'I wouldn't be here without him' - emotional first Grade 1 for Will Walden with Taylor Made connection

There could not have been a more fitting instant for Will Walden to claim his first Grade 1 winner than through Rhetorical's success in Saturday's Coolmore Turf Mile at Keeneland.

Only a trainer for three years, Walden fast-tracked Rhetorical into a race against seasoned European turf horses despite his previous win coming in the West Point Stakes, a minor black type event at Saratoga.

The four-year-old was galvanised by Irad Ortiz to finish three-quarters of a length in front of Program Trading, a Grade 1-winning son of Lope De Vega, with Andrew Balding's Celebration Mile winner Jonquil closing for fourth.

Walden spent many years with severe drug and alcohol addiction before entering a recovery centre at Shepherds House in Kentucky. It was there that he was put in touch with Frank Taylor, the director of new business development at Taylor Made Farms who had created Stable Recovery, a programme which gives a chance to those with addictions to work with horses and perhaps earn gainful employment within the industry.

Walden, son of top trainer and now CEO of WinStar Farm Elliott Walden, later proposed to Taylor that he could run a small stable of cheap horses with two friends from the programme, Mike Lowrey and Tyler Maxwell, under the banner of Ready Made Racing.

So it was entirely appropriate that Rhetorical, who is now five-from-six, is a son of Taylor Made superstar stallion Not This Time. He is the ninth Grade 1 winner by the sire, whose Up To The Mark won the race two years ago. Keeneland was also hosting Stable Recovery Day that afternoon.

"I wouldn’t have been able to start training if it wasn’t for Frank Taylor," Walden said.

"I had burned so many bridges and ruined my reputation so bad that there wasn’t anybody that was going to give me a horse, and rightly so. But Frank saw something and decided to put up his own money, and without those [original] ten horses we wouldn’t have gotten started. So, yeah, for it to be a [son of] Not This Time, I couldn’t be happier for Frank. I wouldn’t be here without him."

Taylor joined Walden in the winner's enclose and praised both the trainer and his two contemporaries, who both also have significant industry roles.

"They worked very hard, and Will's a very, very talented horseman," he told BloodHorse.

"They all stayed sober, and they've all become hugely successful. God blesses you for doing the right thing, and this is just a prime example."

It seems likely that Rhetorical can now be pointed towards the Breeders' Cup Mile. The gelding, who was New York-bred by Mallory and Karen Mort out of Distorted Humor mare Sheet Humor, was a $320,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling. He races for a partnership of Gary Barber and the Wachtel and Cheyenne stables.

Will Walden holds the trophy for the Coolmore Turf Mile with Frank Taylor (second left with cap) among those looking on

Will Walden holds the trophy for the Coolmore Turf Mile Credit: Keeneland Photo

"I’m just happy for the team," Walden said. "This is why we do it, get up and do it seven days a week, for moments like this. There were some doubts about whether the horse could jump up. We didn’t know. But he’d been training awfully good and giving us all the signs that we wanted to see going forward."

Diego Velazquez, Aidan O'Brien's Prix Jacques le Marois winner who was bought by a syndicate to be a stallion at the National Stud in 2026, had a difficult trip and finished fifth under Frankie Dettori.

"It just took him by surprise," Dettori said. "He’s been running on straightaways, and it was too much for him. I mean, he ran okay, but he struggled with the track."