2026 Mating Plans: Taylor Made’s Premier Mare Partnerships

[Wandering Eyes]

Each year, our team at Taylor Made does a S.W.O.T. analysis for our business. The “T” represents threats, and we have consistently listed the shrinking foal crop as an existential threat to our business. We realize one farm alone cannot stop the tide of breeders exiting our industry, but we are trying to do what we can through our Premier Mare Program. We believe that breeding and raising thoroughbreds can be every bit as gratifying as racing them. Through PMP, we bring like-minded people together to buy quality mares which can produce foals to be presented and sold at the Select Fasig Tipton and Keeneland Sales. Our minimum investment is $50,000, which opens up breeding for the top echelon of the market to a much wider audience. This program offers education about the industry along with full access to our farm and all its resources. We want our new customers to discover the joy our industry can bring for them, their family, and friends.

Five years ago, we set out on a quest to marry our institutional knowledge with technology to create the Taylor Made Mating App. This tool operates a database that recognizes conformational traits of the top 50 stallions in North America. The database also compiles each stallion's tendencies to pass on certain traits to their foals, and checks mares' compatibility with the stallions selected and assigns a score. We create a short list of stallions which fit each mare from a pedigree perspective. Then, we ask the app to rank those stallion options to get the best physical match.

Below are a few of the mares in our PMP group along with our mating plans for 2026.

ZIA'S SONG, 8, Kitten's Joy—Awesome Flower, by Flower Alley. Will be bred to Sierra Leone.

We purchased Zia's Song in 2022 in foal to Gun Runner. At the time, she was a 4-year-old carrying her first foal. She is a half-sister to Cyberknife (Gun Runner), winner of the GI Arkansas Derby and GI Haskell Invitational, as well as to the stakes-placed Tapit Shoes (Tapit). Her dam is a multiple stakes winner and graded stakes-placed.

Our Mating App evaluates 20 physical traits. Zia's Song provides substance and hip, while needing additional size, body length, and correct knees and fetlocks. Once all 20 traits are entered, the program analyzes compatibility across our stallion database.

Matches above 30 points are considered strong. Zia's Song matched 31 points with Not This Time, and that resulting yearling sold for $350,000, despite some veterinary considerations. She is currently in foal to Constitution, another 31-point match. Constitution's son Mindframe was her highest-rated match at 38 points. He is a horse we will consider strongly for 2027.

For the upcoming season, we are returning to the Gun Runner-line with Sierra Leone, who matched Zia's Song at 32 points in our app. With Cyberknife appearing in the first dam and Sierra Leone proving himself a brilliant racehorse, this was a mating we felt particularly confident in and excited about.

DIAMOND ORE, 8, Tapit—Bubbler, by Distorted Humor. Will be bred to Vekoma.

The Premier Mare program is focused on identifying mares capable of producing Saratoga and Book 1 and 2 yearlings, and Diamond Ore perfectly fits that profile. An 8-year-old stakes-placed Tapit mare, we purchased her in foal to Charlatan in 2022, and the resulting yearling sold for $550,000 at Saratoga in 2024. Diamond Ore is a half-sister to Champion 3-Year-Old Arrogate and also a half-sister to stakes winner Osare (Medaglia d'Oro). With her exceptional sire pedigree, the primary goal in mating her is to find the ideal physical match. She doesn't need much: adding some size, body length, and hip is ideal. She will provide the rest.

She has already produced a beautiful Nyquist yearling filly, matching exceptionally well with a 35-point score. Diamond Ore is currently in foal to Into Mischief, a mating that scored 34 points.

SIMPLY ENCHANTING, 5, Nyquist—Enchante, by Bluegrass Cat. Will be bred to Gun Runner.

Simply Enchanting was purchased out of the Fasig-Tipton November sale this year for $450,000 in foal to Curlin (a 35-point score in our program). She checked all of the boxes in terms of physical, her sire, and who she was in foal to. She is Black-Type placed and a three-quarter sister to multiple graded stakes winner Envoutante (Uncle Mo), who was a $1.8 million dollar mare in 2024 who is now being bred to top stallions. We felt that if we got a nice Curlin, we have the potential to recoup most of our purchase price on the first foal and have a top-quality mare who can produce quality foals yearly. We have this mare booked to Gun Runner, who also scored very strongly in our program (31 points).

JUSTA WARRIOR, 6, Justify—A Z Warrior, by Bernardini. Will be bred to Mindframe.

Justa Warrior was purchased privately in foal to Life is Good. This mare is an “A” physical by a top young stallion in Justify. She was very precocious, which we valued. She was a stakes winner at two, and she comes from a very deep and active family. Her first foal was very nice and we loved him all along. We sold him in Book 1 of the 2025 Keeneland September Sale. Unfortunately, he came up with a few X-ray issues that kept us from getting what we wanted for him, but he still brought $150,000. Her second foal is a filly by Gun Runner, and we have very high hopes for her. She is a beautiful physical with a great walk. She will be a Saratoga or Keeneland Book 1 filly and we are expecting big things from her. Unfortunately, Justa Warrior didn't get in foal to Not This Time for a 2026 foal, and she is booked to Mindframe (36 points!) for this season.

TWINKLING, 13, War Chant—Unhurried, by Out of Place. Will likely be bred to Not This Time.

Twinkling was a deal that our dear friend Stuart Angus put together. At the time of the purchase, her first two foals were either graded-stakes winners or graded-stakes placed. Her then 2-year-old, Olivia Twist, was two-for-two and showing signs of being equally as good as her two half-brothers. She too would go on to be a stakes winner and graded stakes placed but more importantly, her older half-brother, Skippylongstocking, would go on to win 11 graded stakes races including this year's running of the GI Pegasus. At the time, she was in foal to Authentic on a June cover. The resulting filly would go on to sell for $500,000 as a yearling, and her current 2-year-old, a filly by Not This Time, sold for $1 million to Repole Stables in the September Sale. She is currently in foal to Curlin. This mare has produced quality stakes horses by Exaggerator, Mshawish, and Liam's Map. While we are still mulling our options for 2026, we are seriously considering Not This Time based on the gorgeous yearling we sold by him in 2025.

THE QUEEN'S MG, 4, Thousand Words—Show Queen, by Grindstone. Will be bred to Not This Time.

This most recent PMP acquisition was a graded stakes winner at Saratoga at two, and came back to win a GII at Gulfstream at three. She is a beautiful physical and comes from a very deep family. We thought this mare would be the perfect fit for Not this Time, and we are very excited to see what her future holds. This mare fits the physical profile of many of the dams of Not This Time's best runners. Her match with him scores a strong 34 which gives us confidence she will get her career started with every opportunity to get a runner.

The post 2026 Mating Plans: Taylor Made’s Premier Mare Partnerships appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

View the full article