Running on Empty - by Joe Hickey

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:13:00 GMT

Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Aug. 11, 1972 — From inside the darkened recesses of Primrose Path, where the power players and wannabes sit down with Jack Daniel’s and Jim Beam to schmooze and make deals, a cry rose above the revelry, “You guys better sharpen your pencils.”

A round of laughter ensued; everybody got the message.

Windfields vice president Joe Thomas and I walked on, knowing full well we were the butt of the taunting.

There wouldn’t be martini lunches at Old Bryan Inn, nor delectable dinners at Chez Pierre or Wishing Well this August. Instead, we kept a self-imposed low profile, eating at the Spa Diner while sharing a bat-ridden room on Calvin Coolidge-era mattresses in Mrs. Vogel’s Union Avenue garret.

Black Friday. It was the night that Windfields Farm ran aground. Threw craps. Bombed—done-in by announced reserves. E.P. Taylor had utilized that sales format with marked success for years at yearling sales in Canada, where the buying public looked to the great breeder for guidance as to a racing prospect’s worth.

He had gambled and won at a pre-priced farm sale in 1962, when buyers passed up year-old Northern Dancer at his $25,000 reserve. E.P. gambled and lost in 1968 when Nijinsky II, carrying an announced reserve of $60,000 at Woodbine, was purchased for Charles Engelhard for a Canadian record $84,000. Two years later, Nijinsky II became the only English Triple Crown winner since Bahram in 1935. E.P. Taylor never got over losing the greatest racehorse he ever bred, just as Ogden Phipps rued the day he lost Secretariat on a foal-sharing coin flip to Penny Chenery.

When Windfields entered the U.S. yearling market as a consignor in 1971 at Saratoga, the format was to sell with announced reserves. Results were mixed: seven of 10 yearlings with combined reserves of $250,000 brought $452,000, topping the sale in average. It was worth a return engagement.

Showings leading up to the Friday night sale were disappointing, chiefly because our marquee colt—a Dr. Fager half-brother to Northern Dancer—had been scratched after being cast. We needed a “talking horse”—or a barker out front.

Seated behind Mrs. Taylor in the Humphrey S. Finney sales pavilion—named for my mentor—I could see the muscles in the boss’ jaw twitch as he bit down on his pipe stem when the first two Northern Dancer colts left the ring without drawing a bid. Joe Thomas slouched lower in his seat.

The Nearctic—Eastern Melody colt at $25,000 drew two bids, opening and closing. Tartan bought the Nearctic—Flaming Issue colt at the $35,000 asking price. Then the bottom fell out.

A Viceregal colt out of Fleur (she was later to produce The Minstrel, an Epsom Derby winner syndicated for a record $9 million) didn’t meet his asking price of $60,000. “Good,” responded Mrs. Taylor. “I didn’t want to sell him, anyway.” Her husband flushed and all but disappeared in a plume of smoke. “Winnie, will you please stop that…”

When the Buckpasser filly failed to attract a bid, Mrs. Taylor was on her side. “She’s such a lovely filly. I’m glad she’s going home.”

“That’s enough, Winnie.”

When the 1972 blood-letting was over, only four of 15 Windfields yearlings were sold after five bids. The consignment leader at $100,000 was a small, unfinished March 15 foal by Northern Dancer—Lady Victoria, by Victoria Park, that Jim Scully’s Thoroughbred Productions bought for Zenya Yoshida. The blaze-faced miler was a multiple group winner in France, including the group I Prix de la Foret.

Retired to stud at Yoshida’s Shadai base in Hokkaido, Northern Taste raised Japan’s breeding industry to an international level. As the Lexington of the Pacific Rim, he reigned as Japan’s leading sire 11 consecutive years and topped the country’s broodmare sires a number of times before Sunday Silence dethroned him.

A resilient risk-taker all his life, E.P. Taylor did not bruise easily. He survived a torpedoing during WW II, and in his 70s walked away from an earthquake in Mexico.

Footnote: Among Windfields’ leftovers from the 1972 Saratoga sale was Canadian champion-to-be Lord Durham. Windfields returned with announced reserves in 1973 and 1974, leading all consignors both years.

And the glory years at Keeneland July were still to come.

