida. She is due to drop a Mo Town foal any day for her first foal and she will be bred back to Vekoma. This may be the mating we are most excited about overall; we strongly feel Vekoma has every right to be a top-tier stallion given his pedigree and race record. This appears to be a great match for our mare in terms of physical compatibility, as well as the cross of Candy Ride (Arg) over sons of Unbridled, breeding the Fappiano line back through itself, proving to show an affinity for top-notch racehorses with a most recent example being Rock Your World.

GETINTHEREONETIME (m, 17, Bertrando–Common Hope, by Storm Cat), to be bred to Gift Box

This is a half-sister to champion Shared Belief (Candy Ride {Arg}) that we recently acquired. We will be breeding her to Gift Box to try to recreate some of the magic that the cross between Candy Ride and this female family created. Candy Ride and his son Twirling Candy both had such modest beginnings and, as I've already mentioned, we really love this sire line. Gift Box himself is an outstanding individual, he's priced right and we're hoping to get this mare on track to produce some runners and carry on a deep female family that has been nurtured over the years by the Wygod family.

MOONSTONE MAGIC (m, 11, Malibu Moon–Never Fail, by Holy Bull), to be bred to Vino Rosso

We purchased this mare just before moving to Kentucky this fall and we're excited to have her here in the bluegrass and optimize her potential to produce some quality foals. She strongly resembles her broodmare sire, Holy Bull, and is a bit of a throwback type physically: full bodied with lots of bone. She was a nice allowance runner at a mile and a sixteenth and we feel she can throw a true classic type of horse. Her female family is laced with plenty of black-type runners and producers and has seen success when bred to sons of Mr. Prospector, including Abraaj, the sire of one of our other mares. With this in mind, we decided to breed her to Vino Rosso. This is a cross that has been tried and true: Curlin/A.P. Indy and their sons. We feel this mating really clicks on all cylinders from a pedigree standpoint as Curlin also has enjoyed success when mated to Holy Bull mares including his son Connect, who is off to a great start at stud. Vino Rosso was such a talented horse that really blossomed over time in his career. Being a son of Curlin and hailing from a rich female family, we're excited to see his first runners hit the track.

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, Presented by Spendthrift: Pike Place Farm appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Duncan Taylor: With Him, You’ve Been Family

He always says that had he been born in Detroit, he would have gone into the automobile trade. In other words, whatever kind of horseman he might allow us to credit him, first and foremost he came into the world a businessman. Now that Duncan Taylor is stepping down from the helm of one of its most remarkable family concerns, then, the Bluegrass can count itself fortunate that fate instead applied his flair to a more literal type of horsepower.

True, the old school can't have been enamored by his every flourish. There was the famous occasion at the Keeneland November Sale, for instance, when a mare had been prematurely scratched by the veterinarians. Taylor, thinking fast as always, got onto the airfield across the street to see if anyone could trail a banner announcing that she had been reinstated in the sale. But he had tried a similar stunt a few years previously, at the Woodbine Breeders' Cup, when he was repatriating A. P Jet from Japan.

“That horse didn't run well on the grass but he ran, like, 1:08 for six furlongs on dirt,” Taylor recalls. “So I hired this plane to fly a banner saying 'A. P Jet 1:08-and-change' over the crowd. Well, the guy flew so high you could hardly see it. I paid him his money, but I'd learned my lesson. So this time I sat down with this pilot and said: 'Now I don't want you flying up there where nobody can read it, you need people to be able to see what the hell all this is about.' Well, I don't know what kind of plane he had, but it sounded like a 1955 tractor. It was popping and spewing and sputtering, and he was swooping over the barns, back and forth, and everybody's horses were going crazy. And Mike Cline from Lane's End ran over and said: 'Duncan take that damned plane down! I'll buy your damned horse from you before you kill all mine!'”

Nor was that the only time Taylor reached for the stars in his publicity. With an important dispersal going through his barn, another November, he rented a plane to get the big spenders back from the Breeders' Cup at Gulfstream, dressing up in a pilot's uniform to record a video wishing everyone a comfortable flight.

Mark, Ben, Frank and Duncan Taylor | Jon Siegel photo

It's not as though such literal flights of fancy directly account for the giddy evolution of Taylor Made, from its unobtrusive foundation in 1976 when Taylor was still only 19, into so dominant a force that its consignment has ranked No 1 in a staggering 26 years of the past 28, while processing $2.7 billion of bloodstock. But his receptivity to innovation and experiment–undiminished even as he hands over to his brother Mark, as CEO, and embraces a new role as Senior Thoroughbred Consultant–has pioneered many of the services nowadays taken for granted on the sales ground.

“You know, one of the things I've found in business–and in life–is that if you don't start on the course of trying to do something better, then you never get the benefit of other opportunities that emerge along the way,” he reflects. “Opportunities that are often better than the things you originally set out trying to do. And that's about the force of human passion. When people start driving towards something, good things start to happen.”

