Kitty Taylor breezes into her office on Lexington’s Richmond Road on a recent morning, a stack of files hooked into the crook of her left arm, the bottom part of which is sheathed in a soft cast, the product of a broken bone suffered in a spinning class. From her energy level it is hard to imagine a broken bone slowing Taylor down in the least. The interview she has agreed to likely tests her patience for sitting still to the max.
Yearling sales season is in full swing, and as the major force behind Warrendale Sales, a consignor to all the major yearling and mixed auctions, Taylor is juggling an impending trip to the Fasig-Tipton sales in Saratoga and then orchestrating more than 100 horses that will be offered by Warrendale at Keeneland September.
If Taylor seems perpetually on the move, it is because she became accustomed to that lifestyle early on. Her father was a career military man, and the family was used to keeping its suitcases at the ready in the front of the closet. One thing remained constant throughout her childhood, however, and that was her love of horses.
“I was just a horse-crazed little girl, and when my dad was stationed at Fort Knox, my folks placated me by letting me take riding lessons under an old cavalry officer who would run in front of us as we were trail riding. I wanted to be one of those three-day eventer Olympic riders,” Taylor continued, “but as a military family we moved a lot and I could never keep a horse. Although I never got to the level I wanted to, I loved horses, and still love horses.”
During high school summers Taylor rode show horses for the legendary outfit of Delmar Twyman in Virginia. After college Taylor returned to Virginia, where Twyman’s son Noel was breaking horses for trainers such as Bud Delp and King Leatherbury. He needed a rider, and Taylor apparently needed a challenge.
“I’d never galloped a horse in my life; I had no idea what to do,” she said. “There were saddle towels and girth covers, and I was trying to figure out what went where and act like I knew what I was doing. I rode nine horses on pure adrenaline the first day; I couldn’t walk the day after.”
Noel Twyman also worked the sales in Kentucky for leading consignor Lee Eaton, and Taylor came along and got work as a groom because women didn’t show horses at that time. She spent her time running around and shanking up horses to bring to the showmen. Taylor inhaled the excitement of the sales grounds and has been intoxicated with the activity and the characters ever since.
And she was able to learn from a master.
“Lee was a fascinating person,” Taylor said. “He was very organized back when people weren’t so much. He had the routine down. Dr. (John K.) Griggs would come look at every horse. They took temperatures every day, put electrolytes in the water. Lee would inspect the horses with his team and confer with them. Things happened at the same time each day. I watched everything they did. It was like being a small-time actor and watching Broadway shows from backstage.”
Taylor furthered her education while working for Ben Walden at Vinery for six years. Taylor received invaluable experience dealing with clients’ horses and interacting with people at the farms before sales. She became the sales coordinator of the operation, honing the skills that have since stood her in good stead. After a two-year stint in partnership with Meg Levy of Bluewater Sales, Taylor decided to hang out her own shingle in 2002.
“The best thing I had going for me was Hargus and Sandra Sexton, who were clients of Ben’s and who I got to know well,” said Taylor. “When Ben left Vinery, Hargus said I could sell their horses. So every year I knew I had 20-25 yearlings to sell, and they’ve stayed with me ever since. That was the foundation, and that base allowed me to go forward.”
Taylor selected the name of her company from the street she used to live on in Georgetown, Ky. Today she has brought on Hunter Simms, former yearling manager at Arthur Hancock’s Stone Farm, as her partner. Warrendale sells horses for the Sextons, Charlotte Weber’s Live Oak Plantation, the father/daughter team of Ed and Krista Seltzer, Spendthrift Farm, and Stonestreet, among others. Taylor makes sure to keep her numbers manageable to where she and Simms can keep an eye on each horse in the consignment.
“We had 135 in last year’s September sale, and that was the tipping point,” Taylor noted. “This year we’ve scaled it back to 113. We need to keep our clients happy. I don’t want to be a boutique, and I don’t want to be Walmart. I’d like to be, maybe, Target—run it well, provide service for our clients, and have enough horses where everyone comes to the barn to look at one or two and then we can show them a couple of others as well.”
The approach seems to be working well. Not only has Warrendale consigned future graded stakes winners such as Bond Holder, Cotton Blossom, Gayego, Hystericalady, Shakespeare, She’s a Tiger, Teuflesberg, Ultimate Eagle, Hebbronville, Exaggerator (winner of the Aug. 16 Saratoga Special Stakes, gr. II) and Appealing Tale (winner of the Aug. 22 Pat O’Brien Stakes, gr. II), but it has earned the admiration of sellers and buyers alike.
