“Life around horses is its own reward.”– Joe Taylor in his 1993 book, “Joe Taylor’s Complete Guide to Breeding & Raising Racehorses” The late Joseph L. Taylor was born on Feb. 23, 1924 – preceding the 1936 opening of Keeneland and the company’s first fall yearling sale in 1944. The sale moved to its traditional September position in 1960. This year, the family-owned and -operated Taylor Made Farm is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of its family patriarch, while just as busy as ever. The farm is preparing to consign several hundred horses at the Keeneland September yearling sale, at which it is one of the perennial leading consignors. The sale also offers another showcase for Not This Time, one of America’s rising star stallions and the linchpin of the current Taylor Made stallion roster. But what would Joe Taylor, who died in an auto accident on icy roads in December 2003, be most proud of? “I think here’s why he would be proud,” mused Mark Taylor, Joe Taylor’s youngest son who today serves as president and CEO of Taylor Made. “He always just beat into our skulls that you can achieve more together than you can individually. That we’ve persevered and stuck together for this long, I think he would say, ‘Well, they actually listened to my advice!’ “I still feel like he is involved,” Mark Taylor added. “I can still feel his presence every day at the farm.” Joe Taylor came to prominence when he was hired by C.F. Gaines at Gainesway Farm, then a Standardbred operation. Under his guidance as farm manager, Gainesway owned or bred the winners of many major harness races, including the Hambletonian twice and the Kentucky Futurity four times. When Gainesway’s Thoroughbred division was established in the 1960s, Taylor helped it grow from one stallion and a handful of mares into a major stallion station and breeding operation. Taylor mentioned in several interviews that one of his favorite accomplishments was seeing six Gainesway stallions lead sire lists during his tenure – Bold Bidder, Blushing Groom, Lyphard, Riverman, Sharpen Up, and Vaguely Noble. He also raised Unbridled at the farm. Unbridled went on to win the Kentucky Derby prior to an influential stallion career. Taylor and his wife of more than a half-century, Mary Emily Marshall Taylor, had eight children – in order, Mary Joe, Emily, Danny, Duncan, Chris, Ben, Frank, and Mark. Danny died in a car accident as a teenager; Chris was murdered in 1981. The Taylor boys were essentially raised at Gainesway, where they helped in the breeding shed, prepped yearlings for sales, and learned to train young stock, hands-on experience that would benefit their future endeavors. Taylor Made was launched in 1976, when Taylor suggested that Duncan, his eldest living son and then still a college student, work with Mike Shannon to establish a facility to board mares shipped to Kentucky for breeding to Gainesway stallions. They did so, and the operation moved quickly to consigning its first horses to public auction in 1978 in Kentucky. Duncan Taylor stepped down as president and CEO of Taylor Made in 2022, with the role going to younger brother Mark, and today, Duncan officially holds the role of senior Thoroughbred consultant. Ben Taylor serves as president of the Taylor Made Stallions division, while Frank Taylor holds the role of director of new business development. Boyhood friend Pat Payne, a Thoroughbred adviser, is the other prong of the management team. Several Taylor children and grandchildren are also following into the family business, fondly dubbed “the Nexters.” The Taylor Made operation sold its first seven-figure horses and Grade 1 graduates in the 1980s, and swiftly found success with the advent of the Breeders’ Cup in that decade. Joe Taylor retired from Gainesway and joined his children to work at the farm, which has today grown to more than a thousand acres in Nicholasville, Ky. Meanwhile, he wrote his oft-referenced book, “Joe Taylor’s Complete Guide to Breeding & Raising Racehorses,” which was published in 1993. By its own count, Taylor Made has now raised and/or consigned 135 Grade/Group 1 winners. Among the most notable horses the farm has been involved with was 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. He resided at the farm as a yearling from early 2013 until that year’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale, when he showed with the farm’s consignment and was ultimately bought back by breeder Ahmed Zayat for $300,000 via bloodstock agent David Ingordo. Also in the Taylor Made “Hall of Fame” are major winners such as Kentucky Oaks winners Ashado, Farda Amiga, Serengeti Empress, and Shedaresthedevil; Preakness Stakes winners Lookin At Lucky and Louis Quatorze; Belmont Stakes winners Commendable and Drosselemeyer; and 19 individual horses who won Breeders’ Cup races. At Keeneland September, Taylor Made’s employees are instantly recognizable in their uniform of khakis, blue button-downs, and signature ties sporting the silks of these top runners. The farm has a draft of 497 yearlings across all six books at this year’s sale, which runs Sept. 9-21. Taylor Made has been Keeneland September’s leading consignor by gross sales 24 times since 1988. That includes 17 of the last 20 years, and the farm finished second by gross the other three years in that span. “It’s a team effort,” Mark Taylor said. “At Taylor Made we view our employees as part of the family, we view our customers as part of the family. So it’s a group effort.” The family approach is evident in the employees who remain with the farm for decades – several honored at an in-house ceremony, the “Taylor Made Servant Leader Awards,” at a celebration of Joe Taylor’s birth in February – and with clients who entrust the farm with their top stock for generations. Taylor Made is known for long associations with prominent owners such as Aaron and Marie Jones, and with Rick Porter’s Fox Hill Farm. For the latter, it sold Horse of the Year Havre de Grace for $10 million at the 2012 Fasig-Tipton November sale, a record for a broodmare prospect. Porter’s Songbird flirted with the mark when sold for $9.5 million five years later. The client list has grown in recent years with prominent outfits such as the Albaugh Family Stables and Larry Best’s OXO Equine, both of whom board mares, consign horses, and, crucially, stand stallions with the farm. Taylor Made’s