Leslie's Lady

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 5th-KEE, $84k, Msw, 2yo, f, 6f, 3:08 p.m. ET One of the most prolific broodmares of the 21st century will be represented by her penultimate foal Thursday at Keeneland when MARR TIME (Not This Time--Leslie's Lady) opens her account for Clarkland Farm and Brad Cox in this sprint. Famously the producer of international superstar stallion Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday), four-time champion Beholder (Henny Hughes) and GISW multimillionaire Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy), the now 25-year-old Leslie's Lady was retired from breeding after foaling a Kantharos filly last...

The unraced 3-year-old filly America's Joy (American Pharoah), a half-sister to Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday), Beholder (Henny Hughes) and Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy), out of the 2016 Broodmare of the year Leslie's Lady suffered a fatal injury Sunday morning during a workout at Saratoga, according to Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm. Pope purchased the filly for a record $8.2 million at the 2019 Keeneland September sale. The news was a severe blow to her connections, who were anxiously awaiting the debut of a filly who appeared to have unlimited potential. Trainer...

"Leslie's Lady is retired," Clarkland Farm's Fred Mitchell reported. "And she is happy, fat and dappled." The 2016 Broodmare of the Year has produced two fillies following America's Joy (American Pharoah), a now three-year-old half-sister to GISWs Into Mischief, Beholder and Mendelssohn and the highest-priced yearling filly in Keeneland sales history. While Leslie's Lady is now 25, a good deal of thought went into the decision to officially retire her this spring. [Elite_video_player id="2" html5videos_hd="https://player.vimeo.com/external/560131973.sd.mp4?s=dd27449f028dc19beaadfc3f379b7aba219b47b6&profile_id=165" html5videos_videoThumbnails_jpg="" html5videos_title="Fred Mitchell and Leslies Lady" prerolls="https://player.vimeo.com/external/488087819.sd.mp4?s=902aa8d5fc7cddb1f9c4423d869f0f3bd1bc6402&profile_id=165"] "Early on in the season she was all...

We're all guilty of it. A horse shows talent; we seek its source in the pedigree; and, however discouraging the initial sifting, eventually we pluck out some plausibly glinting nugget to brandish triumphantly aloft. "See! This proves there is a seam of gold!" And that's fair enough. We all have a stake in the viability of selective breeding, albeit we don't actually want its outcomes to become too predictable. If the mysteries of pedigree were entirely transparent, the guy who buys the sale-topper would win the Derby every year and...

Nice to see that the people who count--the ones who actually spend the dough, that is, as opposed to impudent bystanders who tell them how much better we could do it--don't have time for that glib prejudice against older producers, whether mares or stallions. In making the daughter of a 23-year-old mare the most expensive yearling filly in Keeneland September history, however, they set a far more significant challenge to assumptions that are shared a good deal more widely. In fact, you might say that the $8.2 million paid for...