Clarkland Hopes Their Blue Hen Has Another Golden Egg

When Fred and Nancy Mitchell of Clarkland Farm purchased a mare called Leslie's Lady (Tricky Creek) for $100,000 carrying a foal by Orientate at the 2006 Keeneland November sale, she didn't have much of a resume. Her greatest accomplishment on the racetrack was winning a stake at Hoosier Park as a juvenile and she had four foals at the time, none of which were sales or racetrack standouts at the time.

However, that all began to change the following year when the foal she produced in 2005, a year before the Mitchells purchased her, turned into Grade I winner and now top sire Into Mischief. A few years after that, Leslie's Lady put both herself and her owners on the map when producing four-time Eclipse winner and three-time Breeders' Cup heroine Beholder (Henny Hughes). Just two months before that future Hall of Famer clinched her third win at the World Championships, her then-yearling half-brother by Scat Daddy, now known as Grade I winner Mendelssohn, topped the 2016 Keeneland September Sale on a bid of $3 million from Coolmore.

The Mitchells, who run Clarkland with their daughter Marty Buckner and her husband Matthew Ernst, hope Leslie's Lady continues to be the gift that keeps on giving when her latest yearling, a colt by Medaglia d'Oro, sells as Hip 120 Monday on opening day of Keeneland September.

“He is completely different from anything the mare has ever had before,” Fred Mitchell said. “He is a big, tall, rangy colt and not perfect by any means. He has a good disposition. When you watch him move out in the paddock, he's a dream. Beholder was quicker, more of a sprinter type [as a yearling], and she showed it at the farm. But, when I watch the Medaglia in the field, I prefer the way this colt moves over Mendelssohn.”

That is high praise given what Mendelssohn has gone on to do. Since providing the Mitchells with a career high in the sales ring two years ago, the dark bay has captured the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf and the G2 UAE Derby. The Aidan O'Brien trainee was most recently a strong second in the GI Travers S. and has his eye on the GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

“He wound up being an exceptional individual,” Mitchell said. “When he stands at stud, he is a horse I would love to breed to with his conformation and disposition. He doesn't show that disposition now. He acts like he wants to go to the breeding shed when he is on the track, but he was not that way growing up.”

A May 17 foal, Mendelssohn may have been a bit behind the other Clarkland yearlings growing up, but he caught up in time to shine at Keeneland.

“He and Beholder were a lot alike in the sales ring. They presented themselves well,” Mitchell recalled. “When they were showing, they showed like a halter Quarter Horse. When somebody was looking at them, they never took their eye off of them. They tried to please whoever was looking at them. You didn't have to push them around. They were a joy to bring out and show.”

As for what it was like to sell a $3 million sales topper, the 79-year-old said, “It is something that you dream of. I have topped different sessions or sales from other sales companies, but I had never topped the Keeneland sale. That was quite an accomplishment, that's for sure.”

At $180,000, Beholder was nowhere near topping the 2011 Keeneland September Sale, but she was the best of the best on the racetrack. The bay won four Eclipse Awards, 18 races–11 of which were Grade Is with three of those being Breeders' Cup events–and earned over $6 million. Her career highlights include a breathtaking victory over males in the prestigious GI Pacific Classic (video) and her final start in the 2016 GI Breeders' Cup Distaff, in which she beat fellow champion Songbird (Medaglia d'Oro) by a nostril after a thrilling stretch battle (video).

“That is what we hope to do, to breed something like Beholder and have a mare like Leslie's Lady,” Mitchell said. “She's been a big change for us from what we were used to and the horses we could and couldn't sell. Leslie's Lady, Beholder, Into Mischief and Mendelssohn made a big difference.”

At 22, Leslie's Lady is still churning out impressive-looking foals, most recently producing an American Pharoah filly Apr. 25.

“She maybe be the best foal Leslie's Lady's ever had,” Mitchell said. “Out of an older mare, you just don't expect to keep getting foals like that.”

Leslie's Lady is back in foal to young Taylor Made stallion Not This Time, who was represented by his first foals this year.

“It was a Storm Cat cross and I liked how his foals looked,” said Mitchell on why he chose this young, unproven stallion compared to the more established sires he had used in the past. “I really liked his pedigree. He is a half-brother to Liam's Map (Unbridled's Map), who was a nice racehorse, and the mare won almost $900,000”

Clarkland Farm has been in Nancy Mitchell's family since 1774 and she and Fred, who was raised by a tenant farmer in Scott County, have been running the farm together for 45 years. A lot of nice mares have passed through the farm during that time, but there is no arguing Leslie's Lady is best they've ever had.

“She is the best mare we will probably ever have,” Mitchell emphasized. “Nancy picked her out. Mr. [James] Hines was having a dispersal after he passed away and he had two mares in the sale. Leslie's Lady was one of them and was a 2-year-old stakes winner, which we liked. We ended up buying both mares from the dispersal.”

While Leslie's Lady is the star of Clarkland's 35-horse broodmare band, which includes 10 mares owned by Richard Klein, there are several other nice mares who have produced good foals for the Mitchells. One of their recent additions Maybellene (Lookin at Lucky) may soon be on her way to being a standout if her first foal is any indication.

The couple purchased the mare, who was a stakes winner and GISP for Bob and Jill Baffert, for $550,000 carrying her first foal by American Pharoah at the 2016 Fasig-Tipton November Sale and the resulting filly is catalogued as Hip 174.

“It was Nancy's fault. She said, 'Maybellene is my mare. You go buy her,'” Mitchell said with a laugh.

As for Maybellene's yearling, he said, “I am kind of partial to her. She's probably the nicest American Pharoah I've seen. I can't believe the first foal out of the mare looks like this. She's unbelievable. She is a filly that you dream to bring to the sale. She is super, super nice. She is the best filly I have had at the sales in a long, long time.”

Mitchell quickly added, “I didn't say she was better than Beholder!”

Clarkland has 10 yearlings total in their Keeneland September consignment and they are all in Book 1. In addition to the Leslie's Lady colt and Maybellene filly, the Mitchells will offer a Tonalist filly (Hip 28); a colt by City Zip (Hip 387); a daughter of Into Mischief (Hip 634); a Union Rags filly (Hip 648); a son of Pioneerof the Nile (Hip 774); an Honor Code filly (Hip 790); another daughter of Union Rags (Hip 834); and a City Zip filly (Hip 922).

“We have a Tonalist filly that is pretty nice out of Hot Stones,” Mitchell remarked. “We have an Honor Code filly out of Comfort Zone, one of our older mares, who was like Leslie's Lady before she became so popular. She kept Clarkland running. She had the good horse Pamplemousse and she had a couple more stakes winners.”

The horseman continued, “We only have 10 yearlings for the September sale and they are all in Book 1. I did not enter all of them in Book 1, but the folks at Keeneland came and looked at them and they put them in Book 1. They have some nice sires. It's just a nice consignment.”

Keeneland September gets underway Monday, Sept. 10, with the first of four Book 1 sessions starting at 11 a.m.