Taylor Made Hoping to Sell Next 'Rising Star'

Taylor Made Sales Agency has already sold two 'TDN Rising Stars' out of the mare Temple Street (Street Cry {Ire}) who have both lived up to the title with black-type wins, and hope to have another star on their hands in her yearling colt by Tiznow, who is being offered as Hip 90 during Monday's opening session of the Keeneland September sale.

“He is a really good representation of Tiznow,” Taylor Made's Mark Taylor remarked Friday afternoon. “He looks like a Classic-type horse, very well-balanced. He just has a type of charisma about him. He's just one of those horses that sticks out from the pack. He was raised in a big pack at Taylor Made, but he was always a cut above. Out here at the sale, too, he just has this unbelievable work and this command of whatever environment he is in. He knows he's the man. He's a very neat horse. He's the kind of horse that is fun to be around because you get the feeling he might be something special.”

The second foal out of Temple Street and first to make the races, Donworth (Tiznow) was scheduled to sell at the 2013 renewal of this sale, but was scratched after being privately purchased by Regis Farm after owner Nat Rea and his team saw him at Taylor Made.

Tabbed a “TDN Rising Star” after a debut win at Gulfstream for trainer Graham Motion in March of 2015, he hit the board in both the GIII Coolmore Lexington S. and Sir Barton S. before romping by 11 lengths in Delaware's Stanton S. last summer.

Shelved for the rest of the season, Donworth sold to Reddam Racing for $550,000 at the Keeneland November sale and was transferred to California-based conditioner Doug O'Neill. Third behind Grade I winner Hoppertunity (Any Given Saturday) when making his seasonal bow in the GII San Antonio S. Feb. 6, the 4-year-old failed to fire when seventh in the GI Santa Anita H. Mar. 12 and was third when last seen in the GII Charles Town Classic Apr. 23.

“When we had Donworth on the farm, I always said about him that he looks like the best looking Street Cry I've ever seen,” Taylor commented by phone from the Keeneland sales grounds. “The mare is by Street Cry and he looked like just a very correct, beautiful Street Cry. He was very nice and had the same kind of intangibles [as his yearling full-brother], but they don't really look similar. This horse has the same walk, the same presence about him, but he looks more like a Tiznow. He's got more white on him and a little bit bigger hip, just a little bit different shaped horse.”

Temple Street did not produce a foal in 2013, which makes her 2-year-old filly Con Te Partiro (Scat Daddy) just her third foal and her second to race. Picked up by Hat Creek Racing for $130,000 at last year's September sale, the bay followed in her older brother's hoofprints, earning “TDN Rising Star” status after an ultra-impressive win in her Keeneland unveiling Apr. 13. Fourth next out when facing males in the Kentucky Juvenile S. at Churchill May 5, the Wesley Ward pupil was let go at 9-1 next out when switched to the turf for Saratoga's Bolton Landing S. Aug. 17 and put her competition to shame with a decisive 5 3/4-length victory.

“Con Te Partiro is a very typical Scat Daddy,” Taylor said. “She was not an overly big filly, solid bay, put together nice, but just looked more like a Scat Daddy filly. I think the mare is just one of those mares where every one of her foals is quality, but they don't neccessarily look like each other.”

He added, “The yearling just looks like Tiznow. If you took Tiznow and all his attributes, he has all the attributes and none of the negatives. He's really correct, perfectly balanced, great body. He got the best of the sire and the dam. When he comes out, it doesn't take people long to study him. They know he is making the short list.”

Hip 90 and his two older siblings were all bred by K.C. Garrett Farm, which is the nom de course of Dr. Dan Kesler of Cincinnati, Ohio.

“He's got a small broodmare band,” Taylor offered. “He just loves horses, breeds a few mares every year and just loves the game. I have to give some credit to Crestwood Farm. They have his horses during the early part of their development and then we get them ready for sale time.”

Taylor Made has a total of 60 yearlings in Book 1 alone and many have standout pedigrees, but one filly in particular, Hip 254, got a major catalogue update this past Saturday when her 2-year-old half-sister Union Strike (Union Rags) won the GI Del Mar Debutante. The dark bay daughter of Classic Strike (Smart Strike) is by recently-deceased top sire Scat Daddy, making her a full-sister to MGSW millionaire Handsome Mike.

“That mare [Classic Strike] is interesting in that if you look at the mare herself, she is kind of a plain brown wrapper, but she throws a really nice looking horse too,” Taylor remarked. “The filly that we have is a full to Handsome Mike and is very similar to Handsome Mike. She is very good bodied, medium sized, strong shoulder, good hip. She is very balanced and Handsome Mike is the same way. This mare is putting out a lot of quality. She doesn't throw huge foals, every one that I've seen has been medium sized. This filly is a medium-sized filly, very similar to Handsome Mike and a little different than Union Strike. Union Strike was a bit bulkier and maybe even a little smaller as a young horse.”

Union Strike was born at Taylor Made and the operation consigned her as a weanling at the Keeneland November sale, where she sold for $170,000. An RNA at this sale last year, she later brought $375,000 when resold as a 2-year-old at the OBS April sale.

Hip 254 comes into this sale as a pinhooking prospect as well. The commercial nursery Siena Farm, who typically only sells homebreds, purchased the filly for $270,000 as a weanling at Keeneland November and will offer her here as part of the Taylor Made consignment.

“We had circumstance last year where we had a foal crop of 13 and we did well at the sales last year [selling GISW Angela Renee (Bernardini) for $3 million at the Fasig-Tipton November sale], so we had the resources to add five fillies to the crop,” Siena Farm President David Pope commented. “We can handle up to 20 in the yearling barn, so it seemed like a good thing to do to buy some fillies that looked attractive and could sell well this September. This year we have 15 on the ground, so we will probably buy three more weanlings in November”

Siena Farm will offer all 18 of their yearlings through Taylor Made at the September sale. Their other four pinhooking prospects are Hip 477, a Tapit filly; Hip 1130, a daughter of Bodemeister; Hip 1491, a filly by Kitten's Joy; and Hip 1860, a daughter of Into Mischief.

He continued, “It was kind of a spontaneous decision, but they hit the right chord. They bought a Tapit [Hip 477] and Tapit has had a career year; and they bought this filly, who got a new Grade I winner under the first dam. I think that's the first time they've done that.”

Book 1 of the Keeneland September sale gets underway Monday at 11:00 a.m.