Windfields Farm

Edward Plunket Taylor was born in Ottawa in 1901. The famed Canadian man of business was the creator of Windfields Farm.

E. P. Taylor began his pursuit of finding “a better way” as early as his student days at McGill University. While studying engineering, E.P. invented and patented the modern toaster.

Taylor was part of a variety of businesses. These included:

• Canadian Breweries
• Dominion Stores
• Hollinger Mines
• Crown Trust
• Domtar
• Standard Broadcasting
• Massey Ferguson

Taylor was, by the 1950s, one of Canada's most prominent businessmen.

Taylor built communities (i.e. Don Mills) and modernized the Canadian race track industry. He reorganized the Ontario Jockey Club. He was the force behind the consolidation of racing dates in Ontario. This move allowed for the creation of Woodbine Race Track.

Taylor is most remembered for his contributions to the thoroughbred industry. He found early success racing under the name of Cosgrove Stable. He then set his sights on breeding and racing an international calibre of racehorse. Over time he developed a stable which dominated Canadian racing for decades.

To breed and manage his horses, he developed Windfields Farm. His racehorse, Northern Dancer, won the Kentucky Derby in 1964. Taylor looked to his horse's future and his potential as a stud.

Adding Northern Dancer proved to be among the most memorable decisions of his career. Northern Dancer became the most influential thoroughbred stallion in the world. Northern Dancer's progeny continues to have worldwide success.

Northern Dancer raised Canadian thoroughbred standards to the international level. He was the first Canadian-bred and owned horse to win the Kentucky Derby. He gained significant fame for Canada in the world of horse racing.

In 1965, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame inducted Northern Dancer. Northern Dancer was very deserving of this induction honour. A permanent statue of Northern Dancer is at Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, located in Calgary, Alberta.

Born in 1961 at Windfields Farm, Northern Dancer was a short, stocky horse. Most thought he was not made of the right stuff for winning big. In 1962, there were no interested purchasers for his $25,000 reserve purchase price. Northern Dancer thus remained in the Windfields Farm racing stable.

Even following his record-breaking win at the Kentucky Derby in 1964, racing fans paid little attention to Northern Dancer. Many thought of him as a lowly Canadian horse owned by Canadian business tycoon E.P. Taylor. It was after his win at the Preakness Stakes that Northern Dancer grabbed the attention of all. A Triple Crown win was not to be when he came third in the Belmont. Northern Dancer went on to win the Queen's Plate, Canada's premier horse race. Winning the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Queen's Plate, was never before achieved by a Canadian horse. Northern Dancer's career consisted of 18 races (14 wins, two seconds, two thirds) over 11 months from August 1963 to June 1964).

In the 1980s, Northern Dancer's stud fee of $1 million was an amount that was four to five times that of his rivals. It was not equalled until 2009. Northern Dancer was the most influential thoroughbred stallion in the world. His progeny continue to have worldwide success.

On November 16, 1990, at the age of 29, Northern Dancer passed away.

Northern Dancer Cemetery is located in the core farm area of the former world-renowned Windfields Farm. Defined by a metal railing boundary fence, the Cemetery contains stone grave markers, white gravel stones and grass. It includes the remains, partial and full, of 11 thoroughbred horses, as follows:

• Northern Dancer,
• Archers Bay,
• Ascot Knight,
• Ballade,
• Canadiana,
• Cats at Home,
• New Providence,
• South Ocean,
• Vice Regent,
• Victoria Park, and
• Windfields

The Cemetery derives cultural heritage value from:

• the landscape's association with Northern Dancer
• it is a rare example of equine burial practice
• the association with E. P. Taylor's horse breeding operation at Windfields Farm
• being the burial site for 11 of Taylor's illustrious thoroughbreds.

Typical equine burial practice is burial of a horse's heart, hooves and sometimes head. Northern Dancer is buried in his entirety.

The Trillium Cemetery is a horse cemetery for several distinguished horses of Windfields Farm located in a grove of trees on lands once part of Windfields Farm. The site of Trillium Cemetery is in an almost sacred-like grove of trees, in a bowl-like depression or "declivity" at the valley brow overlooking the Oshawa Creek. A carpet of trilliums grows up in the spring beneath the grove of maple trees.

The significance of five horses buried in the Trillium Cemetery is particularly noteworthy:

1. Lady Angela (1944-1966) was the matriarch of the Northern Dancer dynasty. Bred with Nearco, she produced a foal named Nearctic, who went on to sire world famous Northern Dancer. Northern Dancer won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Queen's Plate. He was the most successful sire of the 20th century.
2. Iribelle (1942–1952) had four foals, of which three were stakes winners.
3. Chop Chop (1940-1963) was the leading sire in Canada from 1959 through 1963. He sired four Queen's Plate winners. The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inducted Chop Chop in 1977.
4. Flaring Top (1947-1966) was the dam of Flaming Page. Flaming Page, when mated with Northern Dancer, produced Nijinsky II. Nijinsky II was British Horse of the Year in 1970.
5. Bridle Path (1976-2005) finished sixth in the 1979 Queen's Plate and won the 1979 Breeders' Stakes.

Trillium Cemetery was designated under the Ontario Heritage Act in June 2015.

The Windfields Stone House located at 2370 Simcoe St. N. is an original structure from the former Windfields Farm. However, the one-and-a-half storey house underwent a unique transformation. The house went from a 1850s vernacular Gothic Revival farm house to a Colonial Revival estate house. The house, in its Gothic form, was originally owned by the Shand family. A distinguishing feature of the east façade is its pitch-faced ashlar stone construction.

R. S. McLaughlin, President of General Motors Canada, acquired the property in 1928 from William Jewell. In 1950, he sold it to E. P. Taylor, architect of modern Canadian horseracing. In 1952, Architect Earle Morgan designed alterations to the house that transformed it into a Colonial Revival estate house. Mr. Morgan, an industrial architect, was known for having overseen the design and construction of many of Ontario's finest racetracks. On the surrounding property, Taylor established Windfields Farm.

The Windfields Stone House was designated under the Ontario Heritage Act in July 2014.