Taylor: Raising Horses an Organic Process

Taylor Made Sales' Mark Taylor saw a huge reaction to his tweet on Wednesday that read, “Do you remember when the whole world decided all American horses must be saturated with steroids? Just got a 100% clean report from @keenelandsales for the 3rd year. Haven't seen a positive yet!”

The tweet was accompanied by a photo of a letter from Keeneland's Director of Sales Operations Geoffrey Russell stating that the results of the British Horseracing Authority's post-sate drug testing had all come back negative for any substances prohibited by the BHA.

The post-sale testing option for buyers was put in place in 2015 after the BHA announced that all horses imported into Britain would be required to be accompanied by a negative anabolic steroid sample, and that any horse found to have received anabolic steroids would be banned from racing for 14 months. Rather than have buyers ship a horse across the ocean only to find that they couldn't race him, Russell said it made sense for the tests to be done here.

“We wanted to provide to our English clients some comfort that they could buy here with confidence,” he said, “so we contracted with the BHA for a system where they could be tested here and we could warrant they were free of steroids. That test would be used for their importation and they wouldn't have to be tested twice. It not only gives confidence to our English clients, but speed up the process of getting them tested.”

Taylor's tweet was meant to underscore that the product being raised in America was clean, and in his mind, always had been.

The BHA announcement came just a year after two steroid scandals in Europe saw trainers suspended for a combined total of 13 years.

“I remember being in meetings with the CBA (the Consignors and Breeders Association) where people from the BHA were there and the tone was, `we know you guys are basically using anabolic steroids to raise your horses,” said Taylor. “The implication was that it was just commonplace everywhere, and so what are you going to do to give us proof that you're cleaning up your act?” In fact, he said that Taylor Made typically sells between 12-15 percent of America's auction yearlings and the concept that they were being raised on steroids was foreign to him.

“I had not seen that in our universe of customers, and so it was really an odd thing,” he said. “I didn't understand where it was coming from. It was a potential big hit for our industry because it had just been put out there in the media like it was a foregone conclusion.”

Russell said that Keeneland had already introduced a domestic test for steroids in 2008, and added the BHA test in 2015 to give buyers confidence because of the perception that Taylor had heard in that meeting.

“If you even go back to when we introduced the domestic test, there was that perception out there,” said Russell. “I think the fact that we now give the warranty to the buyers as to how these horses are raised is a great thing for our marketplace and our industry. As an industry, that's what we're trying to do, to put confidence into the marketplace. American sales companies offer more transparency than any in the world.”

Taylor said that the letter from Keeneland “was a nice validation of what I pretty much knew all along. We've got good horsemen, state-of-the art facilities, the best equine medicine, but by and large the way we raise horses is a very organic process. We have been doing it here in Kentucky for generations and not much has changed. We raise horses with the best nutrition, the best care, the best blacksmiths, and produce the best product we can. Getting the letter made me think in a bigger concept, just in the world in general, that everything gets painted with broad strokes and one thing can trigger a much bigger judgement with very little factual evidence to back it up.”

Russell said that the requests for horses to be tested under the BHA system has grown each year as Europeans seem to have a growing and renewed faith in America's product. One of the Taylor Made-sold horses tested last year, in fact, was the $160,000 Keeneland September 2016 yearling Roaring Lion (Kitten's Joy), who will be one of the favorites in next year's G1 English 2000 Guineas after a win in the G2 Royal Lodge S. for Qatar Racing. He missed by a neck in the G1 Racing Post Trophy in his final 2017 start.

“He's one of the best 2-year-olds in Europe and we raised him on the farm,” said Taylor. “We didn't raise him any differently than we would have done before the BHA mandates.”

In fact, said Taylor, steroid usage was never a factor in the way Taylor Made or his clients raised horses. “Not within our customer base,” he said. “[After the BHA ruling] the only thing that did change was that there were situations–and they were very infrequent–but if a horse was recovering from surgery and their appetite was down and they lost weight, you could use an anabolic steroid for a short time at a low dose.” Taylor said that that situation may have occurred once every few years. “That has now become a non-option, and it has probably been a good thing find another way to take care of them.”

Taylor said his tweet wasn't meant to be caustic or controversial. “I just wanted to shine a light on the way that whole thing that popped up for a couple of years, and that it just turned out to be nothing. I think it's good because when you're raising and buying horses, the more transparent, the better. In retrospect, I'm glad they did it because at the end of the day it gave more confidence in our product. And American-breds are winning around the world.”