A wooden gavel rests inside a shadowbox in Fred Mitchell’s office at Clarkland Farm, the same one that fell for his colt Mendelssohn after the board ticked up to $3 million. It’s the traditional gift presented by Keeneland to the seller of the most expensive horse at each of the auction company’s flagship September yearling sales and represents another high point in the career of 2016 Broodmare of the Year Leslie’s Lady. It has been a year since Mendelssohn, a Scat Daddy colt, was led to the ring and sold to the Coolmore partnership for the sale-topping price. The half-brother to champion Beholder and Grade 1 winner Into Mischief was exported to Ireland, where he has won 1 of 2 starts. Expectations are obviously high for a horse of that price, but early returns have been promising. “If he can just win his next start and then a stake the race after that, I’d be tickled to death for his buyers,” Mitchell said. “It made us very happy to see him run the way he did in his second start and to have the publicity that he got.” Back in Kentucky, Clarkland Farm is preparing its consignment for the upcoming September yearling sale season. Duplicating the success of last year’s seven-figure standout was unlikely by Mitchell’s own admission, but the class does have its standouts. One of them is a Lemon Drop Kid colt that will carry the farm’s banner into the inaugural Fasig-Tipton Turf Showcase sale. The colt belongs to Mitchell’s stepdaughter, Clarkland yearling manager Marty Buckner. Buckner said the opportunity to better spread out their quality offerings was an attractive feature to the Turf Showcase to keep Clarkland’s horses from competing against each other for buyer attention. The horse had to fit the auction’s “turf appeal” profile to make the catalog, but once he did, Buckner said the decision to sell the colt across town from the more populous Keeneland sale was a no-brainer. “This one was easy,” Buckner said. “He’s by Lemon Drop Kid and he’s out of a Santa Anita turf stakes winner. He’s got a good turf foot and he’s an attractive, athletic horse. I thought he’d stand out.” Clarkland Farm consigns 11 horses between the Keeneland September and Turf Showcase sales, each products of their roughly 15-member broodmare band. Leslie’s Lady is not one of the mares with a yearling in the upcoming sales. She was given a year off after producing Mendelssohn, then had a Medaglia d’Oro colt April 4. In addition to Mendelssohn, the Tricky Creek mare made headlines at auction with the $1.1 million Curlin filly Leslie’s Harmony. This year’s colt was a late developer, but he’ll get every chance to be the third million-dollar yearling in a row for his dam next year. “At first, I wasn’t too excited, but he’s grown in well,” Mitchell said. “He’s going to be a classy-looking yearling. He’s got a lot of leg underneath him. He’s something I think we’ll be proud of when we present him at the sale next year.” Now approaching the twilight of her broodmare career, the 21-year-old Leslie’s Lady is in foal to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah for the 2018 foaling season for what would be her 13th foal. Clarkland Farm has no daughters of Leslie’s Lady to inherit the mantle, but they do have a granddaughter – the stakes-placed Milwaukee Brew mare Sarah Her Highness, out of the winning Marquetry mare Judy B. She was a $170,000 broodmare purchase by the farm at the 2016 Keeneland January horses of all ages sale. If the American Pharoah foal were a filly, Buckner said it would remain to be seen whether the farm would keep her or put her up for auction. “Let’s just get a live, healthy foal,” she said. :: DRF Breeding Live: Streaming video of September sales, a look at top horses with comments from consignors and buyers, market analysis, and more:: American Pharoah resides at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky., which also stood the late Scat Daddy. Mitchell said the decision on the mating was mostly as simple as crossing a champion runner with a champion broodmare. However, both he and Buckner said going back to an Ashford stallion was a way of doing return business after the international operation spent so heavily on Mendelssohn. “I think it was important for Fred to do that,” Buckner said of Mitchell. “They supported him, and that way he could send his nice mare back over there. “Ashford has just been wonderful,” she continued. “They’ve been so nice about [Mendelssohn] and including us and keeping us informed on him. It was kind of nice to send the mare back to a horse over there.”