'Stepping' Up for the Belmont Stakes

Dr. William B. Wilmot & Dr. Joan M. Taylor

By

ELMONT, NY – Thunder Gulch. Seattle Slew. Stage Door Johnny.

I'll take winners of the GI Belmont S. for…

But this wasn't a category in a recent episode of Jeopardy. These names all appear on the catalogue page of Twisted Tom (Creative Cause), a 20-1 chance on the morning-line for Saturday's 149th renewal of the 'Test of the Champion.'

A quick glance reveal that high-powered trifecta, in order, as the blaze-faced chestnut's first three damsires. Bred in New York by the husband-and-wife team of Dr. William B. Wilmot and Dr. Joan M. Taylor, the streaking Private Terms S. and Federico Tesio S. winner is owned by Gary Biszantz's Cobra Farm and R R Partners, and is trained by Chad Brown. Sol Kumin's Head of Plains Partners also recently came on board for a piece as well.

“From our point of view, we're just giddy,” Wilmot commented. “It's a lifetime achievement.”

Taylor added with a laugh, “I keep saying, 'Pinch me, I might wake up.'”

After meeting in veterinarian school, the married couple of 33 years own and operate the 200-acre Stepwise Farm–home of their three-horse broodmare band–located just five miles away from historic Saratoga Racecourse in upstate New York.

“We only have a few mares now, but we've been doing this for 25 years,” Taylor explained. “In the past, we were a small, boutique breeding operation. Over the years we have downsized.”

The couple purchased Twisted Tom's second dam Miss Turlington (Seattle Slew)–a daughter of GI Coaching Club American Oaks heroine Class Play (Stage Door Johnny)–for $100,000 at the 1994 Keeneland November Sale.

“This is a very solid family,” Taylor said. “Years ago when Bill and I were in veterinarian school, we did externships in Kentucky and were lucky enough to spend time at Claiborne Farm and actually saw Class Play there. Later we had the opportunity at the sales to purchase Miss Turlington. She was a great, big mare and Bill gets credit for realizing that she wasn't the typical Seattle Slew mare–she was like a throwback to Stage Door Johnny. She was 17 hands.”

The couple hit the ground running with the first foal that they bred from Miss Turlington, the talented turfer Incurable Optimist (Cure the Blues), a runaway winner of the 1998 GIII Pilgrim S. and GIII Generous S. Miss Turlington would also go on to produce the graded/group-placed runners Feisty Step (Coronado's Quest) and Cervinio (Elusive Quality), respectively.

Wilmot and Taylor decided to race Miss Turlington's Thunder Gulch filly Tiffany Twisted after she failed to meet her reserve as a yearling when the bidding stopped at $190,000 at the 2004 Fasig-Tipton New York-bred Sale. The chestnut won two of 13 career starts, scoring in a grassy maiden at 1 3/8 miles and an off-the-turf allowance going 1 1/4 miles, both at Delaware Park.

Twisted Tom, Tiffany Twisted's sixth winner from as many foals, RNA'd for $22,000 at both the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred Yearling Sale and Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Yearling Fall Sale. Tiffany Twisted is also represented by a Fed Biz yearling filly, who is booked for the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale this summer. After failing to get into foal to Paynter on a late cover last year, Tiffany Twisted was bred to and is currently in foal to perennial New York leading sire Freud.

“He was always a knockout baby and a very handsome foal,” Taylor recalled of Twisted Tom. “And a very well-balanced yearling. One of the things with this pedigree was to put speed into it and also put a little leg under the mare, too, because she's only 16 hands. But we may have overdone it putting the leg under him. He just kept growing and growing!

She continued, “As a weanling, he had traumatized a sesamoid. But in our opinion, not in a way that was going to compromise his career–we're both veterinarians–and we also consulted with Dr. Debbie Spike and Dr. Larry Bramlage. He was never lame or missed a day, but it showed up on the radiographs, and once you have writing on a page, it's very difficult to get these horses sold these days. By the time we sent him to Niall and Stephanie Brennan, his X-rays were perfect.”

The Brennans began to prep Twisted Tom for the 2016 OBS April 2-Year-Old Sale and all reports were positive from the outset. A :10 3/5 breeze ahead of the sale, however, failed to generate much of an interest from the buying bench and it was back to the drawing board.

“We liked this horse,” Wilmot said. “We thought he was O.K.–we really did. He never missed a day and was training good, but we didn't want him to have three RNAs. [Trainer] George Weaver comes up and says that he and his client Tom Brockley had the horse circled on their shortlist, and we wound up making a private deal with them for not a lot of dough. Stephanie Brennan then asks if they can geld the horse. Was he evil? No. Was he big, rough and good feeling? Yeah. Could he have been more focused? Yeah.”

After graduating at second asking for Weaver over the Belmont turf last September, Twisted Tom was sold privately to Biszantz and transferred to Brown. Sixth in his first attempt for his new connections in a grassy optional claimer at the Big A in late November, Brown decided to make a few changes–one: add blinkers and two: return him to dirt. Twisted Tom has been perfect in three starts, including a pair of stakes tallies, since.

If the Wilmot name sounds familiar, it should. He is the son of New York breeder William F. Wilmot and he also trained Gold and Myrrh to an upset of the mighty Forego in the 1975 GI Met Mile. Somewhat frustrated as a conditioner–the firing of Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew's trainer Billy Turner left a stinging impression with Wilmot-and, despite his share of success, Wilmot decided to change gears and attend veterinarian school to “become a more complete horsemen.”

Wilmot and Taylor have also bred millionaire Naughty New Yorker (Quiet American) and standouts such as Time's Mistress (Mr. Greeley) and Pupil (Unbridled). The couple is also closely monitoring the career of another promising 3-year-old that they bred. Holiday Disguise (Harlan's Holiday), a winner of three straight for Lady Sheila Stable and trainer Linda Rice, including Belmont's Bouwerie S. May 29, is booked for her first test against open company in next month's GIII Victory Ride S. in Elmont.

“We're so happy. I kind of compare it to a movie,” Wilmot concluded of Twisted Tom's rags-to-riches story. “We're like the screen writers. Chad's the director and Gary Biszantz is the producer. But it's also taken an awful lot of other people along the way who got their hands on this horse-Denali's Craig Bandoroff, Niall and Stephanie Brennan, Gallagher Stud's Mallory Mort and exercise rider Peter Roman.”

Showtime for Twisted Tom is 6:37 p.m. Saturday evening.

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