A half-decade ago, the stall closest to the center aisle under Clarkland Farm's Book 1 shedrow at Keeneland September was occupied by a well-related Scat Daddy colt. Ahead of this year's first book, the same stall in Barn 5 is occupied by one of his sons.
As one might expect, a lot happened in between.
The Scat Daddy colt was out of Clarkland's cornerstone broodmare Leslie's Lady, and he had siblings Into Mischief and Beholder powering his page with black type. He'd be named Mendelssohn after the Coolmore partnership spent $3 million to make him the most expensive offering of the 2016 Keeneland September sale. Then, he'd go on to win the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf and Group 2 U.A.E. Derby before retiring to Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky., for the 2019 breeding season.
Mendelssohn tied for the second-most mares bred during his first season at stud, with 252. The only horse he trailed was half-brother Into Mischief at Spendthrift Farm.
Fred Mitchell of Lexington, Ky.-based Clarkland Farm had two foals from that initial crop, including the colt residing in the same stall during the same book as his seven-figure sire. Offered as Hip 58, the colt is out of the Grade 1-placed stakes-winning Lookin at Lucky mare Maybellene.
“He's just a nice individual, and the mare needs a runner, so we'll see,” Mitchell said. “She was a nice, well-bred racemare, and she had bad luck. Her first one by American Pharoah was in that fire accident that Christophe Clement had [Under the Oaks, who was one of 10 horses lost in a 2020 van fire], so that put an end to that really nice 2-year-old. The mare's had a little bit of bad luck, but this is a really nice individual, and she's still a young mare.”
The colt's tie to Leslie's Lady through Mendelssohn is perhaps his most notable pedigree note, but the female family that Maybellene contributes is certainly no slouch. The page includes champion Anees and the cornerstone sire Elusive Quality.
Mitchell has a unique perspective on some of North America's top sires, also throwing in California stallion Curlin to Mischief, having seen most of them develop from day one, even if one removes Into Mischief, who was born before Clarkland Farm bought Leslie's Lady. While we are all familiar with what the most famous offspring of Leslie's Lady look like at the public-facing stages of their lives – the sales ring, the racetrack, and at stud – Mitchell has a grasp of how they developed as foals, and how that might inform how their offspring will come up at the same age.
In addition to the two Mendelssohn yearlings on the farm, Mitchell said he also has four weanlings by the stallion, and they're setting an impressive pace.
“I probably liked them better than I did the first couple crops of Into Mischief, and we can't say anything wrong about Into Mischief,” he said. “Mendelssohn seems to cross with practically any type of mare you breed to him.”
That familiarity with the bloodline also gave Mitchell another perspective that only he and the other staff at Clarkland Farm might recognize.
“I see a lot of Leslie's Lady coming out in them,” he said of the Mendelssohns. “We've got a mare that's got an outstanding weanling on the ground, and is no kin to Leslie's Lady, but the foal looks like Beholder. I thought that was interesting to see coming out of them.”
Mendelssohn has 93 yearlings cataloged to his first Keeneland September sale, which is the most of any debuting sire this year. The veteran, and leading general sire, Into Mischief has 91 in the September catalog.
Mendelssohn has a hard act to follow after his record-setting big brother, but what he's already accomplished to get to this point has put 2016 Broodmare of the Year Leslie's Lady in an even loftier stratosphere. The “big stall” in Barn 5 has already panned out for the Clarkland Farm consignment, and now it could extend multiple legacies even further.
“It's unreal for a broodmare to have three horses standing at stud,” Mitchell said. “She's accomplished more than we think a mare could ever possibly do. If Mendelssohn hits even close to what Into Mischief has done, it'll be something to see, and the pedigree will go on for years and years.”
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