LEXINGTON, KY – The Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale continued into its second half Wednesday in Lexington with a session which, while significantly smaller, produced results largely in line with its 2023 counterpart.

For the session, 196 horses sold for a gross of $4,352,900. The average of $22,209 was down 2.54% from last year's corresponding session, while the median of $10,000 was up 25%. From 316 catalogued horses, 242 horses were offered and 46 failed to meet their reserves for a buy-back rate of 19.01%.

During the third session of the 2023 auction, 246 horses sold for $5,605,700. The session average was $22,787 and the median was $8,000. The buy-back rate was 17.45%.

Marvelous Time (Distorted Humor), who sold just minutes into Wednesday's session, brought the day's top price when selling for $220,000 to Centofanti Thoroughbreds, as agent for Brittlyn Stables.

The session topper was one of 17 sold for $1,103,000 during what has become an annual offering of mares from Godolphin, making Sheikh Mohammed's operation the day's leading consignor.

A filly from the first crop of Yaupon brought the top price for a short yearling Wednesday when selling for $150,000 to Crestwood Farm.

Through three of four sessions, 626 horses have grossed $35,949,600 and the average of $57,427 is just 0.79% off the 2023 figure. The median of $22,000 is down 18.52%.

“I'm more than happy with the market,” said Hunter Valley's Adrian Regan. “I think there was a bit of doom and gloom from some people coming in that it was going to be tough going, but in fairness, it was pretty good. If you had the right foal and it vetted clean and everything, you got a lot of money for it. They sold very well. Overall, it was better than expected, I would say.”

A horse awaits a turn in the ring | Keeneland

Consignors agreed quality offerings continued to be in demand at Keeneland this week.

“Horses with quality are still fairly easy to sell,” said Brian Graves of Gainesway, which consigned the $1.6-million sale-topping Prank (Into Mischief) during Monday's first session of the auction. “And then anything that even hints at not being every bit of that is correcting. Anything that is not 100% quality or top shelf, it looks like it's correcting.”

Graves said he has also observed less activity than normal in the back ring.

“It seems like there is not a lot of back ring participants, so if you didn't have it done at the barn, you weren't going to get any help,” he said. “There weren't a ton of people standing around here just buying horses out of the back ring for anything significant.”

On the other side of the ledger, Graves has been active as a buyer in the pinhooking sphere where he admitted he was vying for that very quality, while also casting a wary eye on potential market conditions next fall.

“We focus on quality [when we buy],” Graves said. “That's what we focus on. It's a battle to get your hands on that and once you've gotten your hands on that, you have to worry a little bit wondering if these other signs that we are seeing are a hint of what is coming down the road.”

Meg Levy, whose Bluewater Sales sold the $650,000 Kaling (Practical Joke) Monday, said demand for quality lots significantly helped to drive up prices for those offerings.

“I feel like quality will out,” Levy said. “The buyers are willing to pay more for the perceived commercial quality, particularly in the yearlings, I have noticed. We had Kaling sell very well here, which we were pleased about. But it just seems like everybody is willing to pay up to a third more for what they perceive to be the right stuff. And the middle market is still suffering. It's very difficult.”

Levy speculated that some of the weakening in the foal market might be traced back to the vet reports.

“There is kind of a gap selling some of these yearlings where we are using the vet reports as a marketing tool to help the buyers,” she said. “But honestly, so many of them don't understand reports and they don't use a veterinarian, so that ends up hurting things.”

The Keeneland January sale concludes Thursday with a session beginning at 10 a.m.

Sikura, Dorman Team Up for Star Act

The Keeneland January sale got its third seven-figure horse when Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa's John Sikura and Determined Stud's Matt Dorman partnered up to purchase Star Act (Street Cry {Ire}) (hip 144) for $1.2 million. The 13-year-old mare, dam of GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Just F Y I (Justify), was originally led out unsold at $950,000 during the auction's first session Monday.

Star Act | Keeneland

“She is a class mare,” Dorman said Wednesday. “She's a Grade I producer. She has a phenomenal horse who is three-for-three and primed for next year. John Sikura has always been a great business partner. It just worked out as a good opportunity.”

Dorman said the mare, who is in foal to Life Is Good and was consigned by Hill 'n' Dale on behalf of George Krikorian, was on his radar Monday, but after Prank (Into Mischief) sold for $1.6 million earlier in the session, he assumed Star Act would be out of his price range.

“When I saw the horse go for $1.6 million, I thought she would be too much,” Dorman said. “I work with David Ingordo now. So Dave and I had a long conversation about the broodmare band and what we are doing. And after [Star Act] RNA'd, we decided that the horse made sense at this number. So we reached out to John and Donato [Lanni]. And we called back and forth and it evolved into John and I buying the horse. Donato and the owner have a long-standing relationship with John and respect John, so it worked out well.” @JessMartiniTDN

Marvelous Time Makes Trip Worthwhile for Centofanti

Bloodstock agent Raffaele Centofanti made the trip up from Ocala to find a specific mare for Evelyn Benoit's Brittlyn Stable and, mission accomplished, he was heading back south having purchased Marvelous Time (Distorted Humor) (hip 845) for $220,000 early in Wednesday's third session of the Keeneland January sale. Bred and consigned by Godolphin, the 4-year-old is a daughter of Grade I-placed Folk (Quiet American).

