John Hall, yearling manager at Taylor Made, dead at 79

John Hall, the longtime yearling manager for Taylor Made Farm who worked with a young American Pharoah, died May 22 at his home in Delaware after a battle with cancer. He was 79.

"John Hall meant a tremendous amount to Taylor Made and many in the industry," the Taylor family's Taylor Made operation said in a statement posted on its official social media channels. "Our thoughts are with his family and all those privileged to meet this one of a kind man."

Hall grew up in an equestrian family in Massachusetts. His father, Norman Hall, was a respected horseman who served as a judge at the National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden, among other roles. He transitioned the family's horse interests to breeding and raising Thoroughbreds in the 1940s, and became successful enough in the region that, after his death in 1989, the Norman Hall Stakes for statebreds became a fixture at Suffolk Downs.

John Hall and three of his four siblings made their way into work in the Thoroughbred industry as well. Hall became a client of Taylor Made, the Taylor family's Lexington, Ky.-based breeding, boarding, and sales operation which is a perennial national leading consignor at the yearling sales. In 1996, he received a job offer from the operation and moved to Kentucky, eventually taking the role of yearling manager.

"John Hall started out as a Taylor Made customer," Mark Taylor, vice president for the family operation, wrote on his Twitter account Monday night. "He later joined our team and became part of the family. He always championed the cause of any underdog. He was a devout Catholic, and set the standard of how to live an authentic Christian life. What a great man."

Among the horses Hall worked with during his long tenure at Taylor Made was 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. The colt arrived at Taylor Made in Nicholasville, Ky., in early 2013, and resided there through the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale that summer, where owner-breeder Ahmed Zayat purchased him back for $300,000 via bloodstock agent David Ingordo.

"He was made to run," Hall recalled in a 2015 interview with Daily Racing Form. "He’s what you picture in your mind growing up and being around horses, what you think you want to go out and find. . . . He was a really kind individual. He had a great mind and a great way about him. He was a colt where if you went to do something with him, it was like he’s done it before. Very, very intelligent.”

Hall semi-retired three years ago and moved to Delaware. He continued to be active in the bloodstock world, and assisted in selecting horses for the Bloodstock Investments group, an offshoot of Taylor Made.

Hall is survived by his wife Devi Hall; his sister Holly Hall; his children Joseph, Aimee, and Julie and their mother, Mary; grandchildren Jocelyn, Joshua, Jaimee, Joseph, and Harry; and great grandchildren Jaxson and Lane. Upcoming memorials for Hall will include a celebration of life at Fasig-Tipton's Lexington, Ky., headquarters in July, coinciding with the start of yearling sales season.

"John Hall made a positive impact on both horses and people," Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning wrote. "He was a genuinely good man that will be missed by many. Rest in peace, my friend."