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POPES IN THE BREEDING SHEDThere are lots of family farms in the Bluegrass. Take the Taylor family, the four sons of the former Gainesway farm manager Joe Taylor, who run Taylor Made Farm, a commercial breeding operation that opened in 1976 and now does about $60 million worth of business every year at Keeneland alone. Taylor Made is a family farm in the way that Ford Motor Company is a family business. Then there's the Hancock family, which runs Claiborne, a three-thousand-acre Bourbon County farm that's been churning out champions and hall-of-fame horses since 1910. Clai- borne is a family farm in the way that Windsor Castle is a home. The McLeans, of Crestwood Farm, a seven-hundred-acre place on the northwest edge of Lexington, are not in their league at all. Grandison is the youngest; she helps manage the office. Marc is the farm manager; his older brother, Pope Junior, handles the financial side. The father, Pope senior, started it all, forty years ago, and he seems most at home talking to clients in the breeding shed. The McLeans keep the Crestwood operation pretty simple - a lot of the interdepartmental communications seem to take place by Post-its and torn envelopes taped to the door. |
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