“We were looking for that Quiet American line,” Centofanti said of the mare's appeal. “They are hard to find. You can't find them usually that young–she's only four. It's such a great female line. To get her that young and with that broodmare sire, she checked all the boxes basically. She had everything physically, as well. She is 16.2, with a classy look and a great walk. She looks like a Distorted Humor, but she had the size. She had everything I liked physically.”

Marvelous Time | Keeneland

Marvelous Time made just one racetrack appearance, winning her debut at Presque Isle Downs in 2022 for trainer Mike Stidham. The bay mare is a half-sister to graded-placed Captivating Lass (A.P. Indy), who produced Grade I winner Atone (Into Mischief). She sold Wednesday in foal to Mystic Guide.

“I probably appraised her at a little less than that, but when I came and saw her, I thought we needed around $200,000 to buy her,” Centofanti said. “I think she was worth that.”

Marvelous Time will remain in Kentucky to foal and then will head south to Brittlyn Stable's Louisiana base to visit either Star Guitar or Clearly Now.

“We are debating where we will go with her,” Centofanti said. “We are trying to bring some quality back to Star and Clearly Now. We've been doing it the last two years and we've got some nice babies coming up.”

Centofanti said the plan has been to upgrade the Brittlyn broodmare band as mares get older and are rotated out. The results are showing up on the race track and in the sales ring.

“We've been selling the last three years,” he said. “We sold a couple of Star Guitars for six figures at Keeneland that went on to win big races–one won in Dubai a couple of weeks ago out of Charged Cotton (Dehere). And we have a Not This Time we will sell in September and she is beautiful.”

The Brittlyn-bred Manama Gold (Star Guitar), a Louisiana-bred out of Charged Cotton, sold for $100,000 at the 2022 Keeneland September sale and resold for $200,000 at the 2023 OBS April sale. The filly broke her maiden stylishly at Meydan Dec. 22 for Fawzi Abdulla Nass.

“We've been rotating between Kentucky and Louisiana sires,” Centofanti said. “[Benoit] loves racing and she loves Louisiana. And this way we can continue and we've had success doing that. Our horses are running and doing well.”

Marvelous Time was the only horse Centofanti bid on at Keeneland and he was ready to head back south.

“I have to go to Ocala,” he said. “I have a bunch of horses for her that we are breaking. So I've got to get back there.” @JessMartiniTDN

Yaupon Yearling to Crestwood Farm

Not long into the third session of the Keeneland January sale, Crestwood Farm and Robert Keck went to $150,000 for hip 926, a filly from the first crop of Yaupon.

“She had an amazing body, great bones and a standout pedigree for this session,” said Keck. “She'll be resold in September.”

Hip 926 | Keeneland

Spendthrift Farm's Yaupon has seen his yearlings sell well this week, all five sold going for over six figures, led by a $190,000 colt (hip 82) who sold Monday to Clarmont Bloodstock Club.

“Hopefully that sire is as hot as people are predicting,” Keck continued. “I knew that [Yaupons were selling well], but looked at her as an objective buyer. People don't pay enough attention sometimes to where a horse comes from and I liked that she was raised by Clarkland Farm, they raise a great horse.”

Bred and consigned by Clarkland Farm, the filly is a daughter of MSW Tiz Imaginary (Tizway), who was purchased by the farm for $180,000 out of the 2019 Keeneland November sale. This is the family of champion 2-year-old filly Flanders (Seeking the Gold) and her champion daughter Surfside (Seattle Slew). @SGrimmTDN

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Whisper Hill Farm and Three Chimneys Farm homebred SHOPPER'S REVENGE (Tapit) is one of several well-bred juveniles debuting on this card. The gray is out of three-time Grade I winner and multi-millionaire Stopchargingmaria (Tale of the Cat), whose career highlight was a win in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff. Three Chimneys acquired the mare for $2.8 million at the conclusion of her career at the 2016 FTKNOV sale and re-offered her at that auction two years later carrying a Tapit colt. Mandy Pope went to $4.4 million to take home Stopchargingmaria that day, with Three Chimneys staying in as partner, and went to $1.9 million for her first foal, a Pioneerof the Nile filly now named Stillchargingmaria. The Tapit colt she was carrying, now named Fifty Chevy, brought $825,000 from Japanese interests at KEESEP, but Shopper's Revenge RNA'd for $275,000 the following year.

Al Stall unveils another well-pedigreed colt in Sense You Asked (Street Sense). The $270,000 KEESEP buy is out of a half-sister to MGISW and young sire McKinzie (Street Sense), making his second dam MGSW & MGISP Runway Model (Petionville). TJCIS PPs

4th-CD, $120K, Msw, 2yo, f, 7f, 2:28 p.m. EDT

Clarkland Farm is represented by the final produce of their blue hen Leslie's Lady (Tricky Creek) in LADY IRENE (Kantharos). A stakes winner in her own right, the 26-year-old golden goose has been the gift that keeps on giving for the Mitchell family. One year after she produced Into Mischief, who went on to be a Grade I winner and now the nation's leading sire, the Mitchells snagged her for $100,000 in foal to Orientate at KEENOV. Her third foal for their operation was Hall of Famer, four-time Eclipse winner, 10-time Grade I winner and earner of over $6.1 million Beholder (Henny Hughes). Her first million-dollar yearling was the Curlin filly Leslie's Harmony, who brought $1.1 million at KEESEP. Her Scat Daddy colt Mendelssohn topped that sale in 2016 when purchased by Coolmore for $3 million. He went on to win the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf and is now a successful young sire at Ashford. Leslie's Lady's 2018 American Pharoah filly America's Joy set a record at KEESEP when summoning a whopping $8.2 million from Mandy Pope, but unfortunately she passed away in a training accident before ever making the races. Leslie's Lady 3-year-old filly Marr Time (Not This Time) is a 'TDN Rising Star'.

