Taylors Gladly Making Mischief

Last horse into the ring, in the first session; and then two within minutes next day. Three Into Mischief colts, all from the same consignment at the 2024 Keeneland September Sale.

And how's that working out? Well, just Dandy.

Hip 232 was Renegade, who beat his old neighbor Hip 181 Commandment half-a-length in the GII Jim Dandy Stakes last month. And their absent friend? That was Hip 241, champion juvenile Ted Noffey, completing a Taylor Made monopoly of the three Grade I-winning colts in Into Mischief's 2023 crop.

Pretty good work, albeit one or two in the Taylor Made stallion division may be wryly resentful. Because without these farm graduates in Into Mischief's camp, their top gun Not This Time would have a much better chance of breaking the champion's monopoly. Even as it is, Not This Time is laying down the biggest challenge he has faced since 2019.

“I know, I know,” says farm president Mark Taylor with a chuckle. “So we're kind of conflicted. But then Spendthrift is one of our best customers. We recognize that Into Mischief is still king of the hill. One day we hope that Not This Time can take the mantle, but even to be mentioned in the same breath, well, we never thought we'd have a stallion like that.”

And meanwhile these three make a crucial statement ahead of the world's biggest yearling sale. Taylor Made has achieved the highest gross at Keeneland September every year, bar one, since 2015. The response to being pipped by Gainesway, in 2023, has been emphatic. In both years since, they happen to have processed exactly 333 yearlings. In 2024, they generated $53.1 million. Last year the consignment soared to $68.5 million.

So while “family” is literally central to their brand, the Taylor brothers recognize that the sheer scale of their operation must not be perceived as getting in the way of the intimate business of preparation and consignment.

Mark Taylor | Keeneland

“The thing most disappointing thing to me is if people sometimes only think about us as a customer service and marketing company,” Taylor acknowledges. “If they don't think about horsemanship. Anybody who knew my dad knows he lived, ate, breathed horses. He wrote the book.”

And that, of course, is not even a figure of speech.

“So that was all baked into us,” Taylor continues. “Raising good horses is something we're very passionate about. It's very difficult to do, and you can't make a horse run faster than God created him. But you can help them grow up healthy and strong. And you can get in their way, too-in a heartbeat. So we try to minimize mistakes and give them everything they need to fulfill their potential.”

With that in mind, Taylor is especially gratified that these colts represent three of the farm's most faithful collaborators.

None more so than Ted Noffey's late breeder Marie Jones, whose death only a month before the sale plainly makes it poignant that her mare should have left behind a brother to Ted Noffey catalogued for Book 1 [54].

It was the late Aaron Jones who had been integral to the establishment of a Taylor Made stallion barn.

“Basically he was our financier,” Taylor explains. “When we found Saint Ballado, he put up all the money and let us manage him. And then, once he got his money back, which thankfully did not take long, he gave us a significant chunk of the horse. Just gave it to us: said, 'Hey, you guys did a great job.'

“When first introducing himself to Aaron Jones, [Taylor's older brother] Frank was 19, 20 years old. If you're telling the story of Taylor Made, it can't be told without Aaron and Marie Jones. Because they believed early on, when there really was no track record to base it on. They just took a roll of the dice.”

Streak of Luck at Taylor Made in September | Sarah Andrew

The core of the Jones program, working with Frank and in recent years Katie Taylor, was to buy mares from which to breed commercial yearlings. Streak of Luck (Old Fashioned) was a case in point, when bought for $620,000 at the 2021 Keeneland November Sale. She was cashed out for exactly 10 times that sum at Fasig-Tipton last fall-a couple of days after her son, a $650,000 yearling recruit by Spendthrift, completed his unbeaten juvenile campaign at the Breeders' Cup.

“If you look at the Taylor brothers, I think we all bring different passions and expertise to the table,” says Taylor. “Duncan would be the most well-versed on pedigree, he's real big on female families. Frank and I are more conformation people, looking for an athlete. And Ben is the analytical brother, who helps make common-sense decisions after everyone has given their opinion.

“Streak of Luck is a gorgeous mare, very prototypical of what Frank has bought the Joneses over the years. He hung his hat on buying them good-looking mares. And then they took this one, that they loved, and bred her to an expensive horse. Some people might have said, 'Oh, maybe you're overbreeding a little bit.' But it certainly paid off.”

Lee Pokoik, by contrast, is a relative newcomer-after a mere decade or so.

