Kentucky Derby pedigree profile: Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn

Scat Daddy–Leslie’s Lady, by Tricky Creek

Bred in Kentucky by Clarkland Farm ($3 million purchase by M.V. Magnier at Keeneland September yearling sale)

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Mendelssohn topped the 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale at $3 million, attracting hot interest as a half-brother to Grade 1 winners Beholder and Into Mischief from one of the final crops by internationally prominent sire Scat Daddy. That pedigree suggests success on a variety of surfaces, and Mendelssohn is a stakes winner on turf and synthetic. He will attempt to transfer his form to dirt in this Saturday’s UAE Derby.

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Mendelssohn is out of the multiple stakes-placed Tricky Creek mare Leslie’s Lady who in addition to her three Grade 1 winners is the dam of two stakes producers. The mare’s four-time Eclipse Award winner Beholder scored all 11 of her Grade 1 victories on dirt, including two editions of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, and the Pacific Classic over males. A daughter of the Hennessy horse Henny Hughes, she is bred on the same cross as Mendelssohn, as Scat Daddy’s sire, Johnannesburg, also is by Hennessy.

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Into Mischief made all six starts of his brief career during the synthetic era in California. He never finished worse than second, with his biggest win coming in the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity as a juvenile. Into Mischief has gone on to be a successful sire and has made an impact on the Kentucky Derby prep season in recent years with runners such as Goldencents, Practical Joke, Vicar’s in Trouble, and Vyjack. He has Holy Bull winner Audible targeting this Saturday’s Florida Derby.

Scat Daddy, who died in 2015 at the young age of 11, was a Grade 1 winner as a juvenile. He won the following spring’s Fountain of Youth and Florida Derby before finishing 18th in the Kentucky Derby in his final start. He also has Flameaway and Justify targeting this year’s Derby from his penultimate crop.

Scat Daddy’s standouts in Europe include champion Lady Aurelia, twice a winner at the renowned Royal Ascot meeting, and Group 1-winning sprinters Caravaggio and No Nay Never. His other Grade 1 winners on turf, most at route distances, include Celestine, Dacita, Daddys Lil Darling, Harmonize, and Lady of Shamrock.

Scat Daddy’s best dirt runners have been Grade 1-winning juvenile Nickname, Pennsylvania Derby winner Handsome Mike, Sunland Derby winner Daddy Nose Best, and multiple graded stakes winner El Kabeir. Daddys Lil Darling finished second in last year’s Kentucky Oaks.

– Nicole Russo

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