Frank Mitchell | Horse Racing Free Tips

Bloodlines: Rich History Flows Through Mandaloun’s Female Family For A Dozen Generations

In Thoroughbred pedigrees, there are numerous beginnings. These are those moments when a family, seemingly dead or class-impaired, rises again to show speed and fly anew.

This has not been a problem, however, for the family of Mandaloun, who won the Grade 1 Haskell at Monmouth Park via the disqualification of Hot Rod Charlie on July 17. Tracing back in the female line to the 1902 Cambridgeshire Handicap winner Ballantrae, Mandaloun comes from one of the great families of the English and American stud books, and of the 12 generations of broodmares back to Ballantrae, only one in the female line of Mandaloun did not earn black type.

Ballantrae ended her days in the stud of Marcel Boussac and produced Coeur a Coeur (by Teddy), the second dam of classic winner Djebel (Tourbillon) as her final foal in 1921 for Boussac. In Ballantrae's younger days, she crossed the Atlantic twice and the English Channel multiple times, and her most famous descendants outside the Boussac stud came successively in the studs of the Whitney family.

W.C. Whitney owned the mare when she won the Cambridgeshire, and he first sent her to America in 1904. In the States, Ballantrae produced a few nice foals before Clarence Mackay sent her to his stud in France.

Among Ballantrae's daughters in France, the first of great note was Balancoire (Meddler), bred by Mackay and winner of the Prix La Fleche. At stud, her two sons made better racehorses, but her daughters made history. H.P. Whitney had acquired Balancoire and brought her to his Brookdale Stud. There she produced Blondin (Broomstick), winner of the Empire City Derby and Long Branch Stakes and second in the 1926 Preakness Stakes, and Distraction (Chicle), winner of the 1928 Wood Memorial and eight other stakes.

Five of Balancoire's six daughters produced stakes winners, and of the group, the most important producer was Blondin's full sister Swinging, who was second in five stakes but never won one. Swinging's first foal was Equipoise (Pennant), who stood at or near the top of his class at 2, then again at 4 through 6, having missed his important 3-year-old season engagements due to a quarter crack.

Despite missing the classics, two of which were won by his archrival Twenty Grand, Equipoise is considered one of the great racehorses of American racing, as well as an important stallion. His best offspring was probably Shut Out, winner of the 1942 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.

Owned by C.V. Whitney, Equipoise died after only four crops, and sadly, his dam Swinging produced only three foals. In addition to Equipoise, she foaled Cito (St. James), who ran second in a steeplechase stakes, then after six empty years, the mare produced Equipoise's full sister Schwester, who did not race.

The two best of Schwester's produce were the full siblings Recce and Mameluke (both by the Whitney stallion Mahmoud, a Derby winner and son of Derby winner Blenheim). Mameluke won the Blue Grass and Metropolitan but is rarely seen in pedigrees; his sister was virtually of equal racing class, winning the Correction Handicap and finishing third in the Pimlico Futurity against colts, and she is one of the marvels of the Whitney Stud and 20^th century American breeding.

From Recce come such important racers as Fun House (winner of the Del Mar Oaks and Ramona), Court Recess (Gulfstream Park Handicap), Chompion (Travers), Divine Grace (Oak Leaf Stakes), Quicken Tree (Jockey Club Gold Cup and Santa Anita Handicap), G1 winner Court Ruling, and the stakes winner and important South American sire Good Manners (Nashua).

One of the fastest of Recce's descendants was stakes winner Swoon's Tune (Swoon's Son), who produced Kentucky Oaks winner Bag of Tunes (Herbager) and multiple graded stakes winner Swingtime (Buckpasser). The mare's first foal didn't win a stakes, but Song Sparrow, a daughter of English classic winner Tudor Minstrel, did finish second in the Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland.

At stud, Song Sparrow produced the good racehorse and sire Cormorant (His Majesty) and his full sister Queen of Song, who is the fourth dam of Mandaloun. A winner of 14 races from 58 starts, Queen of Song was talented and tough, with her victories including the G2 Shuvee Handicap at Belmont Park.

Early in the mare's stud career, Juddmonte Farms acquired Queen of Song at the 1989 Keeneland November sale for $700,000 in foal to Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew. The resulting foal was the fourth from the mare, who had produced Ladyago (Northern Dancer) as her second foal, and that filly had earned black type at 2 before her dam sold at Keeneland, then won a stakes at 3.

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Ladyago was the only stakes winner that Queen of Song produced, but she foaled four stakes-placed racers for Juddmonte, beginning with Wise Words, the Seattle Slew colt of 1990. Then came G2-placed Private Song (Private Account), Easy Song (Easy Goer), and Aspiring Diva (Distant View), who was her dam's last foal and finished third in the listed Prix Herod in France in 2000.