Chuck Fipke is also represented by a regally bred firster in his homebred Medaglia Forever (Medaglia d'Oro). She is out of GI Breeders' Cup Distaff heroine and champion Forever Unbridled (Unbridled's Song), a four-time top-level scorer and multi-millionaire. Out of GI Kentucky Oaks upsetter Lemons Forever (Lemon Drop Kid), Forever Unbridled is a full-sister to GI Ballerina S. winner Unbridled Forever (Unbridled's Song). TJCIS PPs

12th-CD, $120K, Msw, 2yo, 7f, 6:24 p.m. EDT

OXO Equine's Larry Best went to $1.4 million to acquire the well-related ITZOS (Bolt d'Oro) at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale. He was the third-priced offering at the sale and the most expensive yearling from the first crop of Bolt d'Oro. The bay is out of SW & GSP Lotta Kim (Roar), who is best known for being the dam of Horse of the Year and Hall of Famer Rachel Alexandra (Medaglia d'Oro), who in turn is the dam of GISW Rachel's Valentina (Bernardini). Itzos is also a half to GSP runners Dolphus (Lookin At Lucky) and Gladys (Medaglia d'Oro).

Rodolphe Brisset saddles an expensive and nicely bred second timer in $850,000 KEESEP buy Talladega (Into Mischief). The WinStar and Siena Farm colorbearer will need to step up after a poor effort first out going shorter than he probably prefers at 5 1/2 furlongs in the slop at Churchill Oct. 30. He enters off back-to-back bullets over synthetic on the Keeneland training track, most recently going a half-mile in :47 4/5 Nov. 18. Talladega is a half to GSW Holiday Disguise (Harlan's Holiday), MSW Midnight Disguise (Midnight Lute) and GISP Forest Caraway (Bodemeister). TJCIS PPs

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Beholder's (Henny Hughes) career-capping victory by a nose over the previously unbeaten champion Songbird (Medaglia d'Oro) in the 2016 GI Breeder's Cup Distaff was nearly as gripping on the big screen at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion as it was live at Santa Anita Park. For sheer drama it ranks with the finish of the 1988 Distaff when Personal Ensign (Private Account) rallied to overtake Goodbye Halo (Halo) and GI Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors (Caro) to complete her career unbeaten.

With a slew of impressive statistics, Beholder and the seven other members of the Class of 2022 joined Personal Ensign in the Hall of Fame, which fittingly is located across Union Ave. from historic Saratoga Race Course. Beholder and Tepin (Bernstein) were elected by Hall of Fame voters in the contemporary division; Hillsdale (Take Away), Royal Heroine (Ire) (Lypheor {GB}) and trainer Oscar White were selected by the Historic Review Committee; three were honored in the Pillar of the Turf category: James Cox Brady, Marshall Cassidy and James Ben Ali Haggin.

This year's event had a smaller crowd than usual, possibly because there were no contemporary trainers or jockeys inducted. All four of the people who received racing's highest honor for their distinguished careers, have been dead for decades. Haggin, a remarkable owner and breeder, who at one time owned 1,500 broodmares, was born 200 years ago.

Beholder, owned by the late B. Wayne Hughes' Spendthrift Farm and trained by Richard Mandella, completed her brilliant career with a record of 18-6-0 from 26 starts and earnings of $6,156,600. She was a four-time champion, won three Breeders' Cup races and a total of 11 Grade I races. She won at least one Grade I in each of her five seasons on the track.

“It's an amazing and humbling honor for us to see our greatest race-mare, our once-in-a-lifetime horse enshrined next to the many others that came before her,” said Eric Gustavson, Hughes's son-in-law and the president of Spendthrift. “Beholder is already in the Hall of Fame now, so what you're getting feels like I'm lobbying for her to get in.”

Gustavson cited some of the high points of Beholder's career and acknowledged by name the people who worked with her, starting with the breeders, Fred and Nancy Mitchell of Clarkland Farm. He said Mandella, who had to miss the ceremony because he had tested positive for Covid-19, deserved credit for Beholder's success, “for his masterful horsemanship, patience and judgment, and managing Beholder's incredible career. Thank you, Richard.”

“I once heard Richard say, 'I can't get out of the horses what God didn't put in,'” Gustavson said. “Well, thank you God for giving Beholder so much talent. And thank you Richard for getting it all out of her.”

As he began to talk about Hughes, who died in August 2021, Gustavson paused for nine seconds to regain his composure.

“You should be standing here right now instead of me,” Gustavson said. “And while we're sorry, he didn't get to see Beholder win her final honor. We take solace in remembering how much Beholder meant to Wayne. You see, Wayne never got too attached to his race horses. They meant a lot to him, but he just wasn't the type to allow his emotions to come along for the ride. Until Beholder that is. She changed him in that regard. Following Beholder's impressive win against the boys in the 2015 [GI] Pacific Classic, Wayne said 'I've had a few good horses in the past, but she's the first horse that makes me feel lucky to be the owner. I've never had that feeling before. I think it's called pride.'”

