Mark Taylor was just seven years old in 1976 when his 19-year-old brother Duncan and Mike Shannon started Taylor Made as a broodmare operation on leased land. “It was on the land that became Dromoland, but back when I was seven, it was Tartan Farm,” said Taylor. “I don't remember the exact relationship, but we were basically taking care of Tartan's mares on that piece of property, and they were one of our big clients.” But what he remembers most is the weed eater.“I remember Mike Shannon was Duncan's partner, and Mike really took me under his wing, and he was very good to me when I was a little kid. But he had me weed eating, and I just remember going out there, and I thought this weed eater is the most fun thing ever…for the first 10 minutes.”But even that young, he learned an important lesson. “When clients came, the day got discombobulated because you had to get the horses cleaned up and the whole schedule got disrupted. And so I remember thinking, `This is a real pain.' And I remember my dad telling me, `No, this is the whole reason you're in existence.'”Fifty years later, Mark Taylor is the President and CEO of the country's largest sales endeavor and perennial leading consignor, who has catalogued nearly 12 percent of Keeneland's 4,642 horses in this year's September Sale. They stand the country's leading sire, Not This Time. And it's fair to say the whole family has taken their father's lesson about the importance of the client to heart.But as important to the family as all the success is following in their father's footsteps in regards to helping people.“John Gaines wrote the forward to my dad's book (Joe Taylor's Complete Guide to Breeding and Raising Racehorses), and I read it a couple of times a year because he really just nailed everything about my dad. But one thing he said is, `All these things Joe Taylor can do are not the most important because his favorite thing and the thing he's best at is helping people.' That's what he was all about, just giving young people a chance, trying to launch young people, coaching people. My dad was very bad at firing people. If somebody had a drinking problem or whatever their problem was, I don't think he knew how to handle it, but he would somehow find a way to keep them going, keep them afloat.”It's another way the apples haven't fallen far from the tree over their half-century in existence. While Joe Taylor might not have had the tools or an intimate understanding of how to deal with substance abuse and recovery, his heart was in the right place. “He really didn't know much about how to help somebody that was in recovery,” says Taylor with a laugh. “He would just give them a pep talk: `You got to stay away from the bottle and you got to go to church and you got to knuckle down a little harder.'”Today, Frank Taylor's brain child, Stable Recovery, is one of the industry's biggest success stories, a revolutionary rehabilitative program which not only saves lives, but turns out a steady stream of reliable, trained Thoroughbred industry workers.“They've got a little more insight into how we're going to get somebody through this,” said Mark. “It's kind of like what my dad tried to do, but it has been formalized and systematized and is being done on scale. And Frank gets all the credit for that. Frank has got a lot of my dad's traits and it's almost like that was his calling.”Saturday at one of their sales barns on the grounds at Keeneland, Taylor marveled that the four brothers-Duncan, Frank, Ben, and Mark–could run a successful business together this long without blowing it up…or killing one another.“It's not easy,” he said. “It's hard being partners with anybody. And it's really hard being partners with your family because on some level, it's still baked into you. `Well, you might be technically my boss, but I know what you really are.'”The addition of Pat Payne to the business as their Thoroughbred Advisor proved invaluable, he said.“The one thing that Pat Payne brought to the equation when he became our partner is that everybody loved Pat and Pat loved everybody,” said Taylor. “I don't care if they just stole our best client. Pat wasn't going to fall out with them. He was going to go have a beer with them. He was going to hang out with them. So he really helped us in that regard.”To celebrate the 50th anniversary, Taylor Made is giving out special merchandise to visitors at the sales barn this week, serving up sundaes on Keeneland's two Sundays from an ice cream truck at the barn, holding raffle drawings, and hosting a happy hour from 5-7 p.m. at barns 48 & 49 this Monday.They have also made up Taylor Made Sales Grad hats to give out to the impressive number of people who have passed through their doors and learned from their experiences at the company.“Darley has the Flying Start program,” says Taylor. “We like to say we have the flying manure program because a lot of these guys were just doing very hard work, and by all accounts, Duncan wasn't the greatest pay back in the day. I mean, you were working for very low wages and you had some very meager housing, but there were all these great friendships that were forged.”In fact, a central part of the Taylor Made story has been the people who have gone on to success in the industry who got their start at Taylor Made. “Literally, I could go on for an hour rattling off the names of people who got their start here,” he said. “A big part of the story is the people that have come through Taylor Made, and hopefully they took something away that has helped them go on.”There are also those who stayed. “There's somebody like Jeff Hayslett who runs our whole sales team now. He's been with us probably 35 years and he started when he just got out of UK,” he said. “He didn't know anything about horses. He was originally from New England, came down here and my brother and this other guy that worked for us literally saw him washing windows at a pet store that was next door to a store they were in and they stopped and talked to him. They're like, `Man, you're really washing these windows pretty thoroughly.' And he was like, “Yeah, yeah. It's my job.' And so they said, “Well, you ought to come out to Taylor Made.' Thirty-five years later, he's one of the best horsemen in our whole operation.”The Taylor Made mission statement has been honed and refined over the years, but Mark Taylor thinks they have it pretty perfect now. “A lot of times, mission statements are on a wall and they don't mean anything. And we had some mission statements before that I don't think were really what we were. They just sounded good. But we created what our mission statement is now, and I think it's pretty close. We say we exist to bring our customers' Thoroughbred dreams and goals to life, and be a force for good by living out our Christian values while earning a profit.”Fifty years on from that first leased land, the farm has grown from a 120-acre parcel to 1,600. Duncan Taylor has taken a step back while still lending his expertise to the venture. And the new generation of children-both Taylors and Paynes-are stepping up.“So we'll see,” says Mark. “We'll see how the next 25 years go.”The post Taylor Made Celebrates 50 Years in Business at Keeneland September appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.