About the time that Aspiring Diva was retired to stud, her dam must have looked like a worthy attempt that hadn't quite hit the mark, but surely one reason is that Queen of Song produced only two fillies for Juddmonte through the decade-plus of her residence in its broodmare band.

How things change.

Resident in England at Juddmonte's Banstead Manor, Aspiring Diva produced a trio of stakes winners: listed winner Daring Diva, G1 winner Emulous, and G3 winner First Sitting, all by Juddmonte stallion Dansili. Daring Diva's first two foals were listed winner Caponata (Selkirk) and Brooch (Empire Maker), who is the dam of Mandaloun.

On the racecourse, Brooch won a G3 and a G2 in Ireland, whereas her half-sister had managed only a pair of placings at each of those levels. Brought back to Juddmonte Farm in Kentucky, Brooch began her career as a broodmare the right way, with a winner by Speightstown named Radetsky, and Mandaloun is the mare's second foal.

The mare has a yearling and a 2-year-old full brother to the Haskell winner, as well as a War Front colt of 2021.

Frank Mitchell is author of Racehorse Breeding Theories, as well as the book Great Breeders and Their Methods: The Hancocks. In addition to writing the column “Sires and Dams” in Daily Racing Form for nearly 15 years, he has contributed articles to Thoroughbred Daily News, Thoroughbred Times, Thoroughbred Record, International Thoroughbred, and other major publications. In addition, Frank is chief of biomechanics for DataTrack International and is a hands-on caretaker of his own broodmares and foals in Central Kentucky. Check out Frank's Bloodstock in the Bluegrass blog.

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Leslie’s Lady Living Well In Retirement

“Leslie's Lady is retired,” Clarkland Farm's Fred Mitchell reported. “And she is happy, fat and dappled.”

The 2016 Broodmare of the Year has produced two fillies following America's Joy (American Pharoah), a now three-year-old half-sister to GISWs Into Mischief, Beholder and Mendelssohn and the highest-priced yearling filly in Keeneland sales history.

While Leslie's Lady is now 25, a good deal of thought went into the decision to officially retire her this spring.

“Early on in the season she was all dappled out and looked like a 14-year-old mare,” Mitchell said. “She was cycling but I said, 'I'm not sure if I want to breed Leslie. She's been so good to us.' But when it got to be April, I said if she cycled I might breed her because I looked at her out running across the field, up on her hind feet bucking and kicking with her buddy. I started to tease her after that and she hasn't cycled since so she made up her mind for me and I didn't have to make the final decision.”

The bay daughter of Tricky Creek now has three fillies in the pipeline that have yet to see the starting gate.

The first is America's Joy, the $8.2 million purchase by Whisper Hill Farm. The sophomore has almost a dozen recorded works at Whisper Hill's training center, but Mitchell and his family are still reliving her Keeneland September Sale two years ago.

“When we took the American Pharoah filly to the sales, I was hoping maybe we could top the sale with her because we had done it with Mendelssohn and that was a dream come true,” Mitchell said. “When the sale started the first day, there was a $2.5 million yearling and I said sale topping was now out of the question. Then the next day, a $4 million colt came. A couple people came by the barn and said she was going to bring more than that.”

Mitchell didn't start to believe them until the walkover to the back walking ring.

“There were cameras all the way from the bottom of the hill,” he recalled. “When we got to the sales ring, there was hardly any room with people with their cameras out taking picture after picture. I had never seen so many spectators. Then when she went in the ring and passed the $4 million mark, I said, 'What is going on?' I just couldn't believe it.”

“It was something you never could have dreamed of,” he continued. “It doesn't leave us much to shoot for from now on so I think that's our plateau. It has made life a lot easier for [wife] Nancy and I. We can now be taken care of no matter what age we get to and we know the kids have enough to be taken care of. The American Pharoah filly made that possible, her and Leslie.”

Knowing it would be nearly impossible to top the American Pharoah filly's accomplishments in the sales ring, Mitchell decided that Leslie's Lady's next foal, a daughter of Not This Time, would remain under the Clarkland banner for his family's next generation.

“I thought it would give the girls a nice start on a broodmare band later on and give them something to look forward to,” he explained.

Now a juvenile in training with Brad Cox, the bay filly is named Marr Time in honor of Nancy's ancestor John Wesley Marr.

“He was an old guy that never changed his clocks,” Mitchell said. “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.'”

Marr Time floats over the track at Keeneland.

Mitchell said he found the May-foaled Marr Time to be very similar to America's Joy.

