Leslie's Lady's yearling a star attraction

She’s the daughter of a Triple Crown winner, a half-sister to three Grade 1 winners, including one of the greatest racemares in modern history, and, with her residual value as a broodmare sky-high, she is considered a potential topper of the Keeneland September yearling sale.

No pressure.

But if she’s anything like her half-siblings, the yearling American Pharoah filly out of Leslie’s Lady will manage what is sure to be a busy period of showing on the sale grounds and fireworks in the auction ring with aplomb. Bred by the Clarkland Farm of Fred and Nancy Mitchell, Nancy’s daughter Marty Buckner, the yearling manager, remembers half-brother Mendelssohn’s composure when he was being shown at Keeneland September, which he topped at $3 million in 2016.

“He’d walk, get to the end of the ring and take a deep breath, he’d turn and just exhale, and walk right back at everyone,” Buckner said. “Really a star.

“Both Mendelssohn and Beholder had a lot of confidence. Whenever they were asked to do something new, they rose to the occasion. . . . They didn’t have any quit to them.”

Leslie’s Lady, a stakes-winning daughter of Tricky Creek, was campaigned by James T. Hines Jr. and began her broodmare career for his operation. Hines died in February 2006 and his stock was dispersed, with Leslie’s Lady selling at the 2006 Keeneland November breeding stock sale on behalf of his estate. Clarkland took home Leslie’s Lady for a relatively modest $100,000 – and has since watched her stock skyrocket.

Into Mischief, by Harlan’s Holiday, won the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity and placed in two other graded stakes before retiring to stand at Spendthrift Farm. A perennial leading juvenile sire, he is currently leading the North American general sire list.

Inspired by his racetrack success, Spendthrift purchased Into Mischief’s half-sister by Henny Hughes as a yearling. That filly was Beholder, who earned Eclipse Awards as the outstanding 2-year-old female of 2012, 3-year-old female of 2013, and older female of 2015 and 2016. She bankrolled $6,156,600 while winning 11 Grade 1 stakes, including a trio of Breeders’ Cup races – the 2012 Juvenile Fillies, 2013 Distaff, and, in a dramatic conclusion to her career, the 2016 Distaff by a nose over Songbird. Other career highlights included an 8 1/4-length victory over males in the 2015 Pacific Classic.

The success of the family made Mendelssohn, from one of the final crops by Scat Daddy, the $3 million sale topper at the 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale, going to the Coolmore group.

“I was very surprised by the price,” Fred Mitchell said at the time. “I thought he might be the highest price of the sale, but we were hoping to get a million and a half. Double that is unbelievable. He is an unbelievable individual with a great disposition and mind that you dream to have. He had a special look in his eye from the time he was two months old.”

Mendelssohn won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and the Group 2 U.A.E. Derby on dirt, and placed in four other graded/group stakes, including a runner-up effort in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes.

In addition to her three Grade 1 winners, Leslie’s Lady is the dam of three daughters who have stakes performers on their own résumés. The unraced Daisy Mason is the dam of stakes winner Harry’s Holiday and Grade 3-placed Remedy; unraced Victory Party is the dam of Australian Group 2-placed Victory Kingdom; and the winner Judy B is the dam of stakes-placed Sarah Her Highness.

Leslie’s Lady ability to produce successful daughters not only bodes well for Beholder – whose oldest foal is a yearling at Spendthrift – as a broodmare, and boosts the value of her American Pharoah filly, it could create additional fireworks for another of her daughters. Immediately preceding Leslie’s Lady’s filly through the ring will be a Speightstown filly out of the mare’s daughter Leslie’s Harmony. This is the second foal for the young Curlin mare, who sold for $1.1 million as a yearling but was only placed during her career.