Owner Robert Masterson saluted Tepin's Hall of Fame induction at the venue where he purchased her for $140,000 just over a decade ago. She emerged as a champion turf horse as a 4-year-old, winning 11 of her last 15 races, including the G1 Queen Anne at Royal Ascot, the second of her three victories over males, and won two division titles.

“The one thing about Tepin that I really admired was the more she raced and the more success she had, the greater the following she seemed to get from the people,” Masterson said. “The fans seemed to start to really love her. The first time I recognized it was when she overcame a 13-length deficit to win a Grade II [Hillsborough S.] at Tampa Bay Downs. When she crossed the finish line, there was just as an eruption of applause. It was like a crescendo at the end of a concert that was so good. And when she won up in Woodbine in Canada when she beat the boys in the Grade I [Woodbine Mile S.], we're having the trophy presentation, and we stopped the trophy presentation to recognize the fans who shouted loudly, 'Tepin. Tepin. Tepin.' It was such an appreciation from the Canadian fans.”

He continued, “Then again when she finished second in the Grade I at Santa Anita at the Breeders Cup [2016 Mile], when she was leaving, to go back to the barn, the grandstand started going, 'Tepin. Tepin. Tepin.' I think that was because she finished the last quarter of that Breeders Cup, the fastest quarter ever recorded on the grass at Santa Anita. And the fans really appreciated that even though she came up half a length short.”

Masterson told a story about seeing a family at Saratoga wearing homemade Tepin shirts and said she had a bar named for her at the track after her score at Royal Ascot.

“On behalf of Tepin and myself, I want to thank all the fans who came out and reacted positively to her and loved to watch her race,” Masterson said. “I want to thank Mark Casse and his son Norm for the excellent training job they did on her. I want to thank Julien Leparoux for the rides. I want to thank [David] Greathouse for helping me find her right here at the Fasig-Tipton yearling sale. And I want to thank the Hall of Fame committee for recognizing her accomplishments and voting her into the Hall of Fame. It's such an honor.”

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Midway through July, however, Justify is already represented by a Group 2 winner in Europe and a Grade III winner in North America from his first crop of 2-year-olds, and through Monday he sat second by less than $30,000 on the first-crop sire list by progeny earnings behind Spendthrift's Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro), a rival he defeated by three lengths in the Gl Santa Anita Derby. So far, he leads all freshman sires by black-type winners, black-type horses (three), and graded winners–a quick start at stud for a physically massive and late-starting horse who got 12 furlongs with ease in an undefeated, but compressed six-start career that lasted a brief four months, from February to June at age three.

Despite size, a late track debut and the ability to run as far as 3-year-olds are asked to go on dirt in North American Grade l races, Justify had exceptional balance and speed, his trainer Bob Baffert said by phone Monday morning between a training break. “He was a big, powerful horse–he looked like a giant Quarter Horse is what he looked like. A big, beautiful, massive, balanced horse. As big as he was, he was so light on his feet. He didn't hit the ground hard at all. He just floated over this track.”

Baffert said he didn't get Justify until after the Breeders' Cup, which is why the big chestnut didn't race at two. He'd been purchased for $500,000 at Keeneland September by WinStar, China Horse Club and SF Bloodstock. According to a report in New York Times, the colt had surgery on a stifle before he was sent to Baffert. “When I got him, he was a sound horse,” Baffert said. “My assistant Mike Marlow, who had him at Los Alamitos, kept telling me he had a really good one down there named Justify, by Scat Daddy.”

In comparing Justify to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) and champion Arrogate (Unbridled's Song), three of his best, Baffert said: “Pharoah's mechanics were extraordinary, the way he would move and the way he would work. Let's say Pharoah maybe had more speed, you know, quicker, but the thing about Pharoah and Justify, on Breeders' Cup, they could have won the Sprint, the Mile and the Classic. That's how good they were. Arrogate, he could have won only the Breeders' Cup Classic. That's the kind of horses they were. And Arrogate going a mile and a quarter, he was a beast of a horse. But Pharoah and Justify, they did things effortlessly.”

Bred by John D. Gunther, Justify is out of Stage Magic, a daughter of champion Ghostzapper–another brilliantly fast racehorse who could have won the Gl BC Sprint and Gl BC Dirt Mile in addition to the Gl BC Classic that he did win, keeping to Baffert's analogy. As it was, Ghostzapper won the Gl Vosburgh at 6 1/2 furlongs and the Gl Metropolitan H at a mile.

Ghostzapper, however, wasn't precocious, making only two starts at two, in November and December at that. Neither was Stage Magic, who won her first race at three, in September.

In contrast, Justify's male line–the sequence Scat Daddy/Johannesburg/Hennessy/Storm Cat/Storm Bid–is noted for early maturity and speed, with each horse named a Grade l/Group 1 winner at two. Each horse in this line except for Storm Cat also stood at Ashford (Coolmore America), and Coolmore has collected some of Scat Daddy's best sons because of its belief in the sire line. In addition to Justify, Coolmore stands Mendelssohn, who recently had his first winners, and Caravaggio, whose oldest foals are three, at Ashford, and it has No Nay Never, who stood for €125,000 this spring, and Sioux Nation, with first-crop juveniles, in Ireland. All five were winners at the highest level. Additionally, Coolmore also stands Group l winner Ten Sovereigns (Ire) (No Nay Never) and Group 2 winner Arizona (Ire) (No Nay Never) in Ireland.