“She was exceptional from the time she was a foal,” he said. “The American Pharoah might have been a little bit bigger as a foal, but Marr Time is a lovely filly and a good-moving filly. Brad [Cox] says he's satisfied every time they breeze her and says she's a classy filly. It keeps you excited and hopefully she'll make it to the races, break her maiden and go from there.”

Marr Time had three recorded works at Keeneland last month.

“We've had her here since February and she's been learning all her basics at Keeneland,” Cox assistant Tessa Bisha said. “She has learned about the starting gate and she can gallop out of the gate pretty well. She has learned about the pony and company, so she's well on her way to her first start.”

Mitchell said he chose to send Leslie's Lady to Not This Time, then a $15,000 second-book sire, because each of the star broodmare's Grade I winners hailed from the Storm Cat line.

“Not This Time wasn't the most popular horse when he went to stud, but he was well-bred,” he said. “I loved him. He was gorgeous. After he came out last year with the 2-year-old runners, I wasn't so dumb after all.”

The next year, Mitchell decided to send Leslie's Lady back to another Storm Cat-line sire in Kantharos. The famed mare produced another filly and again, Mitchell determined that this one would stay with their family. He named the bay Love You Irene after his mother.

Now a yearling, Love You Irene is thriving at Clarkland.

“She's almost a June foal but she's a very nice individual and a very good-moving filly,” Mitchell said. “She's very pleasant to be around except when she gets a little teed off. She will take a hunk out of you, which I like to see out of fillies.”

Mitchell said they're still unsure of where this filly will land when it comes time for her to go to a trainer, noting that he currently has four juveniles in training with four different trainers and will make the decision based off those results.

Clarkland famously purchased Leslie's Lady at the 2006 Keeneland November Sale for an even $100,000. She was offered in foal to Orientate and had a yearling colt by Harlan's Holiday in the pipeline. Just over a year later, that colt won the GI CashCall Futurity.

Love You Irene, by Kantharos, is the last foal out of Leslie's Lady.

“When Into Mischief won his first stake, they came to me and wanted to know if I would sell Leslie,” Mitchell recounted. “They got to throwing out some pretty good figures. I said, 'No, Leslie is not for sale. If I get the money for her, how am I going to replace her?' Nobody knew she was going to have two more graded stakes winners. But after that, nobody has ever tried to buy her from me.”

The last year has been particularly special for the Clarkland team as they've watched Into Mischief's success at stud explode into the stratosphere.

“He might turn out to be one of the greatest sires we've every seen,” Mitchell said. “We root for the Into Mischief every time we see them in a race. It doesn't make a difference whether they're favored or nor, they still come up and win some way or another.”

Of each of Leslie's Lady's foals that Mitchell has worked with, he fails to pick a favorite.

“Beholder, Mendelssohn and America's Joy were very similar,” he noted. “But I would have to say America's Joy was the most overwhelming individual to look at. She was more like American Pharoah where anybody could do anything they wanted with her. But Beholder had a presence to her and with Mendelssohn, I didn't know what kind of racehorse he would make, but I knew he was a breeder's dream. You could take any type of mare to this horse and he would probably suit them. When we were showing him, he never took his eye off whoever was looking at him. All three horses were very similar when it came to that.”

While Mitchell is looking forward to watching these last few daughters of 'Leslie' make it to the starting gate, his greatest pride will always come in showing off the famed broodmare herself. She spends most of her day in a large paddock near the entrance to the historic farm and she naps in one of Clarkland's original barns constructed from trees that once graced the property centuries ago.

“When we bought Leslie for $100,000, you never could have dreamed that she would turn out to be the broodmare she is now,” Mitchell said. “It's indescribable what Leslie has meant to the family. It put us where we can enjoy what we do. We've increased the broodmare band and the girls will have a nice band to deal with now. It's just something that you would have never dreamed could happen to a small farm like Clarkland.”

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Bloodlines: English Channel’s Stature As A Leading Sire Grows On Racetrack, If Not In Auction Ring

Is there a less-appreciated upper-tier sire in the country than English Channel?

Channel Cat's victory in the Grade 1 Man o' War Stakes was a reminder of the excellence that the stallion imparts to his offspring and that English Channel showed emphatically during his own racing career.

The 19-year-old son of Smart Strike and the Theatrical mare Belva proved himself a hickory racer, winning 13 of 23 starts over four seasons and $5.3 million. At the races, English Channel began his career the right way: winning his debut at 2 at Saratoga.

The horse then proceeded to win four of his first five starts at 3, including the Grade 3 Virginia Derby, and he also placed second in a pair of G1 races, the Secretariat at Arlington and the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational at Belmont.

