feature a hundred years ago Whether it was a case of luck or judgement, but Taylor found himself a most perfect place from which to train racehorses, the estate was described by the contemporaries as “one of the most perfect training establishments in England”. Taylor died in 1870 leaving his racing establishment to his two sons Tom and Young Alec, though the will left an undisguised preference for Alec, who had worked as his assistant for a number of years to take on the whole business if the partnership failed to work out. For some time the situation worked amicably with Alex training the horses and Tom running the office and administration, but as is so often with these arrangements – and particularly if they are between family members – the harmony failed. The pair had not been particularly successful on the racetrack and it was looking as though the first glory days of Manton through which father Alec had trained 12 Classic winners, had come to an end with his death – young Taylor only achieved ten winners in the 1890-1900 season. Rosedrop: the filly won the Oaks in 1910 giving Taylor an Epsom Classic double. She went onto become one of the most important broodmares in thoroughbred history becoming the dam of Gainsborough and the granddam of Hyperion
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Eventually things came to a head in nasty circumstances. A stable lad’s life in the 1900s was tough – bullying and physical abuse was common treatment. The Taylors were certainly no different in this regard, and indeed old man Taylor was known as a particularly hard taskmaster. His harsh methods were adopted by his sons as well as their head lad and when a young lad of just 15 in their employ died of meningitis, wheels were set in motion after the discovery of bruises and whale marks on his legs. While the 1900s did not boast of Employment Tribunals and enforced employer responsibilities to employees were scarce, the media, on catching wind of the apparent abuse, whipped up a frenzy finding that the dead lad had previously complained of beatings, and that the racing work force was of the opinion that the Taylor yard was in fact one of the worst in which to work. A lengthy court case subsequently ensued in which Tom Taylor was likened to a slave driver – the feeling being that “blacks” could be treated in such a manner, but not Britain’s
own homebred youngsters. Eventually Taylor was acquitted of murder, but his position at Manton had become untenable and the partnership was liquidated. Tom departed and died two years later. The fabulous Manton estate was left under a cloud of disrepute and scandal – it seemed that its future was limited and training at the establishment would quietly come to an end. But for Young Alec his brother’s departure freed him of the stifling chains and, rather than falling under the cloud that engulfed his sibling, he started to train winners. And, more importantly, he started to train good winners and once more some of the best owners of the early 1900s began to trust the abilities of the trainer at Manton.
Sceptre emerges
The breakthrough for Taylor came courtesy of a filly named Sceptre, who was bred by Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster at his Eaton Stud in Cheshire. As a yearling she fetched a then record price at Tattersalls of 10,000gns (she was a good-looking granddaughter of Lily Agnes, dam of Ormonde) and