Taylor Made's Pegasus connections go beyond California Chrome

Taylor Made Farm hopes California Chrome can end his racing career with a bang in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup before shipping to its farm the next day to begin his stud career. But the Taylor family may have a soft spot in their hearts for two of the two-time Horse of the Year’s challengers as well.

Arrogate, California Chrome’s Breeders’ Cup Classic conqueror and chief Pegasus rival, is a son of Taylor Made’s late flagship sire Unbridled’s Song, giving the stallion another posthumous star. Taylor Made has a dual connection to Arrogate, as it consigned the colt’s dam, Bubbler, to the 2010 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale, where she was purchased for $170,000 by Clearsky Farm founder Eamon Cleary. Clearsky bred Arrogate.

Unbridled’s Song, a successful broodmare sire, is also represented in the Pegasus by Semper Fortis, out of the stallion’s stakes-producing daughter Rebridled Dreams.

“It feels like I’ve spent the last 20 years being an apologist for Unbridled’s Song,” Mark Taylor said. “People constantly said, ‘[His offspring] are not sound, they’re not this, they’re not that.’ The bottom line is he’s a great stallion. You look at the last five years, he’s come up with Graydar, Cross Traffic, Will Take Charge, Arrogate. He just got better with age. His legacy is just enhanced by [Arrogate], which gives us a lot of personal satisfaction.”

In addition, Pegasus longshot War Story is by the Taylor Made stalwart classic sire Northern Afleet.