A Tribute to an Old Friend

Editor's Note: The 1996 Preakness winner, Louis Quatorze died of a heart attack at Murmur Farm February 17 at the age of 24. He was the first Classic winner sold by Taylor Made, and Mark Taylor submitted the following to the TDN in tribute to him.

If we ever created a Mount Rushmore-type of memorial at Taylor Made Farm, and we could pick only four horses to carve in the mountain, so to speak, we would seriously consider Louis Quatorze. After all, he was our very first Classic winner. That's something you never forget. And the impact that had, as far as opening doors and enhancing the reputation of Taylor Made in our early years, is immeasurable.

His foaling was greatly anticipated because we loved the mare (On to Royalty, by On To Glory), we loved the mating with Sovereign Dancer, and we wanted to see what we were going to get.

My brother, Duncan, our in-house pedigree guru, helped choose the mating for our longtime client Georgia Hofmann. When you put Sovereign Dancer over On To Royalty, it gives you 3X5 inbreeding to Grey Flight, who was one of Duncan's favorite mares of all time.

Whether Louis Quatorze's success stemmed from the mating or not, I've got to give Duncan some credit, because as soon as it was done, he said, 'this is going to be fantastic…this is going to work for all these reasons.' So Louis Quatorze was a horse everybody always had eyes on.

There's an awesome picture of him we took of him when he was about two months old. He's reaching up and biting his mom on the lip in the conformation shot. He had a really distinct blaze down his face that was so cool looking at that phase.

Growing up, Louis Quatorze was pretty straightforward and had no problems–he was a good one from day one. He had a lot of charisma and was a really cool horse. Some horses you're around and mentally they're like bulletproof. It seems like they're not disturbed by whatever is going on in their immediate environment. It's funny because his sire, Sovereign Dancer, was famous for being hot-blooded, high strung and high energy. But Louis Quatorze was all class.

We sent him to Mrs. Hofmann's farm in Florida and he toed out a little bit in his left front leg as a weanling, but we thought he'd eventually come around and be okay. When he came back to us in April to get inspected and prepared for the Keeneland July sale, we thought he'd be straighter in front, but he still toed out pretty bad.

He still was accepted to Keeneland July sale, however, because he had a gorgeous profile. He was just a hunk of a horse and had natural muscle all over and a beautiful blaze. His body and athleticism were undeniable.

I was 25 years old at the time and had just returned to Taylor Made from Dubai where I had spent a year working for trainer Satish Seemar. He had taught me a lot about breaking horses and we started all our July sale-bound yearlings under tack. We thought it gave the horses an edge when people bought them–they were ahead of the curve and had a nice foundation.

At the time, I didn't know which horses were going to be runners, or if any of them were going to be. I was a novice in the round pen at getting horses to hook up, but when I got Louis Quatorze in there, I felt like everything clicked. I thought, 'This horse is really smart.' I got the tack on him and everything was seamless and instantaneous for him and I'll always remember that.

He went to the July sale and prepped fantastic, but he ended up being a RNA and Mrs. Hofmann bought him back. The next day, we were trying to get the horse sold. Nick Zito was there and we put a deal together where Bill Condren, Mrs. Hofmann and Mr. Cornacchia partnered on the horse and decided to race him together. The rest, as they say, is history.

It's pretty cool…from that same crop in 1996 we also had Unbridled's Song as a weanling at Taylor Made, so that was a breakout year for us. He and Louis Quatorze ended up being rivals on the racetrack and were both tremendous racehorses. Unbridled's Song put in a scintillating performance in the Florida Derby, but Louis Quartorze nor any other horse could touch him that day. Unbridled's Song got the best of him in the Florida Derby, then Louis Quatorze ran poorly in the Kentucky Derby, so nobody really paid much attention to him going into the Preakness. He wasn't on people's radar screens, but he put in a breathtaking performance under Pat Day. He took him wire-to-wire and won it easily.

On Preakness Day that year, my wife and I were out looking at houses and I stopped our realtor and said, 'We've got to watch the Preakness.' I remember how Louis Quatorze's performance gave me goose bumps…it was fantastic and I didn't expect it. We ended up not buying the particular house we were looking at, but at least we got to use the TV.

Louis Quatorze went on to have a great career…he came back and won the Jim Dandy, and then put on a hell of a run in the Breeders' Cup Classic, finishing a close second to Alphabet Soup, and beating the great Cigar, who came in third. He turned into a phenomenal racehorse.

He also became a decent sire. We tried to bring him back to Taylor Made to stand, but it wasn't meant to be…he sired many good stakes horses, including graded winners Repent, Choctaw Nation, and Bushfire, who we sold for $1.8 million.

You always remember your first breakout success, and for Taylor Made, Louis Quatorze was just that. He will always remain a big part of our farm's history, and played a pivotal role in the formative years of Taylor Made. It was sad to see Louis Quatorze go, but I was glad he had a nice, long life. He was a great racehorse and a productive stallion and he was just a special horse; there's no doubt about it.