(This article originally published in the Jan. 24, 2015, issue of The Blood-Horse)

It is one short line in a regional sale catalog, yet it harkens back to one of the highest peaks in the world of Thoroughbred racing: “Complete Dispersal of Karen & Mickey Taylor.”

The six broodmares, six racing prospects, four yearlings, one 2-year-old, and the stallion Council Member being offered at the Barretts mixed sale Jan. 26 represent the last vestiges of the holdings of the co-owners of Seattle Slew, the only undefeated Triple Crown winner and a breed-shaping stallion whose blood courses through the majestic gray body of North American leading sire Tapit.

In truth, the Taylors faded from the scene back on that May day in 2002 when Seattle Slew breathed his last, leaving Kentucky that afternoon to return to their native Pacific Northwest. Since then, they have raced descendants of Slew’s on minor circuits. Now, though, it’s final.

“After 42 years Karen and I are calling it in,” said Mickey Taylor in early January. “It’s just time to get out. The game is a lot different now.”

To those who saw how the Taylors virtually lived with Seattle Slew in his final years, helping him fight assorted maladies that come with old age, it is no surprise that the recent death of their beloved 13-year-old Labrador retriever Chet has impacted them deeply.

“Getting over my dog is the toughest thing to do,” said Taylor. “I was away from him six days in 13 1⁄2 years.”

Rick Taylor (no relation), who is consigning the Taylor dispersal through his Special T Thoroughbreds, has known them from their pre-Slew days in Washington. 

“They’re the kind of people that don’t hesitate to take a chip out of a $25,000 claimer,” said Rick Taylor. “If any of their horses colic, they go right to the hospital.”

Mickey and Karen Taylor met on a blind date at a high school basketball game in Ellensburg, Wash. Both were from families of lumbermen. Mickey formed his own company and hit the jackpot when Canadian firms stopped supplying paper to the West Coast in 1973. The market exploded, and Mickey, a horse player, was in Kentucky the following year buying yearlings on the advice of Florida veterinarian Jim Hill.

The two first met in a hotel lobby where Hill came upon Taylor kicking a balky newspaper machine trying to get his 15 cents back.

A year later Taylor was bidding on a son of Bold Reasoning—My Charmer. When Mickey stalled at $12,000, Karen shot an elbow into his ribs to pick up the bit, and so Mickey wound up purchasing Seattle Slew for $17,500 for himself, Karen, and Jim and Sally Hill.

He was a big, coarse, awkward colt, but strong. And he got a lot better-looking once he started to work. By the time he won the Champagne Stakes (gr. I) by 93⁄4 lengths, Mickey Taylor knew the significance of what he was seeing.

“If we can keep this horse together, I’ll never have to cut another tree,” he said. 

Seattle Slew won 14 of 17 starts and $1.2 million. And that was just the appetizer. Mickey Taylor proudly became the first non-Kentuckian to syndicate a Thoroughbred, that deal worth $12 million. And Slew continued to deliver, becoming the first horse of his magnitude to match his spectacular race record with equal prepotency as a stallion. The Taylors and Hills raced his champion son Slew o’ Gold and his first winner, Slewpy.

Slew’s first crop also included champion Landaluce. His son Swale won the 1984 Kentucky Derby (gr. I). A.P. Indy became a Horse of the Year and carried forward his sire’s line through sons such as Malibu Moon and Pulpit, the latter the sire of Tapit  .

It is no exaggeration to state that Mickey and Karen Taylor have influenced the Thoroughbred breed as much as any other humans over the past 40 years.

There were hiccups along the way, such as the ill-fated decision to run Slew in the Swaps Stakes (gr. I) three weeks after his Triple Crown, and the break from trainer Billy Turner, who had accomplished so much with the colt.

But the Taylors’ legacy, to this writer, was authored in the one-horse barn on the grounds of Three Chimneys Farm. There, with Slew’s groom, Tom Wade, the Taylors valiantly attempted to halt the hands of time. Daily they sent medical records and X-rays back and forth to surgeons in California, trying to get Slew through his spinal problems. They walked him prescribed distances and talked to their star and doted on him, even playing music he enjoyed. They served carrot cake for his 27th birthday party. He was their son, their honored guest, their life.

And this sport has been all the richer for their participation.