“All of our team loved Mendelssohn from the first time we saw him as a yearling and he developed into a magnificent-looking horse,” said Coolmore's Charlie O'Connor. “Being by our own Scat Daddy and a half-brother to Into Mischief and Beholder, you couldn't ask for a better pedigree and he showed real brilliance when winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar and the [G2] U.A.E. Derby by a street, recording a new track record. He is currently the No. 4 leading sire of 2-year-olds in North America… With big crops to come he should keep rising up the ranks.”

Mendelssohn (2015 bay horse, Scat Daddy–Leslie's Lady, by Tricky Creek)

Lifetime record: Hwt. at 3-U.A.E, GISW-U.S., GSW-U.A.E., G1SP-Eng, SW-Ire, 13-4-2-2, $2,542,137

Breeders' Cup connections: B-Clarkland Farm (KY); O-Michael B. Tabor, Mrs. John Magnier, and Derrick Smith; T-Aidan O'Brien; J-Ryan Moore.

Current location: Coolmore America/Ashford Stud, Versailles, Ky.

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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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Classical Cat (Mendelssohn–Conquest Strate Up, by Not Bourbon) streaked home on debut a gutsy 2 1/2-length winner for Michael House and conditioner Philip D'Amato, in a race under keen observation admittedly more for who finished behind him–this year's $3.55 million Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in Training topper, Hejazi (Bernardini).

Himself a modest $65,000 purchase at Keeneland September last year by a friend of House, the Mendelssohn colt needed some early correction after the break, but once he was given a target and his cue to strike the lead, Classical Cat would not be stopped. For House, it was quite the thrill to see his horse put his best foot forward right at first asking.

“It sure was fun…we were telling [Classical Cat] all week that he cost $5 million so he wouldn't feel bad,” House joked, on his way to the barn when the call went through Monday. “[Philip D'Amato] was very positive and confident in him. He'd been doing everything right. He wasn't too worried about the other competition, probably not as much as we were.”

Classical Cat wasn't the only runner House had that day, either. Across the country at Saratoga, his co-owned filly Nest (Curlin) put on a masterclass in the GI Alabama S. and all but began the process of etching her name onto the plaque for the divisional title. House admitted that, while they'd wanted to go, the lure of seeing their horses at Del Mar–where they were conveniently close for himself and his wife–proved too strong, and they'd stayed home to see their local runners on the card.

“We'd flown out before to see her run, but we had so many entries that day. So, we saw her on tv before our horses ran here.”

On the end of the call, and clearly ready to head out with his bag of carrots, House quickly included that, while his colt wasn't displaying his sire's liking of loudly announcing his presence at every opportunity, there was a strong trait he liked.

“He's the sweetest guy in the barn. He's got the sweetest disposition. We've been babying him,” House said. “[Classical Cat] is a big, good looking colt…Mendelssohn was a great racehorse himself and now he's starting to show it as a sire.”

Said sire (by Scat Daddy) bucked the trend of multi-million dollar auction horses never quite reaching their full potential. The $3 million KEESEP topper in 2016–the same sale which yielded Triple Crown hero Justify (Scat Daddy) and MGISW Good Magic (Curlin), to name a couple–earned over $2.5 million in his career, crowned by victories in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf and G2 U. A. E. Derby. The latter was an 18 1/2-length romp as his final prep for the GI Kentucky Derby, where he was eased to last after being banged around. He went on to hit the board in the GII Dwyer, GI Runhappy Travers, and GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes before calling it a career after placing fifth in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic and fourth in the GI Cigar Mile.

Retired to stud for 2019, Mendelssohn came armed with one of the best female families in the Stud Book as a son of the venerable Leslie's Lady (Tricky Creek), making him a half-sibling to Hall of Famer Beholder (Henny Hughes) and now three-time reigning champion general sire, Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday).

Well-received in the ring, his offspring got off to a quiet initial start with several hitting the board over every surface–from the all-weather at Woodbine to French turf courses and the Saratoga main track–but none were getting their picture taken. Then, once the parade of debut winners began, the performances got better and flashier with a 'TDN Rising Star' among them.

Pink Hue | Sarah Andrew

Pink Hue showed grit and heart in her unveiling over a route of ground on the grass, becoming Mendelssohn's seventh individual winner at that point, but his first and for now only, to receive the nod from the TDN. A $310,000 KEESEP grad, purchased by Mike Ryan as agent for e Five Racing, the filly has an Into Mischief-sired, winning older sibling named Man of Promise, who annexed the G3 Emirates Skycargo Nad Al Sheba Turf Sprint as well as placing third in the G1 Azizi Developments Al Quoz Sprint. Her dam, a Speightstown mare named Involved, is a half-sister to GIII Bay Shore victor Skip to the Stone (Skip Trial) and the stakes-placed stakes producer My Heavenly Sign (Forest Camp).