From this group, No Nay Never, a champion first-season sire like Scat Daddy, and Caravaggio, who had 26 winners from his first crop of juveniles last year, have already emerged as sires of early maturing speed horses, and just last week each was represented by a Group l winner: Alcohol Free (Ire), first in the Darley July Cup S., for the former; and Tenebrism, winner of the Prix Jean Prat, for the latter. Meanwhile, Sioux Nation has 17 first-crop 2-year-old winners so far. Throw Justify's two group/graded winners into the mix and this is quite a collective showing for Coolmore's young sons of Scat Daddy, who died prematurely at age 11 in 2015, but not before getting some talented sons who appear to have the ability to carry his name forward in tail-male.

Justify's Group/Graded Winners

Both Coolmore and Baffert have played a part in Justify's early success. The filly Statuette, who won the G2 Airlie Stud S. at the Curragh June 26, is a homebred for the Coolmore partners and Merriebelle Stable. Her dam, Immortal Verse (Ire), by Pivotal (GB), was a multiple Group 1-winning miler who once defeated Goldikova (Ire), and she made headlines when selling for the equivalent of $8 million at Tattersalls December in 2013. Before Statuette, she produced the previously mentioned Tenebrism, who's trained like Statuette by Aidan O'Brien for the same ownership and was also a Group 1 winner at two last year.

If not for a matter of a day, Baffert would be the breeder of Just Cindy, winner of the Glll Schuylerville at Saratoga last Thursday for owner/breeder Fred Mitchell's Clarkland Farm and trainer Eddie Kenneally.

Baffert purchased the filly's dam, Jenda's Agenda, a stakes winner of $173,475 by Proud Citizen, for $90,000 at Keeneland November in 2018 to use for one of his breeding rights.

“I'm always looking for mares to breed because I have those stallions,” Baffert said. “I had Donato [Lanni] look at her. He said she was on the small side, but she looks good. I saw a picture of her. She was a good race mare that was all speed going a mile, so I bought her.”

Baffert had her covered by Justify in early 2019 and shipped her to California, where he wanted to foal her in the state-bred program.

“Come December, I thought, 'You know what, what am I doing?' I put her in Keeneland January and sent her to Kentucky and figured she has to bring $300,000. She just didn't get any action,” Baffert said.

The mare was a $325,000 RNA for consignor John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale.

“Then, Boyd Browning of Fasig-Tipton says, 'I can sell that mare for you.'”

Baffert entered the mare in the Fasig-Tipton February sale Feb. 10-11 that year.

“Then, Johnny Sikura calls me up and says, 'Bob, I can't take the mare over there. She's all bagged up, waxed up and she's gonna drop. You don't want her to foal in the sale ring. You're gonna have to take her out [of the sale].' I said, 'Alright, I'll take her out.' Then, on the second day of the sale, I get a call from Fred Mitchell. He goes to John's barn and says, 'Where's that mare?' I told him I took her out of the sale because she's probably going to foal tomorrow. He asked me what I wanted for her, and I told him, and he said okay,” said Baffert. “I bought the mare sight unseen and Fred brought the mare sight unseen, and we did the deal on a handshake, very rare these days. Fred Mitchell knows good horses and he raises them right.”

The mare foaled Just Cindy Feb. 12, and she became her sire's first graded winner in North America and his first on dirt, with Mitchell's Clarkland the official breeder of record.

That's quite the story.

   Sid Fernando is president and CEO of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc., originator of the Werk Nick Rating and eNicks.

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JUST CINDY (f, 2, Justify–Jenda's Agenda {SW, $173,475}, by Proud Citizen), bet down to 6-5 for her career debut, had an awkward beginning, breaking slowly and taking a bobbled step before getting into stride. After settling in behind the leaders in fourth, she began to make up ground along the outside, coming alongside Corningstone (Kantharos) and American Apple (American Pharoah) exiting the far turn. She gained an advantage into the final furlong and kept on to the wire, winning by 2 1/4 lengths over Corningstone to be her freshman sire's third winner. The win was also #500 at Churchill Downs for jockey Rafael Bejarano. The first foal for her dam, Just Cindy has a yearling half-sister by American Pharoah and Jenda's Agenda produced a filly by Mendelssohn in 2022. Sales History: $140,000 RNA Ylg '21 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $69,460. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

O/B-Clarkland Farm LLC (KY); T-Eddie Kenneally.

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I know that the industry press is currently saturated with the contention of attorneys, rather than racehorses. And I know that our sport, in the process, is squandering much of the cultural capital that should instead have been invested in the two compelling talents squaring up at Gulfstream Saturday. Yet perhaps one of the protagonists will not just put all these tawdry sagas aside, however briefly, but also pay a timely tribute to a mare who could get anyone interested in the game.

Her dam was once claimed for $5,000, and she herself made only $8,000 as a youngster. Her sire ended up standing for $2,500 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. But she did win a stake at Hoosier Park, elevating her value to $100,000 in the poignant dispersal of half a dozen fillies and mares owned by the late James T. Hines Jr.-who had died with shocking prematurity earlier in the year, in a swimming accident just four days before his best ever horse, Lawyer Ron, confirmed his Derby credentials in the Southwest S. at Oaklawn.

