Windfields Farm, birthplace of the great Canadian-bred Northern Dancer, will cease to operate as a commercial venture and will revert to being a family operation. Located near Oshawa, Ontario, the farm was established by prominent breeder/owner E.P. Taylor.
“We’re going back to what Windfields was in the beginning, which is a private farm,” said vice president Noreen Taylor. “We’re closing the stallion station and the ancillary businesses that includes boarding mares.”
The changes will be made final Nov. 1.
Taylor’s late husband, Charles, was the son of E.P. Taylor, who started in racing in 1936. E.P. Taylor died in 1989, and his son died in 1997.
Northern Dancer, a champion in the United States and Canada, began his stallion career at Windfields before being moved to the Windfields division in Maryland, where he spent most of his career. Northern Dancer’s early Canadian foals included European champion Nijinsky II, plus Vice Regent, sire of Deputy Minister.
“Windfields has been a stallion station for years, and it’s been run with a great deal of success,” Noreen Taylor said. “But as a family, we’ve looked at the nature of the business and the marketplace in Ontario. There also are issues with the encroaching development and a highway that is going directly north of us. We’ve enjoyed a luxury of land, but that is being encroached upon by the city of Toronto.”
Windfields recently sold acreage to Durham College and formed a partnership with Tribute Communities in a housing development project.
“We’ve decided to participate in housing so we can control the growth around us rather than be subjected to it,” Taylor said. “We wanted to be in control of our destiny. We’re now going to be breeding horses and selling and racing them, and we’re going to have fun doing that.”
Windfields, which is located on 840 acres, stands four stallions and owns 10 mares.
In addition to Taylor, Windfields is owned by E.P. Taylor’s daughter, Judith Mappin, and her four children, and the four children of Charles and Noreen Taylor.
Windfields will be finding new homes for 11-year-old Best of the Bests(Machiavellian—Sueboog, by Darshaan), 8-year-old Mobil (Langfuhr —Kinetigal, by Naskra), 4-year-old Weather Warning(Storm Cat—City Band, by Carson City), and 15-year-old Whiskey Wisdom (Wild Again—Primarily, by Lord At War).