Clarkland Farm | Horse Racing Free Tips

Juvenile Marr Time, Half-Sister To Beholder, Returns In Oaklawn Allowance On Sunday

She has a chance to do something her famous mother couldn't – win at Oaklawn.

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.

Source of original post

Clarkland’s Nancy Mitchell Dies at 83

Nancy Mitchell of Clarkland Farm died peacefully Nov. 3 at the Kentucky homestead that has been in her family since 1774. She was 83.

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.

The post Clarkland’s Nancy Mitchell Dies at 83 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

‘Special’ Penultimate Foal Out Of Leslie’s Lady Wins On Debut At Keeneland

Clarkland Farm's homebred Marr Time added another impressive branch to her family tree when she sailed to a 2¾-length victory in her debut at Keeneland on Thursday. Ridden by Florent Geroux for Brad Cox, the 2-year-old daughter of Not This Time won the 6-furlong race in 1:11.96 as the 3-5 favorite.

“Just getting to this first start with all the expectations was a big goal for us,” said Tessa Bisha, a Kentucky assistant for Cox, who has been with the filly all year. “We were hopeful she would run like she did, but we haven't made any plans after that race. She cooled out well and she looks great this morning (Friday). She's always thought she was special.”

Marr Time is out of 2016 Broodmare of the Year Leslie's Lady, one of the Thoroughbred industry's all-time great producers. The best offspring of the daughter of Tricky Creek are multiple champion Beholder, Grade 1 winner and leading sire Into Mischief, and Grade 1 winner and sire Mendelssohn. Two of her offspring have topped Keeneland's September Yearling Sale: Mendelssohn at $3 million in 2016 and America's Joy at $8.2 million in 2019.

Celebrating Marr Time's winning performance was the Clarkland team of Fred and Nancy Mitchell and their family.

“Every Kentucky breeder wants to win a race at Keeneland,” the Mitchells' daughter Marty Buckner said. “It can be nerve-wracking but to find out how (good) the bloodlines are, you have to race them.”

Marr Time is the 14th foal out of Leslie's Lady, whose final offspring is the yearling Kantharos filly Love You Irene. Now 25, Leslie's Lady lives as a retiree at Clarkland, which 15 years ago bought her in foal to Orientate for $100,000 at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.

The family opted to breed Leslie's Lady to Not This Time in part because he is a grandson of Storm Cat and her best offspring have been from that sire line.

“Marr Time was always easy,” Buckner said. “Leslie's Lady's best foals are always easy to raise and when you ask them to do something new, they rise to the occasion.”

The post ‘Special’ Penultimate Foal Out Of Leslie’s Lady Wins On Debut At Keeneland appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Latest Foal Out of Leslie’s Lady Earns ‘Rising Star’ Tag

Clarkland Farm homebred MARR TIME (Not This Time), the penultimate foal out of outstanding blue hen Leslie's Lady (Tricky Creek), made her debut a winning one at Keeneland and earned the 'TDN Rising Star' tag in the process. Showing good early speed, the 3-5 chalk sparred with 20-1 longshot Roll Baby (Runhappy) through a :22.84 opening quarter. Shaking off that foe on the backstretch, the bay jumped clear in the lane to win going away by 2 3/4 lengths. Dame Joviale (Into Mischief) was the runner-up. Marr Time is the second 'TDN Rising Star' for her young sire Not This Time, joining GISW Princess Noor.

Fred & Nancy Mitchell's Clarkland Farm purchased the golden goose that is Leslie's Lady for just $100,000 in foal to Orientate at the 2006 Keeneland November Sale and it would prove to be the bargain of a lifetime. Her 2005 foal Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday) won the GI Cashcall Futurity S. for Spendthrift 13 months after that purchase. He went on to become one of the most prolific stallions of his generation and seems to just get better each year. Her fourth foal for the Clarkland team was none other than future Hall of Famer Beholder (Henny Hughes), a $180,000 KEESEP purchase by Spendthrift. The bay mare won four Eclipse awards, three Breeders' Cup races and seven other Grade I events, earning over $6.1 million before retiring to the breeding shed.

Leslie's Lady's 2013 foal, a Curlin filly named Leslie's Harmony, summoned $1.1 million from Bridlewood Farm at Keeneland September, but she did not reproduce her sibling's racetrack prowess. However, Leslie's Lady's 2015 foal outdid that filly in the sales ring and on the track. Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy) topped the 2016 KEESEP sale on a final bid of $3 million from Coolmore and captured the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf and G2 UAE Derby. The GI Travers S. runner-up currently stands at Ashford Stud and his oldest foals are yearlings, who have been well received in the sales ring. Leslie's Lady's last foal to be offered at auction, an American Pharoah filly named America's Joy, set a new record when summoning a whopping $8.2 million from Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm at Keeneland September. Sadly, the 3-year-old filly was euthanized over the summer after suffering a career-ending injury in a workout. The 25-year-old mare's final foal is the now-yearling filly Love You Irene (Kantharos), who, like Marr Time, was retained by her breeder.

5th-Keeneland, $83,934, Msw, 10-28, 2yo, f, 6f, 1:11.96, ft,
2 3/4 lengths.
MARR TIME, f, 2, Not This Time
1st Dam: Leslie's Lady (Broodmare Of The Year, SW, $187,014), by Tricky Creek)
2nd Dam: Crystal Lady, by Stop the Music
3rd Dam: One Last Bird, One For All
Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $50,400. O/B-Clarkland Farm LLC (KY); T-Brad H. Cox. *1/2 to Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy), Hwt. at 3-UAE- at 9 1/2 – 11 f., GISW-USA, GSW-UAE, SW-Ire, G1SP-Eng, $2,542,137; Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday), Among The Leading Sires, Leading Sire, Leading Sire, GISW, $597,080; and Beholder (Henny Hughes), Ch. 3-year-old Filly, Ch. Older Mare, Ch. 2-year-old Filly, Ch. Older Mare, MGISW, $6,156,600. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree, or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

The post Latest Foal Out of Leslie’s Lady Earns ‘Rising Star’ Tag appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post