Northern Taste

Northern Taste
Sire	Northern Dancer
Grandsire	Nearctic
Dam	Lady Victoria
Damsire	Victoria Park
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	1971
Country	Canada
Colour	Chestnut
Breeder	E. P. Taylor
Owner	Zenya Yoshida
Trainer	John Cunnington, Jr.
Record	20: 5-2-3
Earnings	F 738,125 & £1.743
Major wins
Prix Thomas Bryon (1973) Prix Eclipse (1973) Prix Djebel (1974) Prix de la Forêt (1974) Prix du Pin (1975)
Last updated on June 17, 2007

Northern Taste (1971–2004) was a Canadian-bred Thoroughbred racehorse who raced in France and who became one of the most successful and influential leading sires in Japanese racing history. [1]

Bred by E. P. Taylor at his Windfields Farm in Oshawa, Ontario, Northern Taste was out of the mare Lady Victoria, a daughter of Canadian Hall of Fame inductee, Victoria Park. His sire was the Canadian and U.S. Racing Hall of Fame star, Northern Dancer, whom the NTRA calls "one of the most influential sires in Thoroughbred history."

Northern Taste was part of Windfields Farm's 1972 consignment of yearlings at the annual Saratoga yearling sale. He was purchased for US$100,000 by Teruya Yoshida for his father Zenya Yoshida, a Japanese racehorse owner/breeder who operated Shadai Farm in Shiraoi, Hokkaido. His new owner decided to race the colt in France and turned him over to trainer John Cunnington, Jr. at the Great Stables in Chantilly.

Racing at age two, Northern Taste won the Prix Thomas Bryon at Saint-Cloud Racecourse and the Prix Eclipse at Maisons-Laffitte Racecourse where the following April 1974 he would return to win the Prix Djebel. Sent to compete in the 1974 English Classics, Northern Taste finished fourth in the 2,000 Guineas and fifth in the Epsom Derby. Back in France, he ran third in the Prix Eugène Adam and in September finished second in the Group I Prix du Moulin de Longchamp at Longchamp Racecourse before winning the G1 Prix de la Forêt in October. He returned to the track in 1975 at age four, winning the Group III Prix du Pin in the Fall at Longchamp.