As of this running, Mendelssohn tallies nine individual winners and will have two chances Aug. 26 at Saratoga to become the sire of black-type horses. The powerful partnership of WinStar and Siena Farm will send New York-bred Miracle to post in the state-restricted Seeking the Ante S. from the barn of Rudolphe Brisset. The $360,000 OBSMAR speedster was a six-length debut winner July 27 at the venue. Prior to the training sale, she'd passed through the ring as a yearling at SARAUG 2021 for $250,000 to Bay Hill Stables, and as a weanling at FTKNOV 2020 for $110,000 to American Equistock.

The second opportunity will come later in the card when owner/trainer Uriah St. Lewis sends out his New York-bred Belt Parkway in the Funny Cide S. A $160,000 SARAUG purchase by Christophe Clement, acting as agent, the colt resurfaced in the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 'Timonium' sale in May and went to Trin Brook Stables for only $30,000. Belt Parkway comes in off a nose unveiling victory in a dirt dash at Parx.

With many juveniles filling maiden special entries in the coming days in addition to the stakes action, the slow start looks to be in Mendelssohn's rear view mirror. If his siblings are used as an auspicious indicator of things to come, further successes will arrive in due time and on their own time.

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This is why, when it comes to blue hens, we need two types of Lady in our lives. We need Leslie's Lady (Tricky Creek), the $8,000 daughter of a mare once claimed for $5,000 and a stallion who ended up in New Mexico. And we also need Take Charge Lady (Dehere), who was sold for $4.2 million after an elite racetrack career and has proved worth every cent.

In hailing yet another stellar talent under Take Charge Lady in her grandson Charge It (Tapit), we must remember that there is no more cherished tool in pedigree analysis than hindsight. Since we tend only to study the backgrounds of horses that excel sufficiently to claim our attention, it's difficult to avoid post-rationalization. Sure enough, I have often enjoyed demonstrating how Leslie's Lady was actually saturated with genetic quality a couple of generations down.

Given the mosaic of influences behind every Thoroughbred, we hardly ever find ourselves looking at the pedigree of an elite animal and discovering absolutely nowhere to hang our hat. Conversely, however, we seldom consider the countless duds to ask just what went wrong, when their pages often offer far more obvious hooks for quality.

There's an implicit assumption that the fulfilment of genetic potential has been thwarted by the fallibility of our own intervention, which can unravel a Thoroughbred's development at so many stages: foaling, raising, feeding, breaking, training.

Personally, however, I suspect that we're better off admitting that much of what we do will always be contingent on mystery. Of course, you're welcome to pay for a software program that claims to reconcile an infinite number of imponderables into some kind of system. It's your money, and we'll see you on the racetrack. But anyone who has met my charming, cultured and handsome brother will confirm what every Thoroughbred breeder knows, that even full siblings won't necessarily have the slightest thing in common.

It is now a couple of decades since William Schettine banked exactly the same sum for consecutive yearling fillies out of an unraced Rubiano mare he had bought for $42,000 at the 1998 Keeneland November Sale. The first had arrived with the mare, in utero, and was sold to Kenny McPeek for $175,000 at Fasig-Tipton's July Sale. Schettine had obviously liked her, because he had sent the mare straight back to Dehere. This time, the resulting daughter went to Keeneland September where, again offered through Bluewater Sales, she realized the same price from G. Watts Humphrey Jr.

Though named Uplifting, she fell rather flat as a runner, failing to break her maiden in a dozen attempts. Nonetheless her owner was able to cash out for a nice profit, for $450,000 to Glen Hill Farm at the 2004 Keeneland November Sale. Her sister with McPeek having meanwhile turned out to be none other than Take Charge Lady, winner of 11 of 22 starts (including three Grade Is) and nearly $2.5 million for Select Stable.

The more illustrious sister had actually been sold just minutes before in the same ring with a Seeking The Gold cover. As we've already noted, she realized nearly 10 times as much.

Now the only rule in this game is that there are no rules. Just because an identical pedigree had functioned so much better in Take Charge Lady, on the racetrack, it remained perfectly feasible that Uplifting could parlay their genes more effectively in their second career. In the event, however, this has proved one of those occasions when the market's assumptions, about the replication of ability, would be thoroughly vindicated.

Uplifting had been in foal to Came Home when she changed hands. The resulting filly was unraced before making little impact as a producer, and likewise the Smarty Jones filly Uplifting delivered next, who was discarded for $3,200. The mare was then given a chance with Medaglia d'Oro and their gelded son, while he did win a couple of times, ultimately descended to mediocre claiming company. By that stage Uplifting had been culled for $50,000, soon after delivering what unfortunately proved to be her final foal, a minor winner by Rock Hard Ten.

For all concerned, then, Uplifting proved a thoroughly deflating experience. In the meantime, her sister has founded one of the great dynasties of our time.