“Kitty is there every minute and is able to tell us how horses are being received and who likes them,” said bloodstock agent John Moynihan, who does work for Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet. “She is able to personally get the feedback and get accurate information back to us.”
The Seltzer have worked with Warrendale as both buyers and sellers and trust Taylor to do either task for them.
“First, Kitty is a wonderful person. She’s honest and easy to work with,” said Krista Seltzer. “She pays attention to each detail and is able to present every horse in its best possible light. She also realizes that every horse could be a stakes winner. As a buyer, she gives you the information you need because she knows the (catalog) page. She isn’t pushy or intrusive, but she can move people onto horses that may not be on their list.”
Added Ed Seltzer, “She is a consummate professional and manages to get the most money for each individual. I’ve not run into a nicer person.”
Taylor said she learned a key ingredient to selling years ago when she showed a horse she did not like whatsoever to a buyer that loved it and paid $60,000 for it.
“I thought, ‘That is a lesson to you, Kitty.’ Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.”
Taylor added that consigning horses entails more than a little psychology.
“We will offer updates and information to potential buyers; then we treat their questions as information. If they ask for a vet report, I know there is interest. If they ask who owns the horse and where it was raised, I answer those questions every time. If you want to sell horses, buyers have to trust you and feel that you’re transparent. Transparency equals trust equals success. If people are comfortable that you’re telling them the truth, they will shop with you. Buyers often will not shop at certain consignments.
“I don’t want to get in people’s faces at the barn. I want to watch people looking at the horses. When you do that, you can gauge how much they like something. People want that time to observe and make their decisions. I learned that from my mother’s little antique business. And if they reach out and touch the horses, that’s a good indication.”
Simms said that Warrendale’s business in the post-recession world has been growing steadily, from $7 million in gross sales in 2010 to $18 million in 2014. Part of that success stems from the veteran Taylor and newcomer Simms working so well together to blanket the market.
“What’s great is we bring different perspectives,” Taylor said. “Diane Perkins walked into the courtyard, and Hunter asked, ‘Who is that?’ And I explained that she bred Lord At War. And when some young person comes in who I don’t know, he’ll tell me ‘That’s so-and-so who is married to or dating so-and-so.’ It’s great. We’ve got it balanced out generationally and gender-wise.”
Warrendale has yet to sell a million-dollar yearling but did break that barrier when selling the mare Zoftig for $1.1 million for Live Oak at the 2013 Keeneland November mixed sale.
“We keep a tidy broodmare band, and so we will sell nice prospects,” said Live Oak general manager Bruce Hill. “And we sell most of our horses without reserves, so we rely on Kitty, who is very accurate and professional when appraising horses. She fits very well with what we’re trying to do.”
Said Ned Toffey, general manager of Spendthrift Farm, “Kitty gives us feedback on prospective bidders and lets us know where we stand. She never misses a detail.”
Warrendale has done just fine by chugging along without seven-figure yearlings, mostly because those gaudy yearling prices have little to do with what a horse eventually accomplishes on the racetrack. Gayego, for example, whom Warrendale sold as a yearling for the Sextons for $32,000, wound up earning better than $1.75 million at the races.
“I wish there was a correlation between what they sell for and what they do on the racetrack, but there isn’t,” said Taylor. “It’s like lining up a bunch of 10-year-olds and trying to pick out which one will play in the NBA or NFL. You can heart-scan them, walk them, but you can’t measure determination. That’s the beauty of it; any one of them might be the one.”
Added Simms, “You have buyers at each different price point, and our job is matching them up with the right horse.”
Warrendale preps many of the yearlings it will consign at Bluegrass-area farms they do business with, such as Normandy Farm and Woodstock Farm. It is also dipping its toe in the broodmare business and owns a handful of mares in partnerships.
Success at a sale such as Keeneland September relies on great teamwork. Jill Gordon serves as Warrendale’s sales coordinator and helps run the barns along with Lynne Root and Jane Duddy. Donna Rion keeps the books, and Stacy Berge handles financial matters. It is a group that has been together for years.
“That backbone of support is huge,” noted Simms. “You have to stay on top of it, receiving more than 100 horses and making sure all is OK. That’s a lot of responsibility.”
Taylor, always looking for ways to improve performance, asked Keeneland this year to accommodate a new barn set-up. Instead of having horses wrap around both sides of a barn, she requested to have her consignment in barns that face each other and have a common courtyard.
“That makes it easier to watch what’s going on and communicate with each other,” she said. “Also, you’re not competing for space with another consignor and irritating each other. We’re always trying to think of ways to make it run smoother and better.”
Kitty Taylor is still making moves, but in one place now, working with what she loves.

By Lenny Shulman

Courtesy of The Bloodhorse