Taking Stock: Justify Moving Early

Coolmore America's Triple Crown winner Justify, a son of Scat Daddy, never raced at two, and he famously became the first unraced 2-year-old since Apollo in 1882 to win the Gl Kentucky Derby.

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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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.

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‘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.”

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Clarkland Farm In Familiar Territory With Mendelssohn Colt At Keeneland September

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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