The most obvious point of departure is that Take Charge Lady was routinely given opportunity commensurate with the cost of her acquisition by Eaton Sales. Okay, so her first date after delivering her Seeking The Gold filly was with Fusaichi Pegasus (then still a six-figure cover); but her remaining eight named foals were by Storm Cat, A.P. Indy, Unbridled's Song, Indian Charlie, War Front (three times) and American Pharoah.

Three of these emulated their dam as Grade I winners: Will Take Charge (Unbridled's Song) in the Travers and Clark H.; Take Charge Indy (A.P. Indy) in the Florida Derby; and As Time Goes By (American Pharoah) in the Beholder Mile earlier this year. Meanwhile that first foal by Seeking The Gold, Charming, not only instantly recouped $3.2 million as a yearling but then contributed lavishly to her dam's legacy despite curtailed careers both on and off the track. Just five named foals included two elite performers in Omaha Beach (War Front) and Take Charge Brandi (Giant's Causeway), herself since dam of this year's Jerome S. winner Courvoisier (another Tapit).

By the time Take Charge Lady's daughter from the final crop of Indian Charlie arrived at the 2013 September Sale, her page was already decorated by Will Take Charge and Take Charge Indy. With residual value duly guaranteed, the filly was recruited for $2.2 million by Mandy Pope of Whisper Hill Farm, who named her I'll Take Charge. Confined to five starts, she showed fair ability (won a Belmont maiden) before commencing her second career and has wasted little time in coming up with a colt eligible to recover her cost in Charge It, her second foal. (The other is a daughter of Medaglia d'Oro, also retained by her breeder. She has required patience, now four, but has suggested the ability to win a race, again placed at Monmouth only last week).

The imposing gray Charge It could obviously have made good money as a yearling, but he looks like repaying the gamble of his retention for Pope's racing division. Unraced at two, thanks partly to an eye infection, he progressed quickly enough to run second in the GI Curlin Florida Derby, but remained pretty raw on the first Saturday in May. He apparently displaced his soft palate anyway, but was sensibly given an easy time once his chance had gone and, regrouping for the GIII Dwyer S. last Saturday, outclassed a short field by a jaw-dropping 23 lengths. He's clearly going to be a force in what is promising, after a messy Triple Crown series, to prove a dynamic second half of the year among the sophomores. Indeed, his 111 Beyer at Belmont is the top of the crop to date.

In the current context, it requires some effort to take a step back and see what lurks beyond the neon presence of his granddam in Charge It's pedigree. On doing so, however, you notice at once the branding of a second mighty mare. For Tapit's dam Tap Your Heels (Unbridled) is, of course, out of the celebrated Ruby Slippers (Nijinsky)–whose son Rubiano (by Unbridled's sire Fappiano) gave us Take Charge Lady's dam Felicita.

Through a double dose of Rubiano, interestingly, Ruby Slippers also has a top-and-bottom footprint in Omaha Beach, arguably the most brilliant member of this clan: in counterweight to Felicita (third dam, as with Charge It), his sire War Front is out of a Rubiano mare.

Tapit, meanwhile, already has a monster talent out of an Indian Charlie mare in Flightline. (Pope and her team wisely bred I'll Take Charge back to the Gainesway phenomenon after she delivered an Into Mischief colt this spring). Indian Charlie's record as a broodmare sire has also been lately enhanced by siblings Mitole (Eskendereya) and Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow). In terms of distaff influence, however, few modern stallions have been more abundantly qualified than the sire of Take Charge Lady herself. Dehere is by one outstanding broodmare sire in Deputy Minister, out of the daughter of another in Secretariat.

Take Charge Lady's dam Felicita, as noted, was unraced but her siblings included a couple of bright streaks of green, in a Group 1-placed juvenile in Europe plus the dam of GII Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint winner Chamberlain Bridge (War Chant). That figures, their mother being by Blushing Groom (Fr)–himself, of course, another killer broodmare sire.

Besides Take Charge Lady, Felicita gave us a couple of minor graded stakes operators–one of whom (by Lear Fan) became a triple black-type producer, notably with Grade II winner/Grade I runner-up Straight Story (Giant's Causeway), also on turf. But some excellent covers, for instance by A.P. Indy twice and Deputy Minister, proved less productive. And, as we've already elaborated, repeat matings with Dehere could not have yielded more contrasting results.

Take Charge Lady, sadly lost to foaling complications in 2018, has founded a dynasty that only continues to proliferate. Omaha Beach, having received all the support he has been priced to tempt, surely has a massive chance in his new career, having exceptionally spanned his Grade I success across six and nine furlongs in the same season. And Charge It, if he can build from here, will similarly bring one of the best families around into the competition to succeed an ageing sire.

Yet how perplexing, to witness all this, for those who invested in her sister. Even our old standby, hindsight, can't really help them this time.

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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.

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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.

The post Broodmare of the Year Leslie’s Lady Dies appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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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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