(Update – Unbelievably, 24 hours have passed and the only mentions of this item on Google News come from racing publications.)
Jockey Bill Hartack, aboard Northern Dancer with E. P. Taylor. 1964 Kentucky Derby.
Windfields Farm to close its doors
Windfields Farm, the legendary Canadian breeding operation that bred 48 champions including 1964 Kentucky Derby winner Northern Dancer, will close its doors following a dispersal of its remaining bloodstock at the 2009 Keeneland November breeding stock sale.
E. P. Taylor founded Windfields in Oshawa, Ontario, in 1936. The surviving members of the Taylor family issued a press release on Thursday stating that due to the nature of ownership, their ages, and their interests, they reached the emotional decision to discontinue the Thoroughbred operation.
“What my father started has lasted far longer than anyone imagined,” said Taylor’s daughter, Judith Taylor Mappin, president of Windfields. “We have been so fortunate with our horses and our staff that we remained in this business we love for decades longer than expected.[…]
E. P. Taylor became the first Canadian member of The Jockey Club in 1953. He bred Northern Dancer in his own name, and the Nearctic colt was voted champion three-year-old of 1964, going on to become one of the most influential sires in history.
Taylor received Eclipse Awards as Outstanding Breeder in 1977 and ’83, and Windfields has been North America’s leading breeder by purse money nine times, by stakes wins 13 times, and by wins 19 times.
I don’t even want to think how much it would cost to run an establishment like this. The talented breeders alone would be in great demand.
I guess its hard to keep the flourishes of a civil society when its desolving.
The fact no one was left in this family to take over underscores the subtle decay of our civilization into the depth of absolute apathy.
JMO
E.P. Taylor was a favourite target of the lefties…..
I can understand the Taylors abandoning this in the face of brutal taxes and complaints about flies, smells (after being swallowed by urban spawl)…….and the ever present unaccountable animal rights activists……….
Sasquatch…What the hell ever happened to the “Right to Farm” legislation in Ontario?
Sad… I took my wife to Woodbine on one of our first dates 1980… pulled into the VIP lane with Valet parking…Up to the lounge.. and with a haphazard attitude bet the gray in the third race $1OO w&p… Won going away.. She was impressed enough to get to know me.. (Of Course I was a hard core handicapper who got the Racing forum that morning & picked my best bet in that race) love horse racing
The amazing thing about E.P. Taylor was that he bred horses to sell but kept and raced those that didn’t sell and still won championships with them. Northern Dancer didn’t sell because he was small. So Taylor kept him and the rest is history.
I love horses.
On a beautiful summer evening out on the deck, there’s nothing like a good barbecued steak with a margarita or two.
It is good idea to have small race horse and food for animal get cheap and place to hold them in all season
then cover their horse shit with dipar holding
then we can stop drive car and rather than having bycle have hores road to go to work
that may look funny but save gas too
for short distance like
cowboy film
some horse are smaller in size in Iran and they are cheaper to cost of food and bring them every where
change car and bycle with rid the horse instead like old time every thing can be possible
or have entertainment to have like golf to used golf place to use for rid by horse rather than car to go from one place to other place
just be creative to open new market to keep animal runing
unfortuantly some peopel made good thing but thier children can not run it like parents
As a youngster I used to on occasion make the long bicycle ride out to Windfields to see the horses. It was a full days journey to get there and back home in time for supper… It was all rural country then. Sometimes we’d do it in the fall, questing for chestnuts from the stately big trees that used to line Simcoe north, back in a day. A splendid summer excursion for a pair of young lads with “nuttin better to do”…:)
“Northern Dancer didn’t sell because he was small. So Taylor kept him and the rest is history.”
That’s an understatement. Isn’t pretty much EVERY serious thoroughbred contender these days a descendant of Northern Dancer?
Whitby – Oshawa was my hometown growing up. Use to love driving north on Simcoe past the Windfield farms, it must have been 2 thousand acres of immaculately kept farmland. The out buildings for the farmhands were nice tudor style cottages or crafted from cut fieldstone.
Now suburbia nibbles on it edges. Alas it’ll only get worse now with the Taylors selling out. Really sad because developers won’t give a sh!t – fields of monster homes on postage stamp size lots. A lot of Oshawa is 3rd rate strip mall – the city has always competed with Hamilton for being the armpit of Ontario.
Well actually who knows – maybe it’ll be delayed for a while now that GM is hugely downsizing….
I can identify personally with many of the previous comments. Since then, the beautiful verdant countryside and bountiful farmland has been paved over with the relentless growth of Toronto and its surrounding Counties of Peel, York and Durham. As a CONSERVative I say that, the verdant and productive countryside that remains needs to be CONSERVED. I am old enough to remember how it was. Even in this deep recession the productive farmland continues to be paved over by the relentless growth of the Toronto area.
Sadly I also remonstrate with E.P. Taylor’s heirs.
Their business properties were stolen from them through the machinations of Conrad Black. Although legal they were underhanded and without compassion when dealing with E.P. Taylor’s widow.