English Channel returned to the races at 4 to win a trio of G1 stakes: the Turf Classic at Churchill Downs, the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont, and the United Nations at Monmouth Park. Then the horse returned at 5 and did the same thing. And this time, a trio of G1s, the Turf Classic at Belmont and the United Nations, plus the Breeders' Cup Turf run at Monmouth Park, brought English Channel the Eclipse Award as champion male turf horse.

And a turn at stud.

English Channel's sire, Smart Strike, could not have been hotter at the time. He was the leading sire in North America, due not only to English Channel but also to Curlin, who was elected champion 3-year-old colt and Horse of the Year in 2007 after G1 victories in the Preakness, Jockey Club Gold Cup, and Breeders' Cup Classic.

The cachet of a stallion like Smart Strike – himself a son of the great Mr. Prospector – who could sire such good horses brought considerable attention to his sons and then sent them to stud with lordly expectations of success.

Yet, aside from their sire, high racing class, and chestnut coats, two horses could hardly be more different than English Channel and Curlin.

The latter is a brawny beast who left some breeders wondering whether he might not be too massive a specimen to breed on successfully. Time and the proof of elite racing class have disproven those concerns.

The exact opposite concern was held for English Channel, who came to stud looking so racy, lean, and elegant that some breeders wondered if he would produce enough muscle and mass in his stock to make them high-class racehorses.

Time and the test of the racecourse have proven that English Channel can sire those top horses, with 30 graded stakes winners to date, which is more than half of all his 58 stakes winners. They come in a range of sizes, colors, and shapes that has tended to bewilder the commercial market, which values consistency very nearly as much as quality.

A stallion of similar character is the broodmare sire of Channel Cat: Kitten's Joy. A champion turf racer like English Channel, Kitten's Joy throws a wild array of physical types, from the lean-bodied sort who remind us of whippets to the hulking powerhouses similar to himself.

Yet both Kitten's Joy and English Channel are very good sires, especially of turf horses, and in part that is because a turf horse has to have some level of pace to succeed. It is a great gift if the racer possesses a first-rate change of pace like these two champion turf performers, but the ability to get up to the lead and tough it out to the wire is evidence of a grand racing character and a hardy constitution.

Channel Cat possesses these in spades. He relied upon his strengths so effectively that he made the Man o' War a considerable test of stamina (starting with an opening quarter mile in :22.69) and then refused to be swamped for speed in the final three furlongs, which he ran in :35.85.

In addition to his own genetic contribution to the greatest game, English Channel has succeeded because breeders, especially the owner of Calumet Farm, have believed in the stallion and have supported him with quality mares. For a stallion who does not often get the “sales type” of yearling, this is an essential support system, and the sport is all the richer for it.

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Letter To The Editor: Banding Together To Save Arlington Park

What if?

Literally millions of horseplayers, owners, breeders, fans, trainers, jockeys, and associated personnel believe that losing Arlington Park would be a grave loss for the sport.

So, I would propose that we millions of horse people band together and save the historic racetrack near Chicago.

The reader is probably asking where we lovers of Arlington Park and of racing would find the money to purchase the property from Churchill Downs Inc.

Looking at the popularity and success of the MyRacehorse group financing model, where very large numbers of people contribute small sums, it may be possible to attract a large group of fellow good sports to band together and collectively put up the financing for a purchase. For instance, if two million fans contributed $100 each, that would raise $200 million toward buying and running the track. And of course, fewer contributors are needed if a number of deep pockets show up. Surely, that would get the attention of the parent company.

If there are as many fans of Arlington Park and sport in Chicago as I believe, then I suggest an “Arlington Alliance” should be able to raise enough to purchase and operate the racetrack.

The first step would be to create an organization to accept those small-percentage investments and contributions, manage the flow of money, and to name a group of directors so that the Arlington Alliance could make a formal offer for the racetrack.

Once successful in the purchase, the Arlington Alliance would need to be organized and ready to reach agreements with horsemen's and labor associations and work toward a sustainable model for operating racing so that it would provide quality sport with a robust level of purses.

If successfully recast in a fashion similar to the Keeneland Association, the Arlington Alliance could ensure quality racing in Chicago, while also benefitting the town of Arlington Heights and neighborhoods by preserving jobs and participating in community programs. An Arlington Park that is as committed to its city and neighbors as they were to its survival would make racing an integral part of the fabric of this great city for decades to come.

– Frank Mitchell, pedigree analyst, author and consultant

If you would like to submit a letter to the editor, please write to info at paulickreport.com and include contact information where you may be reached if editorial staff have any questions.

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