By that stage, at the Keeneland November Sale of 2006, this mare was 10 years old. Her catalog page listed a slipped first foal and two runners who had brought little to the party: her 3-year-old Marquetry filly would break her maiden, at the 10th attempt and under a $10,000 tag at Charles Town, two days after the sale; while her 2-year-old by Orientate had just won a couple of modest races, but only after publication of the catalog. There was also a yearling colt by Harlan's Holiday, who had been bought as a pinhook across town at Fasig-Tipton the previous month; and a weanling filly by Yankee Victor, who not only followed her directly into the ring but also accompanied her, for $11,000, to her new home at Clarkland Farm.

The following spring, the Mitchells of Clarkland sent their new mare to Rockport Harbor–and then watched with delight as her Harlan's Holiday colt, meanwhile named Into Mischief, won the GI Futurity at Hollywood Park.

The rest, of course, is quite literally Turf history. And while we had to close her own chapter this week, the sequel plainly has a long way to go-starting Saturday, when Into Mischief's latest champion, Life Is Good, squares up to Knicks Go (Paynter) in a showdown of unusual purity, with both horses sharing the same domineering style.

There are many reasons to celebrate the fact that Leslie's Lady–with a sire like Tricky Creek, and a dam by Stop The Music out of a One For All mare–should have become one of the great modern producers. For me, however, the principal lesson is how genetic flames can always still be kindled from what we take to be ashes, but are in fact embers.

Though a commercial failure, with no more than 18 stakes winners, a study late in his career placed Tricky Creek fifth among active national sires by percentage starters-to-foals; and seventh, by starts-per-starter. Leslie's Lady herself contributed with nine, 12 and seven starts across her three seasons, and surely her sire deserves some credit for the way that Beholder (Henny Hughes) managed to win Grade Is five seasons running.

So who can say what genetic strands have been revived through Leslie's Lady? Tricky Creek shared a damsire (His Majesty) with Danehill, while his third dam was the Darby Dan foundation mare Soaring (Swaps). At one stage Sheikh Mohammed gave $5.3 million for his yearling half-brother by Kingmambo.

Doubtless many will persevere in the touching notion that the three outstanding foals of Leslie's Lady shared some kind of magic trigger in the Storm Cat line. Personally, however, I will never be persuaded that Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy), for instance, should owe everything to the alchemy of Storm Cat and nothing to the byzantine interplay of 15 others with an identical genetic stake.

If you visit the equivalent generation in the pedigree of Leslie's Lady, the eight mares include several (Soaring as mentioned, but also Flower Bowl, Quill, ShThisenanigans etc) who corroborated their distinction in more ways than one, either as elite runners themselves; as multiple stakes producers; or both. When you look at the virtually seamless quality of stallions seeding that generation, in an era when books remained confined to three dozen or so, then it stands to reason that these mares had earned their access.

I don't know why their combined prowess should have lain dormant, or quite what has ignited it now. But I do know that I can't know, which puts me one step ahead of the guys who purport to have a system or formula. It is the mystery, after all, that captivates us all; and it is also the mystery that gives us all a chance.

Besides the big duel in Florida, Saturday also renews the Derby trial won by Lawyer Ron, when suddenly carrying estate silks for a grieving family; and another, the GII San Vicente S., in which Into Mischief was so disappointing on his reappearance that he disappeared until the fall.

In the Oaklawn race, the man who last year lost the services of Life Is Good runs a rising star of the next crop, even though ineligible for the Derby starting points available to the rest of the field.

Unlike Corniche (Quality Road), whose status is opaque in his continued absence from the worktab, Newgrange (Violence) is owned by a remarkably extensive syndicate. If Bob Baffert's stalemate with Churchill doesn't get resolved in time, then you have to wonder whether so many disparate interests, so many wealthy people accustomed to calling the shots, could contrive both the opportunity and the unanimity to move a Derby colt into another barn.

As I've suggested before, if Baffert wants to introduce a bit of class to a dismal situation for the whole industry, he might perhaps himself insist that his friends and patrons are not left to choose between a chance in a lifetime, at the Derby, and a perceived obligation of fidelity to a guy who has–at least for now–won the thing seven times already. But he's only human, and maybe the spectacle of last year's GIII Sham S. winner running for $3 million out of another barn will be just too maddening for Baffert to evict Newgrange in his wake.

I'm intrigued by a couple of closers in this field, not least one saddled by a promising young trainer name of D. Wayne Lukas, and here's another race where the stars could easily align for Kenny “King Midas” McPeek. But I guess we will probably end up with the usual, collective meekness when it comes to contesting control of the race with a Baffert speed horse.

With no McPeek to worry about in his backyard, Baffert fields three of the five in the San Vicente, a race he has harvested 11 times already. If Doppelganger can put the record straight for his sire in this race, then, we could be looking at an apt day of coast-to-coast achievement for Into Mischief.

In saluting his dam, who was at least granted her full span of years and a peaceful retirement, let's not forget her breeder, who was not. What a legacy they share! The three busiest American stallions of 2021, with 690 mares between them, were Practical Joke, Goldencents and Authentic, all sons of Into Mischief. The Spendthrift champion himself covered 216 elite mares at his monster fee; while his half-brother Mendelssohn, after staggering books of 252 and 242 in his first two years, idled at 197.

So you never know how things will turn out, with horses. Lawyer Ron, launched with much more fanfare than Into Mischief, was in only his second season at stud when lost to colic.

He, of course, was a horse named for a human. These days, conversely, it sometimes feels as though horses are only competing as elegant proxies for humans. Long after the dust has settled on a race, the lawyers will tell us the real finishing order. But there is, thank goodness, a limit to human ingenuity. And in celebrating Leslie's Lady, we celebrate the enigmas we can never unravel. That being so, our quest will always retain its romance; and life will continue to be good.