“But he bought yearlings from us for a number of years before that,” Taylor notes. “He was always a loyal Taylor Made buyer, and moved some mares to us about 10 years ago. He breeds for the commercial market, but if they don't bring what he wants, he'll race them-especially fillies.”

Pokoik offered GI Spinaway Stakes winner Sippican Harbor (Orb) when she retired, but she failed to meet her reserve.

“It was like fate came into play,” recalls Taylor. “He tried to sell her right off the track, but when that didn't work, he said, 'Well, if nobody wants to pay me a premium, I'll get foals out of her.'”

Renegade (outside) works at Saratoga | Sarah Andrew

He evidently took a similar view when Sippican Harbor's daughter by Elite Power stalled at $575,000 in the recent Saratoga Sale. Commandment himself, after all, was offered both as a weanling and at Saratoga before finally changing hands at Keeneland.

“We thought we were home free, that this horse was going to bring all the money,” Taylor recalls. “But just one of those things: you never know how horses are going to present themselves. He was kind of flat at Saratoga, just not himself, not animated.

“Because he was always a very charismatic kind of horse. So we brought him back and he goes into Book 1 as a supplement. It still ended up kind of disappointing. He brought $500,000, but we felt like he should have been $750,000, maybe more. But credit to Case Clay, he loved him. And now the horse has gone on and proven himself a warrior: tough, sound, talented.”

As for Robert and Lawana Low, breeders of Renegade, Taylor reckons them to have been clients for 30 years-right back to when Capote Belle (Capote) won the 1996 GI Test Stakes.

“They have their own beautiful farm in Missouri,” he stresses. “So they get a lot of credit. And they met Jacob West, their bloodstock advisor, while he was with us. So we all work very synergistically together. Robert and Lawana are so passionate, whether it's Grade I or claiming horses.

“Renegade was gorgeous, phenomenal. As a yearling, a little stretchier and rangier than Commandment. He was born on Taylor Made but went back to Missouri for several months and they did a great job. Then we raised him through his yearling year and got him ready for the sale. I'm really grateful that Mike Repole was so enthusiastic about them staying in, on half of the horse. I think when he bid $975,000, there was no deal in place. But then they had a little seller's remorse, and he was like, 'Well, come on, let's do this.' And of course it was Jacob, who does business with both, who put that together.”

Taylor was unsurprised to see Renegade renew his candidature for crop leadership in the Jim Dandy.

“There was a lot of debate after the Derby,” he remarks. “How much did that first eighth take out of him? Running at a 45-degree angle and being smashed? To have the mentality to drop out the back, recollect himself, and then make that run, says a lot about his class and determination. I think Todd [Pletcher, trainer] had to baby him a little bit before the Belmont, the Derby took a lot out of him.”

Renegade and Commandment in the Jim Dandy | Sarah Andrew

Taylor reports that his dam Spice Is Nice (Curlin) has a “beautiful” Not This Time colt, followed by a Justify filly that will similarly be retained.

“We went to see her in Missouri and she's really nice,” he says. “But Robert was like, 'She's a filly. Renegade means a lot to us, so she's not going to see a sale.' Which I think is a sound business decision. Even if she never runs, she's good enough to fit his broodmare band. And if she does, the sky's the limit.”

Okay, case pretty well proven: Taylor Made produced these horses through the lasting trust of their respective breeders. But if that's the big picture, how about the detail?

“Well, this came straight from my dad,” Taylor replies. “He wanted horses outside unless there's a very meaningful reason to be inside. The horses that grow up here are not pampered. Now, prepping a horse for sale, we need them looking great. So those last 60 or 70 days, they're going to stay up 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. But before that, they're out there running. We don't separate the colts unless there's one really getting picked on, maybe not getting the nutrition he needs. We really believe in horses living outside and getting that foundation off the land.”

People ask why the foals are mudded every day, year round.

“They say it looks a massive waste of time,” Taylor says. “But my dad said it tightens their joints up, and keeps the flies off of them so they're not stomping and breaking their feet off. But mainly it was so that when he drove through the farm at night, and saw every one of those foals had mud on his legs, he knew somebody was looking at each one of them, every single day. So many of his brilliant management ideas were not high-tech. They were just common sense. So we try to keep that going, in what we're doing every day.

“A sire of the quality of Into Mischief, with all the great mares he gets, he's going to have three colts win a Grade I in a given crop. But for all three to grow up in such close proximity? That's a rare thing.”