Mark Taylor

  When Saint Ballado came to the farm, Duncan Taylor recalls Les Brinsfield telling him to try Mari's Book mares. "Mari's Book!" he exclaims now. "It's not like there were Mari's Book mares all around, out there in the population. But Les was a smart guy, very analytical." And it was easy to see the logic: Mari's Book was by Northern Dancer out of a Maribeau mare; and Maribeau, like Saint Ballado's sire Halo, was out of Cosmah--whose half-sister Natalma, of course, gave us the sire of Mari's Book. Plenty of...

LEXINGTON, KY - The Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale continued to keep pace with its 2021 renewal with a day of competitive bidding topped by the 3-year-old filly Ancient Peace (War Front), who sold for $650,000 to Travis Boersma's Boardshorts Stables late in Tuesday's second session of the four-day auction. "It started strong and it held pace," said Keeneland's Vice President of Sales Tony Lacy. "We've got to be very encouraged with the consistency within the market. Quality was selling well. There was hunger for the good stock...

Mark Taylor, president and CEO of Taylor Made Farm, has been named to Keeneland's Advisory Board of Directors. Longtime Keeneland directors Louis Lee Haggin III, Charles Nuckols III and Duncan Taylor will move to emeritus roles on the Advisory Board. "We welcome Mark Taylor to the Keeneland Board, where his lifelong experience in the horse industry and his business acumen will be invaluable as we navigate future opportunities and challenges," Keeneland President and CEO Shannon Arvin said. "We also thank Louis Haggin, Charlie Nuckols and Duncan Taylor for their decades-long...

Of all the pinhookers at this year's Keeneland September Sale, DeJuan Smith has definitely taken the most hands-on approach. While some sellers might watch anxiously from the back ring or in a seat in the sales pavilion, Smith will quite literally be on the shank of his own horse as it goes through the sales ring. Smith is a ringman for Keeneland and also a show person for Taylor Made Sales. On Thursday Hip 3452, his first pinhook project, will sell with Taylor Made. Could Smith be the first person...

Business is booming at Taylor Made, not just because of the company's continued status as the largest sales consignor in the country, but also on the stallion side with the continued ascent of their young star sire Not This Time. Tuesday, Taylor Made CEO joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland as the Green Group Guest of the Week to talk about Not This Time's newest Grade I winner in Runhappy Travers S. romper Epicenter, his team's approach to yearling sales and more. "You can never predict that a...

Mark Taylor joins this week's TDN Writers' Room to talk about the success of Taylor Made sire Not This Time and his Travers-winning son Epicenter. He also gives a preview of Taylor Made's consignment at the Keeneland September Sale.

Leading consignor Taylor Made Sales has announced a partnership with the Montreal-based fintech company Dello to offer cryptocurrency payments to its customers. "Taylor Made has clients from all over the world," said Taylor Made CEO Mark Taylor. "We want to make things as easy as possible for them. Accepting crypto makes good business sense." Dello enables sellers to accept cryptocurrency without ever having to convert it or handle it directly, according to a press release from Taylor Made. Since the crypto payments are settled in local currency, the seller doesn't...

He always says that had he been born in Detroit, he would have gone into the automobile trade. In other words, whatever kind of horseman he might allow us to credit him, first and foremost he came into the world a businessman. Now that Duncan Taylor is stepping down from the helm of one of its most remarkable family concerns, then, the Bluegrass can count itself fortunate that fate instead applied his flair to a more literal type of horsepower. True, the old school can't have been enamored by his...

Steve Castagnola, who was a Taylor Made team member between 1997-2009, has rejoined Taylor Made as Sales Recruiter. Castagnola's main focus will be the development of relationships and the recruitment of new business, while assisting in both the public and private sales divisions of Taylor Made. "I came to Taylor Made in January 1997 as an intern, and over my 12 years, worked with Ben Taylor in helping manage the early books of Unbridled's Song and our then fledgling stallion operation before becoming the Director of Client Development," Castagnola said....

The seasonal foliage was about the only thing falling at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, which concluded a wildly successful run in Lexington Friday afternoon. Over the course of 10 days of trade, sales officials reported gross receipts of $203,585,500 for 2470 horses sold, good for an average of $82,423. Further demonstrating the strength of middle market, the median price of $37,000 established a new November record, eclipsing the previous mark of $35,000 set on five previous occasions, but most recently in 2014. The buyback rate closed at a...

LEXINGTON, KY--The Keeneland September Yearling Sale starts its 11-day run Monday with the first of two Book 1 sessions, beginning at 1 p.m. The five-book catalogue offers a total of 4,032 yearlings by a variety of stallions, such as Triple Crown heroes American Pharoah and Justify; the red-hot Into Mischief; perennial leading sire Tapit; stalwarts like Medaglia d'Oro, War Front and Candy Ride (Arg); and top freshman sire Gun Runner. "I think when you get this volume of horses and there are a lot of really nice horses, there is...

The last time the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearlings Sale was held, Curlin recorded a memorable trifecta with the auction's top three seven-figure yearlings. Leading the way was the $1.5-million co-topper First Captain, who was tabbed a 'TDN Rising Star' and captured  the GIII Dwyer S. The Hill 'n' Dale stallion will be represented by five yearlings when bidding returns to the Humphrey S. Finney pavilion in upstate New York next week. "Curlin is truly a Classic sire," said Mark Taylor of Taylor Made Sales Agency, which will consign two fillies...