The post This Side Up: A Good Life, If Luck Will Be a Lady appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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The flagship broodmare for Clarkland Farm had been residing as a pensioner at the Lexington, Ky., operation after retiring from production last spring.

The names under Leslie's Lady's produce record comprise some of the most important names in the stakes book, the sale catalog, and the stud book over the past two decades: Grade 1 winner and record-setting sire Into Mischief; four-time Eclipse Award winner Beholder; $3-million yearling, Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner and popular young stallion Mendelssohn; $8.2-million yearling America's Joy; $1.1-million yearling Leslie's Harmony; leading California freshman sire Curlin to Mischief; and black type producers Judy B, Victory Party, and Daisy Mason.

Bred in Kentucky by David E. Hager II, the daughter of Tricky Creek sold as a short yearling for $8,000 at the 1997 Keeneland January sale, then went to James T. Hines Jr. for $27,000 later that year at the Keeneland September sale. She was then placed in the barn of trainer Robert Holthus, with whom she won five of 28 starts, highlighted by a victory in the listed Hoosier Debutante Stakes at Hoosier Park during her 2-year-old season.

Leslie's Lady entered Hines' breeding program after retiring from the racetrack, and she was initially unspectacular. She aborted her first foal after meeting Marquetry, then her first two foals never earned black type.

She was part of the first book for stallion Harlan's Holiday in 2004, and she produced the colt that would become Into Mischief the following March.

Hines died in February 2006, and Leslie's Lady was offered as part of his dispersal at that year's Keeneland November sale, where he sold to Clarkland Farm for $100,000. Into Mischief, meanwhile, took a detour through Indiana on his road to the history books.

Leslie's Lady earned Kentucky Broodmare of the Year honors from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association in 2016 after a season where Beholder, by Henny Hughes, won the Breeders' Cup Distaff and the Eclipse Award for champion older female.

While Clarkland Farm bred Leslie's Lady primarily for the commercial market, the operation retained the mare's final two foals, both of them fillies, to preserve her female line in their program.

Marr Time, a 3-year-old by Not This Time, was a debut winner last fall, taking a Keeneland maiden special weight by 2 3/4 lengths. Her final foal is the unraced Kantharos juvenile Love You Irene.

In total, Leslie's Lady has produced seven winners from nine starters to date, with combined on-track earnings of more than $9.5 million. Her foals have brought a combined $14,187,000 at public auction.

Leslie's Lady was buried near the entrance of Clarkland Farm.

Read more at BloodHorse.

Terribly sad to hear about the passing of Blue Hen & Broodmare of the Year, Leslie's Lady.

Our thoughts are with @Martyclarkland & all at Clarkland Farm who loved & cared for this incredible mare.

Hopefully Mendelssohn can continue her legacy with his first runners this year! pic.twitter.com/KlAqoYmUse

— Coolmore America (@coolmoreamerica) January 24, 2022

The post Broodmare Of The Year Leslie’s Lady Dies At Age 26 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Bred in Kentucky by David Hager II, Leslie's Lady was an $8,000 short yearling purchase from Hager's Idle Hour Farm at Keeneland January in 1997 and was acquired by owner James T. Hines for $27,000 from the Margaux Farm draft at the Keeneland September Sale later that fall. Winner of four of nine juvenile starts for trainer Bob Holthus, including the Hoosier Debutante S., Leslie's Lady was runner-up in the 1999 Martha Washington S. and showed consistent form throughout the balance of her career, winning a total of five races for earnings of $187,014.

Leslie's Lady was acquired by Clarkland as a 10-year-old for $100,000 in foal to Orientate from Hines Estate at Keeneland November in 2006 and the purchase looked a shrewd one just over a year later when the mare's foal of 2005, an $80,000 Fasig-Tipton October yearling turned $180,000 OBS March breezer later named Into Mischief, became a Grade I winner for Spendthrift Farm in the CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park.

Leslie's Lady visited Henny Hughes in 2009 and the result of that mating was Beholder, a $180,000 purchase by Spendthrift out of the 2011 Keeneland September Sale, who won no fewer than 11 Grade I races–including three Breeders' Cup events and a breathtaking score against males in the GI TVG Pacific Classic–en route to amassing career earnings of better $6.1 million.

As her produce continued to make waves on the racetrack and as Into Mischief became a sire of considerable importance at Spendthrift, Leslie's Lady's young offspring became increasingly sought-after at public auction. M.V. Magnier paid a Keeneland September sales-topping $3 million for her foal of 2015, a Scat Daddy colt named Mendelssohn, who went on to take the 2017 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf and the 2018 G2 UAE Derby (by 18 1/2 lengths) and was on the board in the GI Runhappy Travers S. and GI Jockey Club Gold Cup before heading off to stud at Coolmore.

The latter nursery's American Pharoah was the sire of Leslie's Lady's foal of 2018, a filly, that was purchased by Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm for a sale-best $8.2 million at KEESEP in 2019 (click here for more from Chris McGrath), the most expensive filly ever sold at Keeneland. Named America's Joy, she sadly passed away in a training accident last August.

