Operations: 1980-2009
In 1980 E. P. Taylor was incapacitated by a stroke and his son Charles took over management of Winfields Farm. E.P. Taylor died in 1989 but Charles died in 1997 after which his widow Noreen and sister Judith Taylor Mappin took charge of the business. The Maryland division was sold in 1988 and Rowland Farm and the Northern Stallion Station occupy the land.
The downsizing that began following the death of E. P. Taylor resulted in large portions of Windfields Farm being sold to the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) and Durham College, which erected sports fields and parking lots on the farm's southeast corner. Farmlands on the east side of Simcoe Street are now housing developments. By 2008, the once vast estate that at its peak was home to more than 600 Thoroughbreds, had devolved to just a small private farm. In November 2009 the Windfields Farm breeding operations were wound up. Its broodmares and weanlings were sent to be auctioned at the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society Winter Mixed Sale and its remaining bloodstock was sold at the Keeneland Sales in Lexington, Kentucky. Shortly afterwards the contents of the farm, literally to the bare walls, was auctioned, and the property was effectively abandoned.
Already engulfed by urban sprawl, Windfields sold much of the non-core portions of the property to real estate developers for the purpose of residential development. Some of the farm's historic barns, the grave of Northern Dancer, plus a trillium forest where fifteen horses are interred, was reported to be preserved as a commemorative park, but as of the fall of 2012, these plans remain unfulfilled, and the future of the property and its historic structures and graves remains in a state of confusion.
To the disappointment of many there appears that there were no firm plans put in place by the Taylor family, Durham College or UOIT before the final closure of the farm in order to ensure its preservation.
Read more about this topic: Windfields Farm