Well, despite everything, life is really good.
I know that the press in the industry is now saturated with controversies about lawyers, rather than racehorses. And I know that our sport, in the process, is consuming most of our cultural capital and that we should instead invest in two compelling talents that appeared at Gulfstream Saturday. Perhaps one of the protagonists, however, will not only put all this swag aside, even briefly, but pay a timely tribute to a mare who can get anyone interested in the game.
Her dam was once claimed for $5,000, and she herself only earned $8,000 at a young age. Her male eventually stood for $2,500 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. But she won a stake in Hoosier Park, raising her value to $100,000 in the bitter dispersal of the half-dozen farmers and horses owned by the late James T. Hines Jr. – who died of shock in a premature birth earlier this year, in a swimming accident just four days before his best-ever horse, Attorney Ron, confirmed his Derby credentials his in Southwest S. in Oaklawn.
At that stage, at the November 2006 Sale in Keeneland, this mare was 10 years old. Her category page lists a first pony slip and two runners who brought little to the party: Her diminutive 3-year-old Marquetry will break her maidenhood, at the next time. 10th trial and under $10,000 in Charles Town, two days after the sale; while Orientate’s 2-year-old has won a few modest races, but only after publishing the catalog. There’s also an avid Harlan’s Holiday pony, who was bought like a pinwheel across town at Fasig-Tipton last month; and a weaning girl from Yankee Victor, who not only followed her directly into the ring but also accompanied her, for $11,000, to her new home at Clarkland Ranch.
The following spring, the Mitchells of Clarkland sent their new mare to Rockport Harbor – and then delighted to watch her Harlan’s Holiday pony, meanwhile named Into Mischief, win GI Futurity at Hollywood Park.
Of course, the rest is literal Turf history. And while we have to close her own chapter this week, the sequel clearly has a long way to go on Saturday, when Into Mischief’s newest champion, Life Is Good, comes in at a price. up to Knicks Go (Payer) in a struggle for unusual purity, with both horses sharing an authoritarian style.
There are many reasons to celebrate the fact that Leslie’s Lady – with a stallion like Tricky Creek, and a dam of Stop The Music off a One For All mare – should have become one of the producers. great modern appearance. For me, however, the main lesson is how genetic fire can still be formed from what we consider ashes, but are in fact embers.
Despite the commercial failure, with no more than 18 winners, a study late in his career ranked Tricky Creek fifth among active studs in the nation by percentage. from head to age; and seventh, equal to the number of starts for each starter. Leslie’s Lady herself has contributed with 9, 12 and 7 starts in her three seasons, and her husband certainly deserves some credit for the way Beholder (Henny Hughes) has played. Won the Championship Division is five seasons.
So who can say which gene strands were revived through Leslie’s Lady? Tricky Creek shares an earth dam (His Majesty) with Danehill, while his third is the foundation mare Darby Dan Soaring (Swap). At one stage, Sheikh Mohammed gave $5.3 million to Kingmambo’s half-brother.
No doubt many will perpetuate the touching notion that Leslie’s Lady’s three outstanding ponies shared some sort of magical trigger in the Storm Cat line. Personally, however, I will never be convinced that Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy), for example, should owe everything to Storm Cat’s alchemy and nothing more than the byzantine interactions of 15 other people with identical genetic stakes.
If you visit the equivalent generation in the pedigree of Leslie’s Lady, the eight mares including a number (Swept as mentioned, but also Flower Bowl, Quill, ShThisenanigans, etc.) attest to their differences. in many ways, either the elite athletes themselves; as a multi-stock producer; or both. When you look at the near-seamless quality of the stallions that seeded that generation, in an era when books were limited to three dozen or so, that’s why these mares have earned their access.
I don’t know why their synergy didn’t work, or what exactly sparked it now. But I know I can’t tell, which puts me one step ahead of those who intend to have a system or formula. After all, it is the mystery that captivates us all; And that’s the mystery that gives us all a chance.
Besides the big showdown in Florida, Saturday also renewed the Derby trial won by Attorney Ron, when he unexpectedly brought pieces of real estate to a grieving family; and another, GII San Vicente S., in which Into Mischief was so frustrated with his reappearance that he disappeared until the fall.
In the Oaklawn race, the man who last year lost his right to Life Is Good has become a rising star of the next season, despite not qualifying for the Derby starting points intended for the rest of the race. Yard.
Unlike Corniche (Quality Sugar), whose status is unclear when continuously absent from the workbench, Newgrange (Violence) is owned by a significantly expanded service provider organization. If Bob Baffert’s stalemate with Churchill isn’t resolved in time, then you have to wonder if so many different interests, so many rich people are used to calling shots, can win over both opportunity and success. agreed to transfer one Derby to another barn.
As I suggested before, if Baffert wanted to introduce a bit of class into a bleak situation for the industry as a whole, perhaps he himself would insist that his friends and patrons are not chosen. choose between a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, at the Derby. , and a clearly perceived duty of loyalty to a guy who – for now at least – has won this seven times. But he’s only human, and maybe the sight of last year’s GIII winner Sham S. running with $3 million from another warehouse would make Baffert too angry to kick Newgrange out of the house.
I’m intrigued by a few famous people in the field, not least one driven by the promising young coach of D. Wayne Lukas, and this is another race where the stars have could easily be assigned to Kenny “King Midas” McPeek. But I guess we’ll probably end up with the usual collective meekness of fighting for race control with a Baffert speed horse.
Without McPeek to worry about his backyard, Baffert does three out of five in the San Vicente, a race he has harvested 11 times already. If the Doppelganger can pull off a straight male record in this race, then we might be looking at a very fitting performance day for Into Mischief.
To celebrate her dam, who at least granted her a full year and a peaceful retirement, let’s not forget her rancher, who didn’t. What a legacy they share! The three busiest American stallions in 2021, with 690 mares, are Realistic jokes, Goldencents and Authentic, all sons of Into Mischief. Champion Spendthrift himself covered 216 elite mares with his monster charge; while his half-brother Mendelssohnafter a staggering 252 and 242 in his first two years, comes in at number 197.
So you never know how things will turn out, with the horses. Attorney Ron, launched with much more fanfare than Into Mischief, was only in his second season at school when he lost his stomach.
Of course, he was a horse named for a human. Today, by contrast, it sometimes feels like horses are just competing as an elegant means of transportation for humans. Long after the dust has settled on a race, the attorneys will tell us the actual finish order. But thank goodness, human ingenuity has limits. And in celebrating Leslie’s Lady, we celebrate mysteries we could never unravel. So our mission will always keep its romance; and life will go on well.
