Leslie's Lady, the 2016 Broodmare of the Year and dam of some of the most important Thoroughbreds of the past decade, was pensioned from breeding duties earlier this spring, Thoroughbred Daily News reports.
The 25-year-old daughter of Tricky Creek's top-flight produce record includes Grade 1 winner and leading commercial sire Into Mischief, four-time Eclipse Award winner Beholder, and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner and young sire Mendelssohn.
She also produced America's Joy, a daughter of American Pharoah who sold for $8.2 million at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Mendelssohn, by Scat Daddy, sold as a yearling for $3 million, while the Curlin filly Leslie's Harmony brought $1.1 million as a yearling.
Leslie's Lady resides at Clarkland Farm in Lexington, Ky., where owner Fred Mitchell told the TDN that the mare looked as healthy and spry as ever, but he was on the fence about breeding this season her due to her age. She was cycling early in the season, but when she stopped cycling in April after visits to the teaser, Mitchell decided to pension the mare.
Knowing for a while that Leslie's Lady was approaching pensioning age, Mitchell retained Marr Time, a Not This Time filly born in 2019, to one day carry on her dam's legacy in the Clarkland broodmare band. The filly is training for her debut start with Brad Cox.
Clarkland Farm will also retain Leslie's Lady's final foal, Love You Irene, a Kantharos filly born last year.
Though she ended up at the top of her profession, Leslie's Lady came from modest means. She was bred in Kentucky by David Hager II, and she sold as a newly-turned yearling for $8,000 at the 1997 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale. She was purchased later that year by James Hines Jr., for $27,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
Leslie's Lady won five of 28 starts for earnings of $187,014. She ran nine times as a juvenile, highlighted by a victory in the Hoosier Debutante Stakes at Hoosier Park. The following season, her campaign included a runner-up effort in the Martha Washington Stakes at Oaklawn Park.
She joined Hines' broodmare band after retiring from the track, and she produced four foals for her owner. Among them was a Harlan's Holiday colt later named Into Mischief.
After Hines' death, Leslie's Lady was cataloged in the 2006 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale as part of her late owner's dispersal. Offered in foal to Orientate, the mare sold to Clarkland Farm for $100,000. The ensuing ten foals bred by Clarkland Farm have sold from the Clarkland consignment for a combined $12.9 million, and they've earned a combined $8,757,202 on the racetrack.
Read more at Thoroughbred Daily News.
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