Leslie's Lady's 3-year-old daughter Marr Time (Not This Time) is in training with Brad Cox and was named a 'TDN Rising Star' for a debut victory at Keeneland Oct. 28. The mare's final foal is a 2-year-old Kantharos filly named Love You Irene. The filly that Leslie's Lady was carrying at the time of her purchase by Clarkland, the now 15-year-old mare Daisy Mason, was hammered down to the partnership of Whisper Hill and Gainesway for $475,000 in foal to Not This Time at Keeneland November last fall.

Click here to read a story from Katie Petrunyak, who visited Leslie's Lady in retirement last June.

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Unbeaten Marr Time faces winners for the first time in Sunday's sixth race, an entry-level allowance sprint for 2-year-old fillies for trainer Brad Cox and breeder/owner Clarkland Farm (Fred Mitchell). Marr Time is by the top young sire Not This Time, but it's her dam's name that turns heads. Marr Time is out of Leslie's Lady, making her a half-sister to four-time Eclipse Award winner and future Hall of Famer Beholder, super sire Into Mischief and Grade 1 winner Mendelssohn.

Marr Time, as the 3-5 favorite, was a front-running 2 ¾-length winner of her Oct. 28 career debut at Keeneland. Florent Geroux, Oaklawn's leading rider through the first six days of the 2021-2022 meeting, has the return call on Marr Time, who is scheduled to break from post 2 in the projected eight-horse field.

“Marr Time, she's obviously got a big pedigree,” Cox said Thursday afternoon. “Fast filly. Hopeful that this is the next step to stretching her out. We like her. She's pretty classy.”

Marr Time has worked twice at Oaklawn in advance of her local debut. She recorded a 5-furlong bullet (:59.60) Dec. 5 and covered a half-mile in :48.40 Dec. 12. Marr Time will be racing on Lasix for the first time Sunday.

“She's a big, beautiful filly,” Cox said. “We'll see how it goes.”

Leslie's Lady ran in three sprints at the 1999 Oaklawn meeting for Bob Holthus, Oaklawn's all-time leading trainer, and owner James T. Hines Jr. Leslie's Lady, a daughter of Tricky Creek, finished second to stablemate The Happy Hopper in the $50,000 Martha Washington Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, fifth as the heavy favorite in an allowance event and fourth in the $35,000 America's First Lady Stakes. Holthus and Hines' estate later campaigned 2006 Arkansas Derby and Rebel winner Lawyer Ron.

Clarkland Farm purchased Leslie's Lady for $100,000 at the 2006 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. She was named 2016 Broodmare of the Year by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association and Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders. Leslie's Lady, 25, was pensioned last spring, with Marr Time her penultimate foal.

Not This Time, by Giant's Causeway out of Oaklawn stakes winner Miss Macy Sue, finished second in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) in 2016.

Probable post time for Sunday's sixth race is 2:51 p.m. (Central).

The post Juvenile Marr Time, Half-Sister To Beholder, Returns In Oaklawn Allowance On Sunday appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Blood-Horse first reported Mitchell's passing. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations in Mitchell's honor to the Alzheimer's Association or Central Kentucky Riding for Hope.

Running Clarkland for nearly a half-century alongside her husband, Fred, and daughter, Marty Buckner, Nancy and the team have been major consignors at Kentucky sales for decades.

Clarkland has bred, raised and sold many top-class runners, including the two-time champion sprinter Housebuster, the champion older mare North Sider, and the English champion 2-year old Wind and Wuthering.

But it was the 2006 buy of a mare called Leslie's Lady for $100,000 who was carrying a foal by Orientate at the Keeneland November sale that turned out to be Clarkland's most memorable bloodstock move during the Mitchells' tenure.

“She is the best mare we will probably ever have,” Fred Mitchell told TDN in 2018. “Nancy picked her out.”

Although Leslie's Lady's top accomplishment on the racetrack was winning a stakes at Hoosier Park and none of her four foals were standouts at the time, the colt she produced in 2005, the year before Clarkland purchased her, turned into the Grade I winner and now-prolific stallion Into Mischief.

Leslie's Lady in 2010 produced four-time Eclipse Award winner and three-time Breeders' Cup heroine Beholder. In 2015, she foaled Mendelssohn, who topped the 2016 Keeneland September sale at $3 million and later won the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf and G2 UAE Derby.

Leslie's Lady's last foal to be offered at auction, America's Joy, set a new price record for a filly when she hammered for $8.2 million at the 2019 KEESEP sale. Unraced, the 3-year-old was euthanized in August 2021 after suffering a career-ending injury in a workout.

Now 25, Leslie's Lady was retired from breeding this past spring. Her penultimate foal, Marr Time (Not This Time), was retained to race by Clarkland, and upon winning her debut at Keeneland Oct. 28, she was named a 'TDN Rising Star'.

Marr Time was named with a nod to Nancy Mitchell's ancestor, John Wesley Marr.

“He was an old guy that never changed his clocks,” Fred Mitchell told TDN back in June. “He stayed on Central Standard Time year-round. He would say, 'When the sun changes and my horses and I know that the time changed, I'll change. But not 'til then.'”

Nancy Mitchell grew up at Clarkland. The 400-acre farm northeast of Lexington had been granted to her ancestor, Lt. James Clark, for his service in the mid-18th Century French and Indian War. The present ownership of Clarkland is descended from James Clark to Nancy Mitchell and two sisters.

In addition to success as breeders and sales consignors, Clarkland has prided itself in being good stewards of the land, being among the Kentucky Thoroughbred farms that have joined in the Development Rights Program that preserves Bluegrass farmland.

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