Joe Hickey, who lives in Easton, Md., has been a publicist, writer, breeding farm administrator, and racing commissioner.

Piece of Cake - by Joe Hickey

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:06:00 GMT

Stepping down from his Windfields jet, E.P. Taylor bounded across the tarmac into the terminal building, where he pulled up short in front of a vending machine.
“Help me, Joe. I don’t have any U.S. change.”
As I sorted through my change for quarters, the Canadian tycoon described by biographer Peter Newman as “the ultimate personification of the riches gained and power wielded,” fumed, “Never mind. Damned if I’m going to pay 75 cents for a slice of stale pound cake!”
This, in July 1974, was the only time in a quarter-century as Mr. Taylor’s point man for Maryland operations that I had ever known him to balk at price, either buying or selling.
He didn’t flinch when, a year earlier, the price for Cragwood Stable’s sire prospect Tentam was $2.2 million, a record figure for a horse in training.
He didn’t haggle when I introduced him to a neighbor who was interested in selling her farm. “Your price, madam?” When she responded, he beamed, “Good. I’ll have my Toronto office cut a check in the morning.”
As we departed, I asked Mr. Taylor if he wanted to drive through the farm, to inspect his latest acquisition. “No, that won’t be necessary. I’ve flown over this property so often I know what’s here. This exercise is mainly to protect my flank.”
When E.P. Taylor would fly in from out of the country, he had to land for customs inspection at New Castle Airport, the approach to which took him over Delaware Park, home turf to the extended du Pont sporting families. It had, however, fallen on lean times.
E.P. had a plan to buy and energize Delaware Park: concentrate on 2-year-old and turf races so that New York and New Jersey trainers could set up separate divisions for runners lacking racing opportunities on the home front.
“Let’s go see if they are ready to talk, Joe.”
As we waited in the turf club to feel out senior staff, we noted executives hunched over a small table, engaged in some sort of frenetic activity. Asked later about this, an officer replied, “Oh, that. We were playing Pac-Man.” The boss was not amused.
As it developed, the board was still hopeful of a turnaround. By the time they were ready to sell, Mr. Taylor was gravely ill. William Rickman, the elder, wound up buying Delaware Park. His enterprising son, also named William, now enjoys “slotsa” success with the Stanton oval.
The evening of the pound cake caper, Mr. Taylor, Windfields’ vice president of Thoroughbred operations Joe Thomas, and I met over dinner to discuss the purchase and syndication of the sire prospect Halo, then training forwardly at Belmont Park with MacKenzie Miller, after a $600,000 sale to Irving Allen’s Derisley Wood Stud in England had been voided because Halo was a cribber.
Undaunted that the $600,000 Halo was now priced at a million, Mr. Taylor also shook off the cribber knock. Wasn’t Kelso, just a whinny away at Woodstock Farm, a world-class cribber?
The deal was struck and the 5-year-old son of Hail to Reason—Cosmah, by Cosmic Bomb, was syndicated for $1,200,000—40 shares at $30,000 each. Shortly thereafter, Halo won the $100,000 United Nations Handicap in Windfields’ turquoise and gold.
As with so many of Windfields’ great latter-day successes, Mr. Taylor did not get to savor Halo’s. Stricken by a debilitating stroke in October 1980, the great breeder was non compos mentis while Halo reigned as leading sire of 1983, the year his son Sunny’s Halo won the Kentucky Derby.
In February 1984, Charles Taylor (who had succeeded his father as Windfields president), Joe Thomas, and I met in a Manhattan brownstone to arrange the sale of Halo to Tom Tatham (Oak Creek Breeders) and Arthur B. Hancock III (Stone Farm) for $36 million—that was some price for a 15-year-old stallion.
It was a great deal for both buyer and seller. Original shareholders who had bought in at $30,000 and had the use of the stallion for 10 years received $900,000 if the 1984 breeding right was included. Otherwise, the bounty was $700,000.
Re-syndicated in Kentucky, Halo went on to earn his second sire title (1989) on the back of his gifted Horse of the Year son, Sunday Silence.

Joe Hickey, who lives in Easton, Md., has been a publicist, writer, breeding farm administrator, and racing commissioner.

Final Turn : E.P. Taylor

Running on Empty - by Joe Hickey

Piece of Cake - by Joe Hickey