As is often true of Taylor's perspectives, this one dovetails with his Catholic faith. “Because it's about hope,” he says. “When I was young I understood faith, and I understood charity. But hope? Where did that fit in? It was only as I got older that I understood how hope is really the greatest of the three. Because it's a real blessing if you can get up every morning and think, I need to get this done, that done, because you're always chasing that brighter future.”

Taylor Made has met two extremely delicate challenges during its perennial expansion. One was to maintain due intimacy with customers, even as the scale became ever more industrial, so that their slogan can still credibly remain: “With us, you're family.” The other was to maintain a vital equilibrium between fraternal affection, among Taylor and his brothers Mark, Frank, Ben, and their partner Pat Payne, and the hard-headed administration of what has become such a huge business.

Taylor and Pat Payne | Keeneland photo

Taylor stresses that he has “the best hard-working brothers and a tremendous business partner in Pat Payne.” But to have somehow always made it all work tells you much about their upbringing. Their mother Mary was a woman of iron faith; and “Daddy” Joe commanded respect across the Bluegrass not just for the horsemanship that sustained 40 years as farm manager at Gainesway—on which vocation he literally wrote the book—but also for the probity he demanded of his children. “Don't ever do anything you wouldn't want to read about in the Herald-Leader,” he reproved them.

“He would always try and help the underdog,” Taylor says. “In his early life he experienced the Depression. A lot of those people in that generation, they had really tasted poverty, and they were geared to make work central to their lives. Mom let my dad work as long hours as he needed, and always had a hot meal for him when he came home. And from the time we were just young boys, he was taking us with him and teaching us.

“Like any young kid, we weren't a lot of help at first. But by the time we were 10 years old most of us could drive a tractor; and by the time I was 14 or 15, I was about half a veterinarian for the cattle, I knew how to plow, if the tractor got dirt in the lines I knew how to bleed the lines. I thought, 'Man, I have to work all the time while my buddies are playing ball.' But that was just the way that my father operated.”

Taylor was already the fourth of what became eight children in what he humorously likes to describe as “the Catholic business plan.” But he would lose two of his brothers, in 1968 and 1981.

“And I think that also had something to do with how you can stick together, as a family, even when you have all the pressures of being in business together,” Taylor muses. “Yes, you can still fall out over little piddling stuff, that might not seem piddling at the time when everybody's emotions get high. But if you did get mad, you'd be over it the next day, didn't harbor any grudge.

Joe Taylor at Gainesway | courtesy Taylor Made

“I was 12 years old when my older brother got killed in a car crash. My mother's faith kept her strong, but my dad was just all torn to pieces. I remember going out there with him, where the wreck had been, seeing him walk around saying: 'Oh man, why? Why did it have to happen?' And finally, he realised that he couldn't get it off his mind, so he went out to some old country roads in Jessamine County and bought 170 acres at $600 an acre. From then onwards, my sisters Emily or Mary Joe would haul us out there to work. They helped us greatly, by being the younger boys' transportation. If they didn't take us, then whatever time Daddy Joe clocked off at Gainesway, he came through and picked us up.”

They were set to work on the tangled wire fences, the fallen trees, the dilapidated barn. And that site eventually became the cornerstone of the little operation started by Taylor with his buddy Mike Shannon, a Texas schoolteacher working at Gainesway who had resolved to start a boarding farm.

“At that time of my life, I was just a kid with long hair. I was a hard worker, but if you saw me you'd think me a hippie,” Taylor recalls. “I was in U.K. and majoring in trying to get out. I had nine hours left and I quit. I'd saved up some money. When you worked for other farmers, you got paid! Cutting tobacco and baling hay, stuff like that. Mike and I both had a pick-up truck, and we put in our $10,000 apiece, and we started the farm.”

With Gainesway servicing its world-class stallion roster, Daddy Joe was sending mares to maybe a dozen different farms. The new venture received a couple mares and, between the oversight of the old man and the good work of the kids, gradually more followed. Mike also had a group of southwestern contacts sending us horses that helped us greatly in our early years.

Taylor Made at sunset | Taylor Gilkey photo

“Mike taught me a lot,” stresses Taylor. “I was a shy kid, I'd never talked on the phone to an owner, but he just got me in there to finally get used to that. And he was a risk-taker, too: we bought some mares from John Nerud, spent about $125,000 when we didn't have any money. Breaking up that group and selling them gave us a bit more of a nest egg. And meanwhile we basically built up the farm one customer at a time. You know, I don't want to knock any other farm. But being broke and hungry, when I boarded a horse, that customer meant a lot more to me than if Leslie Combs boarded a horse. I didn't have Caro!”

Having initially rented a number of different tracts, they expanded a core for what has become a 1,600-acre footprint around the new land in Jessamine: if Taylor Made had to lease stalls, then they might as well pay their own family. The game-changer, however, was a game-changer for the whole industry.

Tomorrow: Part II: Ideas, and more ideas

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