Conrad Black also gained control from Taylor one of the largest grocery chains in Canada at the time. Dominion Stores! Consequently he attempted to steal the pensions of those who worked there.
Therin lies the “Rest of the Story”
Hoarfrost – I was unaware of the Conrad Black angle. What little gruding admiration I had for him just evaporated.
Conrad Black represents the extreme of the right wing in modern Canadian politics. Much of what he writes makes a great deal of sense to me. I have a lot of trouble equating what he says to what he has done. His wife, Barbara Amiel’s political opinions also positively impress me. So too does George Jonas, whose book I just bought in a clearance at Indigo.
Black expresses his opinions eloquently on issues of the day. I sometimes agree and less often I disagree.
He needs to explain himself and his life as much as he attempts to explain others like Roosevelt, in print.
Hoarfrost,
Aside from Black’s eloquent opinions (I agree there) he does need to explain himself. He won’t, though, because he is an arrogant prick. He has no soul. He & Amiel suit each other in team harness as she appears to have become his reflective equal in that department. Amiel was always an elitist type…maybe that’s why George Jonas dumped her?
Agent Smith,
Check into Black’s Argus history et al…lots more of the same. (Google “Argus Corp” to see about that empire…quite impressive). Some would call it good negotiations but it was mostly legal theft. His dealings with the Widow McDougald showed that. Black’s need for $’s was led by his “gut & run” policy in business….buy, sell off the best cuts and then dispose of the carcass to a rendering plant. He looks good in a US prison.
Cheers
A tremendous run. Sad to see it go. At least Northern Dancer lives on through genetics. 🙂
Interesting to realize that EP’s successful horse breeding and racing was funded by 300 brands of bland over processed piddle water he called national branded beer.
That’s why even today there are generations of Canadians who have never tasted a fresh naturally brewed beer.
Garry….agree 100% about Black and his JAP. I think one of the reasons he got nailed in the U.S. was they don’t suffer arrogant,self praising thieves too much(BamBam take note).As much as it sickens me to say it,the one good thing Cretin did was make the jerk renounce his CDA citizenship so he could accept his prize of knighthood from his slobbering socialist U.K. brethen.
3rd Generation always takes the house down.
,
The Glengarrian at August 20, 2009 10:10 PM
**Sasquatch…What the hell ever happened to the “Right to Farm” legislation in Ontario?**
Yeah!!! That has been a slowly evolving thing.
Much high rhetoric but I wonder.
Years back a fella here was rebuffed when he attempted to sever a lot to build a retirement home…then came an alleged farmer seeking to relocate from the GTA…..the ink wasn’t dry on the deed when the zoning changed and a mall went up. It’s now been bulldozed and Toyota Rav4’s now are erected there…..
I would support a “Save Windfields Farm” agenda….it has equal merit to the “Save the Moraine” agenda….
A long time past some far thinking fella saved Central Park for New York. Paris’ many parks are the legacy of Napolean Bonoparte….
3rd Generation always takes the house down.
Posted by: Ratt at August 21, 2009 10:29 AM
Not always:
http://www.jrsl.ca/ENG/history.html
*
hmmm… i think the oshawa location was a later iteration.
the original windfields farm was located off bayview just below 401… mrs neo
used to walk through and explore it when she was a kid…
Windfields Farm was founded in 1937. It was Taylor’s wife Winnifred
who came up with the “Windfields” name while the couple were out
walking on their property during a windy autumn day.
E.P. Taylor’s Windfields mansion located at 2489 Bayview Avenue,
was also gifted to the city by the Taylor family in 1968. This Colonial
Revival style mansion is now the home of the Canadian Centre for
Advanced Film Studies, which opened its doors in 1988.
*
Oh God, I feel old. I remember that race.
I live in that old part of Oshawa just off Simcoe Street. I really hope they won’t but I am sure they will, build huge soulless subdivisions on that land. It will make traffic on Simcoe worse than it already is, as its the only way down to the 401.
Louise,
I remember it also…1964…almost seems like yesterday!
You might Google up the race…brings back memories…
Cheers…
(14 on this end…sshhhhh!..don’t feel that old though)
(pssst: hoarfrost, agent smith, garry et al: re inmate ‘the conrad’ black, you need to keep mum with your opinions of the conrad’s business dealings here at sda. I took a huge amount of flack from the regulars during his trial for pointing out such salient actions as his carting off boxes of something in the glare of the surveillance camera. apparently because the contents were unknown from the video, ardent rightists claimed that it was perfectly acceptable for ‘the conrad’ to be taking ‘stuff’ out of hollinger building late in the evening.
babs must have had an enormous shopping list that night eh?)
Neo: there was more than one property in the “Windfield Farms” portfolio, as I recall. I too seem to remember something about the bayview property (dating from about 1958 or so ) as well. The Simcoe north farm was in operation before 1950 for sure.
You mean they couldn’t get government funding? 😛