stallion division was best known for standing Unbridled’s Song, who it raised and sold. He went on to become a multiple Grade 1 winner, including the 1995 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, before his retirement to stud in 1997. Unbridled’s Song became a prominent commercial sire to fuel operations on that end, but also a success as a leading sire and broodmare sire, represented by 23 Grade 1 winners, including Hall of Famer Arrogate and champions Forever Unbridled, Midshipman, and Will Take Charge. The farm was also associated with prominent sires Kris S. and Saint Ballado, as well as champions Speightstown and Tiznow, who stood as “Taylor Made/WinStar Ventures.” Unbridled’s Song died in 2013. Although Taylor Made stood other stallions – including California Chrome, who it bought into before his second Horse of the Year campaign, and stood for his initial seasons before his relocation to Japan – it has yet to replace him with what could be considered a truly elite sire. Until now. Grade 3-winning juvenile Not This Time, who retired to the farm for the Albaugh family in 2017, has swiftly emerged as one of North America’s leading heirs to Giant’s Causeway. Not This Time was a top 10 general sire in both 2022 and 2023, siring Eclipse Award champions in Epicenter and Up to the Mark on dirt and turf, respectively. Not This Time ranks 15th among living sires in North America through Aug. 25, with nine stakes winners this year who continue to demonstrate his versatility. His top runners this year include Cogburn, who set a North American record winning the Grade 1 Jaipur, and by sensational dirt marathon specialist Next. Overall, he is the sire of 17 graded/group stakes winners, with Epicenter, Up to the Mark, and Cogburn joined by Grade/Group 1 winners Just One Time, Princess Noor, and Sibelius. “You talk about being blessed,” Mark Taylor said. “These stallions, you’re trying to hit a very small bulls-eye, and with him we feel like he’s right in the center of the bulls-eye.” Not This Time is coming off a Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale in which he sired the topper, a $3.4 million colt purchased by bloodstock agent Donato Lanni, on behalf of Zedan Stables. Not This Time’s 10 lots sold at that elite sale averaged $846,000. “The sire has done very well,” Lanni said. “Kind of started off, you know, with I guess average mares, and he’s gotten better and better, and he’s deserving of the stud fee he stands for [now]. He’s a very, very accomplished stallion having a hell of a year. We felt good about that.” Not This Time has 121 yearlings cataloged at Keeneland September, with 29 in Book 1 including, from the Taylor Made draft, a full brother to Cogburn. Not This Time is also represented in Book 1 by half-siblings to Grade 1 winner Fault and to graded stakes winners Girl Daddy, Just Cindy, Simplification, and Upmost. As Lanni alluded, Not This Time’s current runners and yearlings were conceived on relatively modest stud fees. The stallion entered stud for an advertised fee of $15,000, which took a market-typical drop to $12,500 in 2020, the year his first foals raced. With early success, including Princess Noor in that first crop, his fee climbed to $40,000 in 2021, and $45,000 in 2022; his current yearlings were conceived in that latter season. Not This Time’s fee spiked to $135,000 in 2023, after siring his first champion, and was advertised at $150,000 this season, meaning his coming crops are likely to be his best-bred yet. “He’s done all of this [his early success] off $15,000 stud fees and less,” Mark Taylor said. “Now you’re in to these 2-year-olds that are running, on $40,000, and now it’s just going up. Thanks to the Albaughs – great family, great customers, and without them, we wouldn’t have the opportunity.” Not This Time is at the helm of a young Taylor Made roster. Grade 1 winner Instilled Regard, Grade 2 winner Instagrand, and Grade 1-placed Rowayton are all freshman sires of 2024 for OXO Equine. Instagrand is among the top 10 Kentucky residents on the freshman list through Aug. 25. Taylor Made has two stallions with first yearlings this season – 2021 Horse of the Year Knicks Go, campaigned by the Korea Racing Authority, and Juddmonte homebred Tacitus, a multiple graded stakes winner who is a full brother to Batten Down and Scylla, both graded stakes winners this year. Tacitus entered stud for a fee of $10,000. His 14 yearlings sold in the early sales this year have averaged $104,000, sparking intrigue. Next in the pipeline are Grade 1 winner Idol, a full brother to champion Nest who entered stud at Taylor Made last year, and Grade 1 winner Dr. Schivel, who stood his debut season this year. Joining the Taylor Made roster in 2024 was Preakness Stakes winner Early Voting, who began his career at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in 2023. The young stallion was removed from duty during that season due to a physical inability to breed despite being fertile. He received a unique treatment that had been discovered by researchers observing exotic birds, and was moved to Taylor Made by new ownership to continue his career. All the hard work to develop the careers of horses such as these – to develop their young stock into commercial and racetrack successes, and, in the case of some stallions and broodmares, to welcome them back to the farm for longtime clients – espouses the values family patriarch Joe Taylor extolled in his book. “Look past the dollar signs on each horse and enjoy the animals for their beauty,” he wrote. “Remember the Bedouin saying that your pregnant mare has ‘treasure in her belly’ and enjoy her pregnancy and foaling for the miracle that it is. Enjoy the foal racing in the pasture for its own sake. “Feed your racehorses carrots and kiss them on the nose. Keep a pensioner if it pleases you. Enjoy your horses.” The book’s final paragraph reads: “Remember your family and your values. All the racing success in the world can’t begin to replace the small accomplishments of sons and daughters, grandsons, and granddaughters. Make time for them. “Make time for going to church, for doing charity or volunteer work or whatever is in your power to make this a better world. Be thankful for what God had given you and be at peace with what He has not. If you are kind to your horses and your family and grateful to God, you are a success already.”