The Legacy of Windfields Farm: Turquoise and Gold, Bred in the Purple

Northern Dancer, the little horse from Ontario’s Windfields Farm, went on to change the face of international racing, a testament to the foresight of his owner and breeder, Canadian businessman E.P. Taylor.

In 1964, Northern Dancer won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, the first two legs of the US Triple Crown, exploding the myth that Canadian-bred horses could not compete on the world stage. The little horse from Ontario’s Windfields Farm went on to change the face of international racing through his sons and daughters, a testament to the foresight of his owner and breeder, Canadian businessman E.P. Taylor.

But there is more to the Windfields Farm story than Northern Dancer, and Colin Nolte and Michael Armstrong have written a tribute to the continuing legacy of E.P. Taylor and Windfields.

Northern Dancer’s sire and dam produced other horses who made their mark on the track or in the breeding shed, and there were numerous other stallions and broodmares at Windfields whose names appear in the pedigrees of today’s stakes winners and top stallions. Previous books have focused on specific Windfields horses or families, but this one shows the global extent of Windfields’ impact on horse racing, with leading racers and sires in Japan, Australia, South Africa, and South America, as well as Europe and North America.

The importance of E.P. Taylor to racing in Ontario, and throughout Canada, in the 20th century is also highlighted. Taylor brought his business acumen to the Ontario racing industry in the 1940s and 1950s, consolidating tracks and creating a showpiece at Woodbine that forty years later became the only track outside the United States to host the Breeders’ Cup, horse racing’s annual festival of champions. Through the 1960s, Taylor offered a large proportion of his yearling crop for sale, spreading the Windfields bloodlines, and stakes winners, throughout the country and the world. He stood stallions in Ontario and Maryland, making them available to breeders from across North America and overseas.

Detailed chapters and charts on the foundation mares and their descendants, as well as chapters on Northern Dancer, the impact of his parents and sons, and behind-the-scenes employees who made it all happen reveal the full story of the Windfields legacy in international horse racing.

Colin Nolte is a writer and lifelong follower of Thoroughbred racing and breeding. He currently owns and operates his successful website "Thoroughbred Racing Ancestry," which contains hundreds of articles about many of the great racehorses and breed-shaping Thoroughbreds in the long history of the sport. Colin has also contributed writing and research material for Woodbine Racetrack and Thoroughbred Racing Commentary websites, and he is well known as a Thoroughbred pedigree expert and racing historian.

Michael Armstrong is also a lifelong Thoroughbred fan and has his own website "Northernerdancing," in which he tracks the latest descendants of Windfields breeding found within the pedigrees of today's rising stars in racing. Michael has published a personal book titled Stable in Bedlam and is recognized for his knowledge pertaining to Windfields Farm breeding. He has been identified as the "Historian of Windfields" by many of the surviving Windfields alumni due to his enthusiastic knowledge of the farm's breeding achievements.