A brewery consolidator who accidentally became one of the world's great horse breeders
E.P. Taylor
E.P. Taylor built Canadian Breweries into a national conglomerate from Toronto, then turned his Windfields Farm into one of the most successful thoroughbred breeding operations in racing history.
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Edward Plunket Taylor built his fortune in Toronto through the mid-20th century by consolidating dozens of independent Canadian breweries into Canadian Breweries Limited, at one point the largest brewing company in the world, using an aggressive acquisition strategy that made him one of the country's most powerful and, to many small brewers, most feared business figures. He later expanded into real estate development, building large planned suburban communities including Don Mills, one of the first master-planned postwar suburbs in the Toronto area.
A second career in horse racing
Taylor established Windfields Farm north of Toronto as a thoroughbred breeding operation that became, almost as a side interest to his business career, one of the most successful in horse racing history. His most famous horse, Northern Dancer, bred at Windfields and foaled in 1961, went on to win the 1964 Kentucky Derby and became one of the most influential sires in modern thoroughbred breeding, with his bloodline still found in a significant share of top racehorses worldwide decades later.
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