Te Akau Tale Time

Another very interesting and true racing tale from David McCarthy ...

NORTHERN DANCER

There are volumes of “what if..” horse stories but one of the most fabled belongs to the greatest sire of the 20th century in Northern Dancer whose male line still dominates thoroughbred racing.

Northern Dancer was lucky to be foaled, more than lucky not to be gelded several times and must have given at least one buyer at the sale where he was offered many years of severe heartburn.

Northern Dancer was bred by Canadian E.P. Taylor who had an unusual way of proving to his buyers that he was not just offering his culls at auction. Taylor would put two of his colts in the ring at a time and when bidding reached its limit the buyer had the option of taking the horse Taylor was going to keep or the one officially for sale. Transparency at its best.

In Northern Dancer's case it didn't matter. When he was offered by Taylor's Windfield Farms there were no takers at $25,000. Not one. When he was being broken in he was such a handful handlers pleaded time and time again for Taylor to geld him. Taylor had no thoughts of his breeding potential and would have except for a rule he had made through his own observation.

“Once a colt starts acting ugly, gelding him does not improve its manners in my experience,” he maintained.

Another of Taylor's beliefs led to the breeding of Northern Dancer. His dam Natalma, a moderate racehorse, suffered a knee injury while being set for the Kentucky Oaks. Saying that, in his experience knee surgery was not often successful from a racing viewpoint, Taylor sent her to stud instead to a first season sire Nearctic.

The legendary Northern Dancer was the result.

To add to the great good fortune which guided Taylor, Natalma had four more foals by Nearctic. None won a stakes' race of any sort and their total lifetime earnings were less than $50,000.

When your luck is in……..